Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well (93 page)

100 grams (about 3-1/2 ounces) of sugar

15 grams (about 1/2 an ounce) of the best quality tea

3 egg whites

3 sheets isinglass

Boil the water and pour it over the tea, steeping nearly at a boil for forty minutes. Strain it through a cloth, squeezing well to extract all of the flavor; the liquid should be as black as coffee.

Next, prepare a custard as in recipe 753 with the tea, the egg yolks and the sugar; add in the isinglass as you do in that recipe, then gently fold in the whipped cream. Pour the mixture into an ice cream mold and surround the mold with layers of ice and salt as in recipe 753.

This recipe serves eight people.

And now we bid welcome to Madam Macedonia, to whom I would rather give the simpler name of “Mixed Fruit Ice Cream,” a dessert that will be especially welcome in the scorching months of July and August.

For this dessert, if you do not have an ice cream mold, you can use a tin-plated metal container (shaped like a mess tin or a small saucepan) with a lid that can be hermetically sealed.

Take many varieties of fruit in season, ripe and of good quality, for example: red currants, strawberries, raspberries, cherries, plums, apricots, a peach and a pear. Starting with the cherries, peel all the fruit and chop to the size of pumpkin seeds, discarding the cores and stones. Use only a very small amount of red currants because their seeds are too big and too hard. Some fragrant melon would make a nice addition.

Weigh the fruit once you have prepared it in this manner; let’s say you have 500 grams (about 1 pound) of fruit, then sprinkle 100
grams (about 3-1/2 ounces) of confectioners’ sugar on top, and add the juice of 1 garden lemon. Blend well and let sit for half an hour.

Use a piece of paper to line the bottom of the metal container, then pour in the fruit, packing it well. Cover the container and place it in a tub filled with ice and salt. Leave it to freeze for several hours. If it will not unmold easily, wet the sides of the container with warm water. It will make an attractive display as a frozen, marbled block of ice cream.

These amounts serve four to five people.

I describe the following dish especially for you, ladies of delicate, refined taste, for I am sure that you will find it delightful; and since I often think of you when I create these dishes, which, I hope, take into account and satisfy your taste, I must take advantage of this opportunity to say that I hope you long preserve the enviable qualities of blooming health and beauty.

200 grams (about 7 ounces) of sugar

150 grams (about 5-1/4 ounces) of sweet almonds, and 4 or 5 bitter almonds

8 deciliters (about 3-1/3 cups) of water

2 deciliters (about 4/5 of a cup) of heavy cream

a dash of orange-flower water or coriander seeds

Boil the sugar in the water for ten minutes together with the coriander seeds, if you are using the coriander or comfits for flavor, as described in recipe 693 for Portuguese-style milk. Blanch the almonds and crush them very fine in a mortar along with a few tablespoons of the syrup, then stir them into the syrup. Strain the mixture through a loosely woven cloth, squeezing well to extract as much of the flavor as possible; crush the almonds in the mortar with some syrup a few more times if necessary. Add the cream to the extracted liquid and then freeze in the ice cream maker. Once it has hardened, serve it in stemmed glasses.

This recipe serves nine to ten people.

If you would like to make a black and white marbled ice cream, here’s how to do it:

First of all, soak three sheets of isinglass in cold water and in the meantime, prepare the following custard:

100 grams (about 3-1/2 ounces) of sugar

80 grams (about 2-2/3 ounces) of powdered chocolate

3 egg yolks

3 deciliters (about 1-1/5 cups) of milk

Once the custard has cooled, add in 3 beaten egg whites and then 150 grams (about 5-1/4 ounces) of whipped cream, the kind that you can find at the dairy. Make sure to fold in the egg whites and cream so that the color is not uniform but instead forms a marbled effect with the chocolate. Next put the isinglass on the fire in a little water to dissolve it, and while it is still hot blend it into the mixture. Then pour it into an ice cream mold or some other container that can be hermetically sealed, and which you will have coated with rosolio. Keep for three or four hours in a large amount of ice mixed with salt.

This recipe serves eight people.

On hot summer days you can enjoy an ice cream made with espresso and milk. Use the following amounts:

1 liter (about 1 quart) of milk

1/2 a liter (about-1/2 a quart) of espresso

300 grams (about 10-1/2 ounces) of sugar

Put the milk on the fire with the sugar just long enough for the latter to melt. Stir in the espresso and then pour the mixture into the ice cream maker, as you would for any other ice cream. When it has hardened, serve in cups or stemmed glasses.

There are those who believe that coffee originated in Persia, others maintain that it comes from Ethiopia, and still others who believe it was first grown in
Arabia Felix
. But in spite of their differences, all agree that it is an oriental plant: an evergreen bush the stalk of which grows four to five meters high, and five to eight centimeters in diameter. The best coffee is always from Mocha, which could confirm the opinion that this is truly its native soil.
¹³⁸
They say that a Muslim priest in Yemen, having observed that the goats that ate the berries from a local plant were more festive and lively than other goats, toasted the seeds from this plant, then ground and steeped them in water, thus discovering the coffee that we drink today.

This precious beverage that spreads a joyful excitement throughout the entire body was called the beverage of intellectuals, the friend of literati, scientists and poets because, as it strikes the nerves, it helps clarify ideas, renders the imagination more active and accelerates thinking processes.

It is difficult to judge the quality of coffee beans without tasting the coffee, and their green color, which many prize, is often artificially added.

