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Drink

Crust Coffee

A beverage made by soaking bread crusts in boiling water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 ingredients
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Crust Coffee

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the crusts

  1. Place crusts of bread in a 300°F (150°C) oven until very crisp and brown.

  2. Break the crusts into small pieces and cover with boiling water.

  3. When the water has been absorbed, add more boiling water to cover the bread.

Steep and serve

  1. Set the mixture at the back of the range or over boiling water for 15 minutes.

  2. Strain through cheesecloth and serve hot or cold.

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

Crusts of bread
Toasting them to a deep brown gives the drink its roasted, coffee-like flavour and aroma.
Boiling water
Hot water extracts the toasted flavour from the bread pieces into the liquid.

The step that matters

Toasting the crusts until very crisp and brown. The roasted flavour comes from browning, which develops aroma compounds. Pale or soft crusts produce a weak, bready drink, so they should be dried and deeply browned before steeping.

“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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