SC - Brazier? was Mortar and pestle illustration?

[Oughton, Karin (GEIS, Tirlan)]

Just an interesting modern aside - I picked up a whole stack of unroasted
coffee beans in Dubai, and was stuck for how to roast them without
completely blackening them , which my fan oven tends to do, when a friend
had a cool idea. Use one of those hotair popcorn makers - it rotates the
beans beautifully while roasting and allows total control of the roasting
process for a mild or strong roast : ) .


karin.

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Decker, Terry D. [SMTP:TerryD at Health.State.OK.US]
> Sent:	Monday, February 22, 1999 7:08 PM
> To:	'sca-cooks at Ansteorra.ORG'
> Subject:	RE: SC - Brazier? was Mortar and pestle illustration?
> 
> > The question was asked recently about coffee ... we're having a Turkish
> > event.. and arguments aside as to whether it was drunk or not.. how did
> > they
> > heat beverages? Stove?? Charcoal Brazier?? What did such a thing look
> > like?
> > 
> > Corwyn
> > 
> The traditional coffee maker is the ibrik, a tapered cylindrical pot made
> of
> copper, wider at the base than at the neck and having a short lip with
> reverse taper above the neck to provide a funnel for pouring liquids in
> and
> out of the pot.  A relatively long handle extending perpendicular to the
> neck allows the user to manipulate the ibrik over a fire.
> 
> The ibrik is designed to retain heat and to bring the contents to a boil
> over a minimal heat source.  In a coffee house, a charcoal brazier or
> stove
> would have been a likely heat source.  In the desert, it would probably
> have
> been a dung fire.  It is alleged that the ibrik can be heated in the
> desert
> by partially burying it in hot sand and letting the sun do the cooking.
> 
> Ibriks are available from most fine coffee dealers.  If you want to fake
> it,
> use a small sauce pan.
> 
> The traditional coffee roaster is a 4 to 8 inch diameter concave plate
> drilled with small holes and having a handle.
> 
> As for making the coffee itself:
> 
> "Qahwa" can be made from the husks, the berries, or both.  Coffee was most
> likely first brewed from the husks as a medicine.  The "al-qahwa
> al-qishriya" produced from the husks is still used in Yemen.  "Al-qahwa
> al-bunniya" or coffee brewed from the berries or the berries and the husks
> probably came from trying to strengthen the brew.   
> 
> To make "qahwa al-bunniya", the berries could be roasted or unroasted.
> Roasting improves the flavor of the coffee, and came into regular use
> early
> in the known history of the beverage.  The berries would be crushed to a
> fine powder in a mortar.  For each cup, about five ounces of water would
> be
> placed in an open pot and brought to a boil.  A teaspoon to a tablespoon
> of
> the crushed coffee powder is added per cup.  The coffee would be returned
> to
> the fire and allowed to boil up a second time, then removed and allowed to
> cool slightly.  The boiling process would be repeated two or three more
> times.
> 
> The Arabs soon added powdered cloves, cardamom, or cinnamon at the third
> boil to sweeten the taste.  Sugar was first used as a sweetener after the
> Turks took up the coffee habit, causing the thick, sugar-sweetened coffee
> to
> be referred to a Turkish.  Modern Turkish coffee uses two teaspoons of
> sugar
> per cup added with the coffee at the first boil.    
> 
> Modern Arabian coffee uses a heaping teaspoon and modern Turkish coffee
> uses
> a tablespoon of coffee powder per cup.  This may be a matter of taste, or
> it
> may reflect the availability and value of coffee when the habit was
> originally adopted.
> 
> Bon Chance 
> 
> Bear
> 
> ==========================================================================
> ==
> 
> To be removed from the SCA-Cooks mailing list, please send a message to
> Majordomo at Ansteorra.ORG with the message body of "unsubscribe SCA-Cooks".
> 
> ==========================================================================
> ==
============================================================================

To be removed from the SCA-Cooks mailing list, please send a message to
Majordomo at Ansteorra.ORG with the message body of "unsubscribe SCA-Cooks".

============================================================================