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Cafe Brulot

While reading one of my vintage etiquette books, I ran across the proper way to serve Café Brulot. I've never heard of café brulot, and according to the passage, it was almost unknown in 1960. But what a lovely custom!
 
According to Emily Post...
 
In many houses of the south of yesterday, making café brulot was an established ritual. On a huge silver tray was arranged a collection of little dishes and boxes holding slivers of lemon rind, Orange rind, cloves, cinnamon, sugar, a decanter of brandy, and a pot of very hot, black, freshly made coffee.
 
In a deep silver bowl went a variety of spices, rinds and brandy. The lights were dimmed and and the brandy ignited. While the concoction blazed high, coffee was added, little by little with the ladle so that the fire would burn as long as possible.
 
What a charming custom!
 
Below is the recipe just in case I can encourage its return to fashion.
 
Ingredients:
2 oranges
1 lemon
12 cloves
3 cinnamon sticks
2 ounces brandy
2 ounces orange liqueur (such as Cointreau)
6 cups of brewed French roast coffee, kept hot
 
Carefully use a vegetable peeler to carve the peel from one orange in a continuous coil. Stud the orange peel with the cloves. Thread one end of the coil through the tines of a fork and set aside.
 
Peel the lemon and cut the peel into 1/4-inch twists. Repeat with the other orange.
In a small saucepot over low heat, combine the lemon and orange peels, cinnamon sticks, brandy, and orange liqueur. Heat the ingredients for 3 to 5 minutes. When the mixture is warm, pour it into a brulot bowl or a stainless steel bowl with a flat bottom.
 
Scoop up some of the mixture in a ladle. Light a match and hold it to the ladle, igniting the liqueur. Using your other hand, carefully pick up the fork holding the clove-studded orange peel coil and hold it over the bowl. Slowly lower the ignited ladle and pour the flaming liqueur over the orange coil. The flame will spiral down the coil and ignite the contents of the bowl. Set aside the fork.
 
Slowly pour in the coffee while stirring with the ladle to extinguish the flame.
 
Ladle small amounts of the aromatic coffee liqueur mixture into demitasse cups.
 
Yield:
6 servings
 
I'm afraid I don't have a silver Café Brulot service to photograph and show here, but I found several on line. In fact, one blogger had beautiful article on the subject. 
 
It looks as if she didn't try this at home, but enjoyed it at a restaurant which would be my choice and recommendation. Miss Post may want to bring it back into fashion, but I say, "Leave it to the professionals!" 


This post first appeared on Charm Of The Carolines, please read the originial post: here

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Cafe Brulot

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