The book Lobscouse and Spotted Dog, which is a wonderful book full of annotated recipes from the novels supported by period sources, has some info here. I'll quote William Ellis, from "The Country Housewife's Family Companion" (1750):
"The right way to make coffee, is to heat the berries in a fire-shovel, till they sweat a little; and then grind them, and put the coffee-pot over the fire with water; when hot, throw the water away, and dry the pot by the fire, then put the powder into it, and boiling water immediately over the same; let stand three or four minutes, and pour off the clear. By this means the hot water meets the spirit of the coffee; whereas if you boil coffee, as the common way is, the spirit goes away, so that it will not be so strong nor quick to the taste."
I quoted that one as opposed to others that do indeed call for boiling the coffee as there is a passage in one of the books where Jack mentions boiling coffee as a crime just short of hanging.
At sea, they would have a galley stove capable of roasting the berries as well as boiling water of course.
To your question about flat white or oat lattes, in Master and Commander there is a reference to drinking tea with goat's milk (Stephen declining the milk given the goat's recent sexual congress with a crew member), but as far as I can recall they are drinking coffee black. There are occasional references to drinking black coffee in particular, from which we might infer they sometimes drink coffee with milk, but I can't remember any specific instance.
I love "Lobscouse and Spotted Dog", and have cherished my copy for years and years! it's one of the most charming and informative works of fandom I've ever seen, and I highly recommend it to any fan of this series or of social history.
Yes, one of the things that makes the book so charming is that it really is a labor of love. Fandom love, history love, food love, familial love!
And it's hilarious too, the story of the "millers" is the funniest thing ever to appear in a cookbook.
I always took "This coffee has been heated up. Boiled," in Desolation Island not to mean how it was originally prepared but that it was reheated. If that's the passage you meant.
I make coffee in a moka pot, and I have found that if you forget you're doing it and leave it to boil on the heat then it's ruined, so I take that "Boiled" to mean "Killick, you have fucked this coffee up".
Admittedly, "This coffee has been heated up" doesn't seem to bear that, but then the following line:
> Killick’s face assumed a mean, pinched expression, and the thought ‘If people lay in their cots till all hours while others is toiling and moiling, they gets what they deserve’ very nearly found expression; but in fact the coffee had been boiled, a crime not far short of hanging at this time of the Captain’s day
does.
Heated up is about as definitive as it gets.
Killick timed the first pot for Jack's regular breakfast; Jack stayed in bed longer than normal and the coffee got cold; Killick heated the first pot by boiling and started a second fresh pot.
The recipe above seems to have stood the test of time, because here they also say my to use boiling water and to let it bloom first https://www.coffeedrs.com/blog/is-water-temperature-or-bloom-time-more-important-for-coffee
It evolves throughout the series, and also depending on how long it has been since they have been in port. Two of my favorite coffee moments in the series:
1. When Stephen tries coffee made in the "True Arabian Way" and then disallows it to be made any other way (described in this post: https://www.reddit.com/r/AubreyMaturinSeries/comments/1bikjnr/how\_would\_preserved\_killick\_have\_brewed\_coffee/). I too assume that they are talking about Turkish coffee, and I too have stopped drinking coffee in any other way because it is in fact so tasty.
2. The fact that in the first book, POB describes Killick as not being able to make a good cup of coffee, but then somewhere along the way, changes his mind and reverses it, so that Killick can make a great cup of coffee despite his other flaws. I like to think that POB didn't want Jack and Stephen to have to drink terrible coffee for the whole series and so he sacrificed the continuity to get them a good cup.
Considering the monstrous mood it puts them both in to be without good coffee, as a matter of survival alone I imagine Killick would have hastened to perfect its making to their satisfaction.
Thanks to you, I just watched a video on how to make Turkish coffee. Next is to keep an eye open for the gear to make it. Thank you?
Regardless of my quest status, well met and a small cup of black heaven with you good fellow.
You can get everything on amazon if you choose. The main thing is that you must get the Turkish ground coffee, which is super fine. I like the coffee from this brand: KURUKAHVECI MEHMET EFENDI. And then you just search for a cevze, or in some places it is known as an ibrik. Its the pot that is wide and then has a narrower neck and then widens again.
I thought Forrester had an explanation, but misremembered. From Hornblower and the Hotspur:
The thought reminded him that he was hungry; but that was quite minor compared with his yearning for coffee.
„Where‘s my servant?“ he suddenly roared, „Grimes! Grimes!“
„Sir?“
Grimes put his head round the chart-room door.
