Coffee should never be roasted but when you are going to use it, and then it should be watched with the greatest care, and made of a gold color; mind and do not burn it, for a few grains burnt would communicate a bitter taste to the whole; it is the best way to roast it in a roaster over a charcoal fire, which turns with the hand, as by that means it will not be forgotten.

PARKER's PATENT COFFEE-MAKER.

Figure 1.

By this machine, the extract of coffee is prepared in a very easy and expeditious manner. When the extract is made, it may be diluted with boiling water to suit the palate; or hot milk may be used instead of water, making cafe au lait.

Figure 1 represents the external appearance of the apparatus, and figure 2 is a section to show its construction and mode of action, a a is a box of metal to hold the coffee, having its bottom and top lid perforated with numerous small holes. From the lower part of the box proceeds a funnel, that reaches nearly to the bottom of an outside vessel or cylinder of metal, e e, which is divided into two parts interiorly by a partition, b b, and on the middle of this partition is fixed a tube, into which the neck of the funnel is put, and on which the box with the coffee rests. The exterior vessel is covered with a convex lid, d. The whole is placed on a stand, in which is a spirit-lamp, f having a sliding tube, g, so arranged that the heat can be increased or diminished at pleasure.

Having taken out the box, with its funnels, it is filled with coffee, and boiling water is poured down the tube in the interior; this will pass into the division at the lower part, e e; then the box with the coffee is to be replaced, and the lamp lighted. The steam which is formed forces the water into e e to rise through the tube, and passes upward through the perforated bottom of the box into the coffee, which is seen rising as a dark fluid through the perforated lid of a a, and flowing over into the upper division, b b. The passage of the water should be permitted to continue till it becomes pale-colored and has consequently extracted all the goodness of the coffee, when the lamp should be extinguished, and the lid put on. The extract is then drawn off by means of the faucet.

Figure 2.

After making the extract, it is best not to drain off the liquid remaining within the rim of the cover, but to let it return into the boiler, which it will do as soon as the lamp is extinguished. - Thus, any sediment will return with it

The filling of the box is best done by piling up the ground coffee in the centre, and then striking it off with a knife, as is done with corn in a bushel-measure. The time for making the extract of coffee, where hot water is used, should never exceed five minutes. If it takes longer, it can arise only from the coffee being ground too finely; and this not only increases the expenditure of spirits of wine and of time, but likewise injures the quality of the extract. The remedy is, to grind the coffee coarser and coarser, until the operation, after the water in the boiler boils, lasts only three minutes. The extract of coffee prepared by this apparatus contains all the aroma and other fine qualities of the coffee.