Tea
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Use fresh drawn water straight from the pump or faucet.
In a quart earthen teapot, add 2 heaping teaspoons of tea.
Boil the water in the kettle until it is very fast boiling.
Steep and serve
Pour the boiling water directly onto the tea in the pot, nearly filling it.
Steep for 10 to 15 minutes on the fire without letting it boil again.
If serving from another pot, preheat the teapot with scalding water.
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
- Tea
- Provides the flavor and aroma that the hot water draws out of the leaves.
- Fresh drawn water
- Carries the flavor compounds from the tea and makes up nearly all of the drink.
The step that matters
Steep for 10 to 15 minutes without reboiling. Long steeping in very hot water keeps extracting compounds from the leaves. Letting the tea boil again or steeping too long pulls out more bitter tannins, so the cup tastes harsh rather than smooth.
“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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