Coffee

[Nick Armstrong]

I note with interest that both Brillat-Savarin [ 'Physiologie du Goût, ou Méditations de Gastronomie Transcendante' ] and Balzac [ 'Traité des Excitants Modernes' ] agree that coffee beans pounded in a mortar make a much better coffee than coffee ground in a mill.

Actually Balzac has more interesting things to say about coffee than Brillat-Savarin. I liked his anecdote about Rossini, commenting that coffee could keep you going for a couple of weeks or so - long enough to write an opera -

"... [ le café] ... Son pouvoir n'est ni constant ni absolu. Rossini a éprouvé sur lui-même les effets que j' avais déjà observés sur moi.
- « Le café » m'a-t-il dit, «est une affaire de quinze ou vingt jours, le temps fort heureusement de faire un opéra.» "

Fascinating stuff!

Yes I imagine grinding in a mortar would be good, better than a primitive mill, given the results one can obtain with spices...

I gave up that ponceying-around faff of grinding the beans in my undergraduate years...

No faff with this, at Caliban Towers:

macchiato, cortado, or noisette depending on which language I'm affecting on the day.

How long does it usually take to work out which to pick for your langue du jour, vindepays??

Presumably Mrs Vindepays is past caring, and barely notices?

[JFLL]

Does anyone remember those awful tinny percolators they used to have in the 1950s? Later, when I went to university in the late 60s I was very proud of a pyrex vacuum siphon coffee-maker which had two parts. You put the coffee on a metal filter in the top part, filled the bottom with water and put it on the gas. When the water boiled it was forced up a glass tube into the top part. When the top part was full you took the thing off the stove and the coffee dripped down into the bottom, filtering the coffee by gravity. Can’t remember what it was called. It made a little drama out of coffee-making which was all part of the undergraduate ritual, like smoking gauloises and avoiding getting down to writing essays. Innocent days.

[vinteuil]

. Can’t remember what it was called. It made a little drama out of coffee-making which was all part of the undergraduate ritual, like smoking gauloises and avoiding getting down to writing essays. Innocent days.

... did you mean a Cona?

Dramatic, but didn't produce very good coffee, if I remember -

https://www.cona.co.uk/cona-products-dining-using.php

[amateur51]

Fascinating stuff!

Yes I imagine grinding in a mortar would be good, better than a primitive mill, given the results one can obtain with spices...



No faff with this, at Caliban Towers:





How long does it usually take to work out which to pick for your langue du jour, vindepays??

Presumably Mrs Vindepays is past caring, and barely notices?

Blimey Calibano, you must have kitchen the size of terminal 4 at Heathrow - tis ginormous!!

[Madame Suggia]

Mellow Bird's

[teamsaint]

Blimey Calibano, you must have kitchen the size of terminal 4 at Heathrow - tis ginormous!!

yup, press the wrong buttons on that baby and you want to be standing WELL back.....

[teamsaint]

Mellow Bird's

Ah...Common sense at last, to quote another poster on anothe thread.

[amateur51]

yup, press the wrong buttons on that baby and you want to be standing WELL back.....

Must sound like the tardis on take-off when it's going at maximum ristretto

[JFLL]

... did you mean a Cona?

Dramatic, but didn't produce very good coffee, if I remember -

www.cona.co.uk/cona-products-dining-using.php

That was the name, vinteuil, yes, thanks. The coffee was pretty humdrum, but that wasn't the point, really. Spectacle was all.

[teamsaint]

Must sound like the tardis on take-off when it's going at maximum ristretto

A tardis noise would be a ******* good selling point ! I 'd buy one, if I had the room !

off the record, do you think it may be a little side line he has going there?

maximum ristretto?sounds like grade 5 music theory question !

[Richard Tarleton]

I note with interest that both Brillat-Savarin [ 'Physiologie du Goût, ou Méditations de Gastronomie Transcendante' ] and Balzac [ 'Traité des Excitants Modernes' ] agree that coffee beans pounded in a mortar make a much better coffee than coffee ground in a mill.

