Orange Juice
Scramble Eggs with Cheese
Whole Wheat Toast
Coffee
Scramble Eggs with Cheese
Whole Wheat Toast
Coffee
The only Cheese I’ve got in the house is grated parmesan, so I'll use that. My 1945 cookbook does suggest a few more “adds” for scrambled eggs: onion-juice with parsley, sweet green peppers, or canned pimientos.
The Drip-O-lator (patented in 1921 with revisions in 1930) looks like it works very much like your typical drip coffee maker today, except that the water reservoir is fitted on top instead of behind the coffee pot. The biggest difference is that you have to heat up your water separately. The 1940s housewife probably used a tea kettle. I don’t have one, so I’m just going to run some water through my Mr. Coffee - without the grounds (sounds pretty silly, doesn’t it!).
Deep inside the aluminum fixture is a small well for the coffee grounds. My friend tells me that they didn’t use any coffee filters in the Drip-O-lator, but suggested I use a small filter in there if I didn’t want to end up with any stray grounds in my cup. A perforated metal cap with a tall rod for a handle fits down in there on top of the well. You fill the top of the fixture with hot water and it drips down through the well and into the coffee pot. My water’s heated, but I’m not sure how long I can expect the coffee in the Drip-O-lator to stay warm, so I’m going to start my Scramble Eggs with Cheese first…
The water has been added. It looks like it’s going to take some time for 5 cups’ worth to work its way through the well and down into the coffeepot. While we're waiting, here are a few early ‘40s pictures of the Drip-O-lator in action:
Okay, breakfast is ready, but the coffee’s not. The Drip-O-lator works nowhere near as quickly as my Mr. Coffee. Will the coffee be richer? I’m going to go ahead and eat. Coffee later…
It looks like coffee. It’s not as hot as the coffee I’d pour from my modern coffee maker. (And they didn’t have any microwaves for a quick re-heat!) I gather percolators cooled down real quickly, too. Tastes about the same as the coffee made in the modern coffee maker. It may be tinge richer. Can't quite put my finger on the difference. There must have been housewives trying to keep the coffee warm by putting the pot on a burner, because there's a warning stamped inside the pot. The pot will explode if you heat it on a burner or over an open flame.
I love coffee, I love tea.
I love the java jive and it loves me.
Coffee and tea and the java and me.
A cup, a cup, a cup, a cup, a cup!
5 comments:
I actually use a cafetiere to make coffee, mainly because it just feels so special! Since I heat my water up in the kettle, I usually do what is called "warming the pot" before I make my coffee. I have no idea if one is supposed to do this for coffee, but it works well for tea. I just pour plain hot water into the carafe/pot and let it sit for a minute before I actually make the coffee. Hot tap water would probably help.
I love it when you post photos!
I would think that boiling water to pour through is more 'accurate'. It will be hotter, most likely brew faster, and stay warm longer.
My perculator is electric, so the coffee stays hot until I unplug it and then it lasts thru breakfast with hubby ( with half of it going into his vintage 1950's thermos for lunch of course!)
I am considering switching to my vacuum pot, which is 1940s, and you may want to look into them. They are electric and plug in. They fell out of favor in the 1950s in lieu of the perculator pot, which is why I switched to my perculator, but I like the taste of the coffee more from the vacuum. They can be expensive, but every so often on ebay u can get a less expensive one.
I use a french press which is similar I guess.
we use a tea pot, and bring water to a boil then pour it in.
But I guess I am not too sure if the press is very era accurate?
Did it occur to you to boil the water in a pot on the stove?
I ask this because I used a microwave for YEARS and YEARS. About 3 years ago I banned it from my kitchen. It was funny the number of times I had to stop myself and figure out how to do something without using the microwave--and heating a beverage up was one of those things. We've been so conditioned!
Boiling water will definitely produce a "betta cuppa java."
Roxanne
Roxanne, I definitely considered just boiling up a pot of water. That would probably have stayed hot longer than did the water run through my coffee maker. I'm so unsure of myself when it comes to measuring coffee, though. I know how much coffee-to-water to use in my coffee maker - and just figured I'd use that as a kind of measuring device... I could have just as easily measured the water with a measuring cup right into a pot. It's gonna take to time to build up any confidence when it comes to this kitchen stuff!
Atomic Mama, that French press does sound similar. I've never made coffee using anything but a modern Mr. Coffee-type appliance, so heating water separately still feels awkward.
Public Artist, thanks so much for the suggestion about warming the pot. That's a great one!
50s gal, I think I will go ahead and boil some water in a pot next time I use the Drip-O-later. I only make coffee at home about once a week as it's free at work. A tea kettle would be so much easy to pour from, so that's going to be an addition to my wish list. I've heard, too, that the vacuum coffee makers make amazing coffee.
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