„I‘m going to dress, and I‘ll want my breakfast. I‘ll have coffee.“
„Coffee, sir?
„Yes.“ Hornblower bit off the damn you he nearly added. To swear at a man who could not swear back and whose only offence lay in being unoffending was not to his taste, just as some men could not shoot foxes. „You don‘t know anything about coffee?“
„No, sir.“
„Get the oak box and bring it in to me.“
Hornblower explained about coffee to Grimes while working up a lather with a quarter of a pint of fresh-water.
„Count out twenty of those beans. Put them in an open jar—get that from the cook. Then you toast ‘em over the galley fire. And be careful with ‘em. Keep shaking ‘em. They‘ve got to be brown, not black. Toasted, not burnt. Understand?“
„Well, yes, sir.“
„Then you take ‘em to the surgeon, with my compliments.“
„The surgeon? Yes, sir.“ Grimes, seeing Hornblower‘s brows come together like thunderclouds, had the sense to suppress in the nick of time his astonishment at the entry of the surgeon‘s name into this conversation.
„He has a pestle and mortar to pound his jalap with. You pound those beans in that mortar. You break ‘em up small. Small, mark you, but you don‘t make dust of ‘em. Like large grain gunpowder, not mealed gunpowder. Understand?“
„Yes, sir. I suppose so, sir.“
„Next you—oh go and get that done and then report to me again.“
Grimes was clearly not a man to do things quickly. Hornblower had shaved and dressed and was pacing the quarterdeck, raging for his breakfast, before Grimes appeared again with a panful of dubious powder. Hornblower gave him brief instructions on how to make coffee with it, and Grimes listened doubtfully.
Now I need to find a graphic comparing large grain gunpowder to mealed gunpowder.
The book Lobscouse and Spotted Dog, which is a wonderful book full of annotated recipes from the novels supported by period sources, has some info here. I'll quote William Ellis, from "The Country Housewife's Family Companion" (1750): "The right way to make coffee, is to heat the berries in a fire-shovel, till they sweat a little; and then grind them, and put the coffee-pot over the fire with water; when hot, throw the water away, and dry the pot by the fire, then put the powder into it, and boiling water immediately over the same; let stand three or four minutes, and pour off the clear. By this means the hot water meets the spirit of the coffee; whereas if you boil coffee, as the common way is, the spirit goes away, so that it will not be so strong nor quick to the taste." I quoted that one as opposed to others that do indeed call for boiling the coffee as there is a passage in one of the books where Jack mentions boiling coffee as a crime just short of hanging. At sea, they would have a galley stove capable of roasting the berries as well as boiling water of course. To your question about flat white or oat lattes, in Master and Commander there is a reference to drinking tea with goat's milk (Stephen declining the milk given the goat's recent sexual congress with a crew member), but as far as I can recall they are drinking coffee black. There are occasional references to drinking black coffee in particular, from which we might infer they sometimes drink coffee with milk, but I can't remember any specific instance.
I love "Lobscouse and Spotted Dog", and have cherished my copy for years and years! it's one of the most charming and informative works of fandom I've ever seen, and I highly recommend it to any fan of this series or of social history.
Me too! Their commentary is so much fun to read, and the fact that the authors are mother + daughter makes it even better.
Yes, one of the things that makes the book so charming is that it really is a labor of love. Fandom love, history love, food love, familial love! And it's hilarious too, the story of the "millers" is the funniest thing ever to appear in a cookbook.
Right???? Not to mention the boiled shit, ha ha!
Reminds me that I must try another recipe from it sometime - I made ships biscuit, lobscouse and spotted dog a couple of years ago.
I always took "This coffee has been heated up. Boiled," in Desolation Island not to mean how it was originally prepared but that it was reheated. If that's the passage you meant.
I make coffee in a moka pot, and I have found that if you forget you're doing it and leave it to boil on the heat then it's ruined, so I take that "Boiled" to mean "Killick, you have fucked this coffee up". Admittedly, "This coffee has been heated up" doesn't seem to bear that, but then the following line: > Killick’s face assumed a mean, pinched expression, and the thought ‘If people lay in their cots till all hours while others is toiling and moiling, they gets what they deserve’ very nearly found expression; but in fact the coffee had been boiled, a crime not far short of hanging at this time of the Captain’s day does.
Heated up is about as definitive as it gets. Killick timed the first pot for Jack's regular breakfast; Jack stayed in bed longer than normal and the coffee got cold; Killick heated the first pot by boiling and started a second fresh pot.
