American Crust Coffee
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the crumbs
Cut thin slices of stale bread and bake them in the oven at 400°F (200°C) until dark brown.
Pound the baked slices in a mortar.
Make the drink
Boil 1 ounce of the crumbs in ½ cup of water in a small saucepan.
Remove from heat and let it stand for a few minutes.
Strain the liquid through a fine strainer into a breakfast cup.
Serve hot.
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
- Stale bread
- Baking it to dark brown gives the crumbs their roasted flavor and color, which the drink takes on.
- Water
- Extracts flavor and color from the toasted crumbs as it boils, forming the drink.
The step that matters
Baking the bread to dark brown. The colour of the toasted crumbs reflects how far browning reactions have gone, and those reactions create the roasted flavor of the drink. Pale crumbs give a weak, flat result, while over-baked crumbs turn bitter and burnt-tasting.
“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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