Quote of the day - How to make coffee (1844)
How to Make Coffee: 'Use a tablespoonful ground to a pint of boiling water. Boil in tin pot twenty to twenty-five minutes. If boiled longer it will not taste fresh and lively. Let stand four or five minutes to settle, pour off grounds into a coffee pot or urn. Put fish skin or isinglass size of a nine-pence in pot when put on to boil or else the white and shell of half an egg to a couple of quarts of coffee.'
-- 1844 'Kitchen Directory and American Housewife'
via Food Reference
