Chicory Coffee with Honey (Muckefuck)
A hot, bitter beverage made by infusing roasted and ground chicory root, sweetened with a little honey and a splash of milk. The frugal 'coffee' of Hessian households during the Napoleonic wars.
A hot, bitter beverage made by infusing roasted and ground chicory root, sweetened with a little honey and a splash of milk. The frugal 'coffee' of Hessian households during the Napoleonic wars.
Real coffee? Do not speak of it, in the Emperor's time and his blockade not a bean came to Kassel, or at the price of gold! We dried and roasted chicory root until it browned and smelled almost like the real thing, then I ground it and let it steep until black. A drop of milk, a finger of honey to take away the bitterness, and that was enough to last an entire afternoon. On this coffee, believe me, many tales were told that my Wilhelm later set down on paper.
- •Chicory root — as much as dried (coffee substitute)
- •Water — according to number of cups (infusion)
- •Honey — to taste (sweeten bitterness)
- •Milk — a splash (smoothness)
Chicory Coffee with Honey (Muckefuck)
A hot, bitter beverage made by infusing roasted and ground chicory root, sweetened with a little honey and a splash of milk. The frugal 'coffee' of Hessian households during the Napoleonic wars.
Why this dish? Under the Continental Blockade that struck Germany when Dortchen was a young girl in Kassel, real coffee became unavailable and prohibitively expensive. It was replaced by a decoction of roasted chicory root, this 'Muckefuck' that accompanied the table where the Grimms collected the tales Dortchen passed on to them.
Real coffee? Do not speak of it, in the Emperor's time and his blockade not a bean came to Kassel, or at the price of gold! We dried and roasted chicory root until it browned and smelled almost like the real thing, then I ground it and let it steep until black. A drop of milk, a finger of honey to take away the bitterness, and that was enough to last an entire afternoon. On this coffee, believe me, many tales were told that my Wilhelm later set down on paper.
Ingredients (period version)
- Chicory root — as much as dried (coffee substitute)
- Water — according to number of cups (infusion)
- Honey — to taste (sweeten bitterness)
- Milk — a splash (smoothness)
Ingredients
- Roasted ground chicory (store-bought or homemade dried root) — 2 tbsp (bitter base)
- Water — 500 ml (infusion)
- Honey — 1–2 tsp (sweetener)
- Milk — a splash per cup (smoothness)
Method
- If using fresh root: cut into dice, dry then roast in a pan or oven until brown and fragrant, then grind.
- Bring water to a simmer, add ground chicory and let infuse/decoct for 5 min.
- Strain into cups.
- Sweeten with a little honey and add a splash of milk. Serve very hot, with a slice of Pflaumenkuchen.
How it was made : Chicory 'coffee' (Zichorienkaffee), later nicknamed 'Muckefuck', became widespread in Germany from the late 18th century and especially during the Continental Blockade (1806–1813), when colonial coffee was scarce. The chicory root was roasted, sometimes mixed with barley or roasted acorns, to imitate the bitterness and color of coffee. It was the daily drink of modest and bourgeois families in Dortchen's Hesse.
The contemporary twist : Served as a frothy 'latte' with a pinch of cinnamon: the famine coffee of 1810 enters today's parlor.
Henriette Dorothea Wild · Charactorium
