The drink of dessert and late-night work
Strong Black Coffee of the Novelist
DrinkDocumented☕facile10 min
A black coffee, strong and scalding, brewed strong as they liked it in the studies of Romantic Paris.
Why this dish? Coffee was Dumas's daily drink; he wrote entire nights sustained by his serials. His culinary dictionary details roasting and brewing: he was as passionate a drinker as a theorist.
Without coffee, my dear, no novel! When the candle burns low and the Musketeers still demand twenty pages from me, it is my only ally. I want it black as ink, scalding, and well packed — to straighten your mind in one gulp. Beware of pale, chatty coffees: they never saved a serial at press time!
Ingredients
- •Freshly roasted and ground coffee — generously (base)
- •Pure water — according to number of cups (infusion)
- •Sugar — to taste (to sweeten (optional))
How it was made : At the time, beans were often roasted at home in a roaster, then brewed in a tin coffee pot. Dumas, in his dictionary, advocated a strong, long-brewed coffee, far from too-light decoctions.
Sources : Alexandre Dumas, Grand Dictionnaire de cuisine, 1873 (posthumous)