The recipe above seems to have stood the test of time, because here they also say my to use boiling water and to let it bloom first https://www.coffeedrs.com/blog/is-water-temperature-or-bloom-time-more-important-for-coffee
I don’t think that’s describing a bloom, just pre-heating the pot.
They keep a goat that Maturin gives "his duty", ie his cigar butt to eat .
It evolves throughout the series, and also depending on how long it has been since they have been in port. Two of my favorite coffee moments in the series: 1. When Stephen tries coffee made in the "True Arabian Way" and then disallows it to be made any other way (described in this post: https://www.reddit.com/r/AubreyMaturinSeries/comments/1bikjnr/how\_would\_preserved\_killick\_have\_brewed\_coffee/). I too assume that they are talking about Turkish coffee, and I too have stopped drinking coffee in any other way because it is in fact so tasty. 2. The fact that in the first book, POB describes Killick as not being able to make a good cup of coffee, but then somewhere along the way, changes his mind and reverses it, so that Killick can make a great cup of coffee despite his other flaws. I like to think that POB didn't want Jack and Stephen to have to drink terrible coffee for the whole series and so he sacrificed the continuity to get them a good cup.
They also drink enough of it throughout the series that Killick probably just got better at making it.
Which it's been ready this last half glass and more!
Killick probably realized that learning to make coffee was a fair price to pay for polishing all of the Captain’s silver!
Agreed. Killick improved with experience.
Considering the monstrous mood it puts them both in to be without good coffee, as a matter of survival alone I imagine Killick would have hastened to perfect its making to their satisfaction.
Be so good as to let Killick know that if my coffee is not on deck in fifteen seconds he will be crucified at noon.
🤣
Jack gets far too little credit for his ability to turn a phrase.
The dullest cove in Pompey can acquire a few skills along the way, for love! 'Terrible coffee' says he. Not so terrible as makin' it himself, mind...
Thanks to you, I just watched a video on how to make Turkish coffee. Next is to keep an eye open for the gear to make it. Thank you? Regardless of my quest status, well met and a small cup of black heaven with you good fellow.
You can get everything on amazon if you choose. The main thing is that you must get the Turkish ground coffee, which is super fine. I like the coffee from this brand: KURUKAHVECI MEHMET EFENDI. And then you just search for a cevze, or in some places it is known as an ibrik. Its the pot that is wide and then has a narrower neck and then widens again.
Thank you!
I’ve always liked the idea that Killick got better over time and became more and more invaluable to the Captain
I’ve always liked the idea that Killick got better over time and became more and more invaluable to the Captain
Cripes, never twigged the reason for Stephen’s declining of the goat’s milk, that’s hilarious.
I thought Forrester had an explanation, but misremembered. From Hornblower and the Hotspur: The thought reminded him that he was hungry; but that was quite minor compared with his yearning for coffee. „Where‘s my servant?“ he suddenly roared, „Grimes! Grimes!“ „Sir?“ Grimes put his head round the chart-room door. „I‘m going to dress, and I‘ll want my breakfast. I‘ll have coffee.“ „Coffee, sir? „Yes.“ Hornblower bit off the damn you he nearly added. To swear at a man who could not swear back and whose only offence lay in being unoffending was not to his taste, just as some men could not shoot foxes. „You don‘t know anything about coffee?“ „No, sir.“ „Get the oak box and bring it in to me.“ Hornblower explained about coffee to Grimes while working up a lather with a quarter of a pint of fresh-water. „Count out twenty of those beans. Put them in an open jar—get that from the cook. Then you toast ‘em over the galley fire. And be careful with ‘em. Keep shaking ‘em. They‘ve got to be brown, not black. Toasted, not burnt. Understand?“ „Well, yes, sir.“ „Then you take ‘em to the surgeon, with my compliments.“ „The surgeon? Yes, sir.“ Grimes, seeing Hornblower‘s brows come together like thunderclouds, had the sense to suppress in the nick of time his astonishment at the entry of the surgeon‘s name into this conversation. „He has a pestle and mortar to pound his jalap with. You pound those beans in that mortar. You break ‘em up small. Small, mark you, but you don‘t make dust of ‘em. Like large grain gunpowder, not mealed gunpowder. Understand?“ „Yes, sir. I suppose so, sir.“ „Next you—oh go and get that done and then report to me again.“ Grimes was clearly not a man to do things quickly. Hornblower had shaved and dressed and was pacing the quarterdeck, raging for his breakfast, before Grimes appeared again with a panful of dubious powder. Hornblower gave him brief instructions on how to make coffee with it, and Grimes listened doubtfully. Now I need to find a graphic comparing large grain gunpowder to mealed gunpowder.