--- "Jeff G." <Log0n5150 at hotmail.com> wrote: > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Scott Schultz" <scott at cjhunter.com> > To: <dragaera at dragaera.info> > Sent: Friday, November 12, 2004 9:02 AM > Subject: Klava (WAS:RE: Today's cooking recipe for an article on > Dragaeran > life, culture, and art.) > > > Interesting that people have tried this and reported their results. I > think > I'd want to make sure that the woods used were free of additives or > naturally-occuring poisons. I suppose your average tree is safe enough, > though. If you can throw it on the fire to flavor food with the smoke, > then > I suppose you ought to be able to strain coffee through it. I think that's true. People chew on pencils, get splinters, etc. Wood is generally pretty safe. With exceptions. > I get the impression that Stephen never expected anyone to actually try > it. > *heh* Still, cinnamon is just ground up tree bark so it's not that > far-fetched. There's also a Middle Eastern flavoring called "zater" (sp?), which is largely ground sumac bark. Quite tasty on bread with olive oil. > For the people who have tried this, did you actually build a filter as > described in the book or did you simply boil the wood chips and > eggshells in > the water along with the coffee and then strain it out? > > On a semi-related note, I was curious about the relationship of > eggshells to > coffee so I did a search and the very first item on the results was > this: > > http://homepage.interaccess.com/~june4/eggcoffee.html - June Meyer's > Authentic Hungarian > Egg Coffee > > The idea of mixing eggs in your coffee is, I suppose, not qualitatively > different than mixing sawdust with it. *heh* I'm not sure if the egg > changes > the coffee in some way or if the eggshell is really the magic ingredient > but > I might try it for kicks one of these days. I suspect that eggshell is the magic ingredient. It's mostly calcium carbonate, which is a base and thus probably neutralizes the acids that cause what Vlad calls bitterness. Accordingly, I'd make klava with light-roasted, "full-bodied" beans. Dark roasting destroys the acids at the cost of destroying other flavors and giving you the taste of charcoal. If the acids are being neutralized in another way, you probably don't need much roasting. I don't even like coffee (though it's possible I might like klava). I don't know why this kind of topic has such a weird fascination for me. Anyway, I'd enjoy seeing a detailed description of how to make good klava. > ********************* > > I thought he was referring to a coffee press > http://www.coffeegeek.com/guides/presspot There's a step called "Even Steven", even. Jerry Friedman __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com