Inspired by M. Vinteuil I brought down my copy of El Practicón, 1893, the often hilarious Spanish equivalent of Mrs Beeton. There is a lovely section on coffee (pp 438-441) detailing various methods - his preferred Arab-style, Café a la holandesa, Café al estilo casero de Paris, Café según lo hacen en los cafés, and finally "Reglas de "El Practicon" para hacer el mejor de los cafés posibles" which I reproduce here:

1. Tostarlo uniformemente y sacarlo del tostador un poquito antes, cuando se ve que aún le falta poco para estar en su punto. Meterlo en un taleguillo de fieltro y envolver éste, arropándolo, con una manta para que sude, y concluya así su verdadero tueste.
2. Moler la cantidad precisa en el monento de hacerlo.
3. Emplear vasije de cobre o de hierro estañado para la cocción o infusión.
4. Usar del método Castell [his friend, i.e. boiling up coffee and water Arab-style in a clay stewpot before decanting into a coffee pot for serving], pero empleando agua en que haya hervido un minuto el residuo del café anterior [ a sort of solera system?]; y
5. Calentarlo o recalantarolo al baño maría , sin que en ningún caso llegue a cocer.

I'm baffled by "taleguillo"; my Oxford dictionary gives "bullfighters' breeches" for "taleguilla", as does the Salamanca Dictionary, which also gives "loose weave sack" for "talego". So take your pick - obviously bullfighters breeches for full authenticity.

A coffee anecdote: my great aunt, a lady who had an astonishing career as an army doctor then in public health, and who introduced me to opera and gastronomy, bought her coffee from Cawardines until they ceased to exist, having it sent to her long after she'd retired to the country. She made breakfast coffee in an ancient chipped jug, pouring boiling water onto the coffee then "frightening" the coffee with a few drops of cold water before covering the jug with a metal enamel dish about 4 inches across to let it stand. This had been the sole possession with which her brother emerged from Changi camp after 4 years as a Japanese POW, and represented his daily rice ration. It now resides in the Imperial War Museum.

[Il Grande Inquisitor]

I love threads like this - you can learn so much from real enthusiasts. I tend to favour Illy espresso made via a cafetière. I must investigate a Bialetti espresso maker.

I picked up a few tins (espresso and filter) from Caffè Sant'Eustachio in Rome (a few steps away from the Pantheon) which is delicious. I see you can order online... http://www.santeustachioilcaffe.it/en/

[MrGongGong]

I love threads like this - you can learn so much from real enthusiasts. I tend to favour Illy espresso made via a cafetière. ]

?
Surely that's not espresso ?

(note to self........ revive the words we don't like thread with expresso ! not detected as a misspelling !)

[vinteuil]

I'm baffled by "taleguillo"; my Oxford dictionary gives "bullfighters' breeches" for "taleguilla", as does the Salamanca Dictionary, which also gives "loose weave sack" for "talego". So take your pick - obviously bullfighters breeches for full authenticity.

.

My Cassell's Dictionary also allows "bullfighter's breeches" for this - but also, more prosaically, suggests "small bag"...

[Barbirollians]

... your cafetiere is all very well - and I don't say "no" when offered coffee from one - but for me the coffee it produces is never hot enough by the time it's ready - and the same goes for the filter or jug method.

My normal method is a stovetop bialetti with lavazza from the black packets; usually macchiato, cortado, or noisette depending on which language I'm affecting on the day. Sometimes I use a little krups machine which does produce a decent small espresso .



I gave up that ponceying-around faff of grinding the beans in my undergraduate years...

I mean, if you're going to grind them, at the very least you should also roast them to your particular desired toastiness...

There was a Carwardine's in Bath - a rotating roasting machine in the window - glorious smell...

Lavazza is fine - but it loses aroma spectacularly quickly . Grinding your own beans is hardly a faff - it takes seconds.

As for cafetieres - insulated !