The process of roasting coffee deserves special attention since, the quality of the coffee aside, it is roasting that determines how good coffee will taste. It is better to heat it gradually and, since a wood fire is easier to control, it is preferable to use wood instead of coal as fuel. When the coffee begins to crackle and smoke, shake the toaster often and take care to remove it from the fire as soon as the coffee turns a chestnut brown and before it begins to sweat oil. Accordingly, I do not disapprove of the Florentine method, for in that city, in order to halt the roasting immediately, they expose the coffee to the air, whereas I disapprove of the practice of placing coffee between two plates as soon as it is toasted, for in this way the beans give off their essential oil and lose flavor. Coffee loses twenty percent of its weight during roasting, so 500 grams become 400 grams.

Just as different qualities of meat make the best broth, so different qualities of coffee, roasted separately, yield a more pleasing flavor. To me the best combination for a most pleasing drink is 250 grams (about 8-4/5 ounces) of Puerto Rican beans, 100 grams (about 3-1/2 ounce) of Santo Domingo beans and 150 grams (about 5-1/4 ounces) of Mocha beans. 300 grams (about 10-1/2 ounces) of Puerto Rican with 200 grams (about 7 ounces) of Mocha also give excellent results. 15 grams (about 1/2 an ounce) of ground coffee yields one generous cup; but when making many cups at a time, 10 grams (about 1/3 of an ounce) per person should be enough for the usual small cup. Roast the coffee in small quantities and keep it in a well-sealed metal container, grinding only what you need each time, since ground coffee easily loses its aroma.

If coffee causes too much agitation and insomnia, it is better to abstain from it or use it in moderation; you can also temper its effect by mixing it with a little chicory or toasted barley. Regular use may neutralize the effect, but it can also be harmful if one’s sensitivity to stimulants is too strong to be corrected, and in this regard a doctor told me about a peasant who, on those rare occasions when he drank coffee, displayed all the symptoms of someone who had been poisoned. Children should be absolutely forbidden to drink coffee.

Coffee seems to cause less agitation in humid, damp places and perhaps this is the reason the European countries where the consumption of coffee is highest are Belgium and Holland. In the Orient, the custom is to grind coffee to a very fine powder, make it the old-fashioned way, and drink it as a dense, cloudy liquid. In the private homes of that part of the world, the coffee pot is always on the fire.

As for what Professor Mantegazza says, that is, that coffee does not in any way aid in digestion,
¹³⁹
I believe that it is necessary to make a distinction. He perhaps would say that this is true for those whose nervous system is indifferent to coffee; but for those whose nervous system (including the pneumogastric nerve) is affected by this beverage, it is undeniable that they digest better after drinking it, and the prevailing custom of having a good cup of coffee after a rich meal confirms this. It also appears that coffee, when drunk in the morning on an empty stomach, rids the organism of the residue of an imperfect digestion and prepares it to receive a more appetizing breakfast. I, for one, when my stomach is upset, find there is no better way to encourage digestion than to slowly sip some coffee, lightly sweetened and diluted with water, and to abstain from breakfast.

E se noiosa ipocondria t’opprime
O troppo intorno alle vezzose membra
Adipe cresce, de’ tuoi labbri onora
La nettarea bevanda ove abbronzato
Fuma ed arde il legume a te d’Aleppo
Giunto, e da Moka che di mille navi
Popolata mai sempre insuperbisce.
¹⁴⁰
(Should hypochondria’s torments thee oppress,
Or thy fair form to corpulence incline,
Then honour with thy lips the nectar flowing,
Steaming and fragrant, from the roasted bean
That far Aleppo sent, or Mocha proud
Forever busy with a thousand ships.)

Because it traded with the Orient, Venice was the first city in Italy where coffee was drunk, perhaps beginning in the sixteenth century; but the first coffee shops were opened there in 1645; next in London and then soon after in Paris, where a pound of coffee could cost up to 40 crowns.

The use of coffee began to spread and grow until the immense consumption of today; but two centuries ago, Redi, in his dithyramb,
¹⁴¹
wrote:

Beverei prima il veleno
Che un bicchier che fosse pieno
Dell’amaro e reo caffé.
(I would rather drink poison
Than a glassful of
Bitter, evil coffee.)

And a century ago, it seemed that its use in Italy was still rare, since in Florence they did not yet use the word “caffettiere” (coffee vendor) but “acquacedrataio” (citron water vendor) for someone who sold hot chocolate, coffee and other beverages.

Carlo Goldoni, in his comedy
La sposa persiana (The Persian Bride
), has the character Curcuma, a slave, say:

Ecco il caffè, signore, caffè in Arabia nato
E dalle carovane in Ispaan portato.
L’arabo certamente sempre è il caffè migliore;
Mentre spunta da un lato, mette dall’altro il fiore.
Nasce in pingue terreno, vuol ombra, o poco sole,
Piantare ogni tre anni l’arboscel si suole.
II frutto non è vero, ch’esser debba piccino,
Anzi dev’esser grosso, basta sia verdolino,
Usarlo indi conviene di fresco macinato,
In luogo caldo e asciutto con gelosia guardato.
… A farlo vi vuol poco;
Mettervi la sua dose e non versarla al fuoco.

Far sollevar la spuma, poi abbassarla a un tratto
Sei, sette volte almeno, il caffè presto è fatto.
(Here is the coffee, Sir, coffee born in Arabia,
And carried by the caravans into Spain.
Arab coffee is surely the best;
While it sends out sprouts on one side,
It sends out a flower on the other.
It is born in fertile soil, and needs shade, or little sun.
The bush is planted every three years.
It is not true that the fruit should be small,
Rather, it should be fat, and at least a little green,
It is best to use it freshly ground,
Kept in a warm dry place, and jealously guarded.
… It takes little to make it;
Put in the amount of coffee, and do not spill it on the fire.
Allow the foam to rise, then lower it all at once,
six, seven times at least, and soon the coffee is done.)
¹⁴²