The coffee should be roasted more than is common with us; it should not hang drying over the fire, but should be roasted quick; it should be ground soon after roasting, and used as soon as it is ground.  Those who pride themselves on first-rate coffee, burn it and grind it every morning.  The powder should be placed in the coffee-pot in the proportions of an ounce to less than a pint of water.  The water should be poured upon the coffee boiling hot.  The coffee should be kept at the boiling point; but should not boil.  Coffee made in this way must be made in a biggin.  It would not be clear in a common coffee-pot.

A bit of fish-skin as big as a ninepence, thrown into coffee while it is boiling, tends to make it clear.  If you use it just as it comes from the salt-fish, it will be apt to give an unpleasant taste to the coffee:  it should be washed clean as a bit of cloth, and hung up till perfectly dry.  The white of eggs, and even egg shells are good to settle coffee.  Rind of salt pork is excellent.

Some people think coffee is richer and clearer for having a bit of sweet butter, or a whole egg, dropped in and stirred, just before it is done roasting, and ground up, shell and all, with the coffee.  But these things are not economical, except on a farm, where butter and eggs are plenty.  A half a gill of cold water, poured in after you take your coffee-pot off the fire, will usually settle the coffee.

If you have not cream for coffee, it is a very great improvement to boil your milk, and use it while hot.

CHOCOLATE.

Many people boil chocolate in a coffee-pot; but I think it is better to boil it in a skillet, or something open.  A piece of chocolate about as big as a dollar is the usual quantity for a quart of water; but some put in more, and some less.  When it boils, pour in as much milk as you like and let them boil together three or four minutes.  It is much richer with the milk boiled in it.  Put the sugar in either before or after, as you please.  Nutmeg improves it.  The chocolate should be scraped fine before it is put into the water.

TEA.

Young Hyson is supposed to be a more profitable tea than Hyson; but though the quantity to a pound is greater, it has not so much strength.  In point of economy, therefore, there is not much difference between them.  Hyson tea and Souchong mixed together, half and half, is a pleasant beverage, and is more healthy than green tea alone.  Be sure that water boils before it is poured upon tea.  A tea-spoonful to each person, and one extra thrown in, is a good rule.  Steep ten or fifteen minutes.

PICKLES.

Musk-melons should be picked for mangoes, when they are green and hard.  They should be cut open after they have been in salt water ten days, the inside scraped out clean, and filled with mustard-seed, allspice, horseradish, small onions, &c., and sewed up again.  Scalding vinegar poured upon them.