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Drink

French Coffee

A method of brewing coffee by steeping grounds in cold water, then adding boiling water and cold water to a French coffee pot.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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French Coffee

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a bowl, combine coffee grounds with ½ pint of cold water and let it stand for 15 minutes.

  2. Bring the remaining 2½ pints of water to a boil.

Brew and serve

  1. Strain the soaked coffee through a fine sieve into a French coffee pot.

  2. Place the coffee grounds in the strainer at the top of the French pot.

  3. Slowly pour the boiling water over the coffee grounds.

  4. Set the coffee pot on the stove for 5 minutes without boiling.

  5. Remove from heat and add the cold water from the bowl to settle.

  6. Serve in another pot.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

Ground coffee
Supplies the coffee flavour and aroma that the water draws out.
Water
Acts as the solvent that extracts flavour from the grounds and makes up the drink.

The step that matters

Holding the pot on the stove without boiling. Boiling the coffee over-extracts the grounds, pulling out bitter compounds and making the brew harsh. Keeping it just below boiling extracts flavour more gently.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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