Читать книгу Good Things in England - A Practical Cookery Book for Everyday Use, Containing Traditional and Regional Recipes Suited to Modern Tastes - Florence White - Страница 14

1. Warm the teapot.

2. Put in the tea.

3. Pour on 1/2 pint freshly boiling water for each breakfast cup.

4. Let it infuse 3 minutes.

5. Pour off the tea into another well-warmed pot and cover it with a cosy.

In this way the tea does not stand on the leaves, and consequently is free from tannin. Some people do not even let it stand 3 minutes, but pour it straight off without troubling to put it into a second pot. A cosy should never be placed on a teapot containing hot water and tea-leaves. After the first brew of tea has been poured out, more hot water may be put on the leaves and poured off again as stated in direction 3.

People who really like tea don’t as a rule care for cream in it—it is too clogging; top milk may be used, or a slice of lemon in the tea, without milk, makes a refreshing drink.

N.B.—(1) China tea in England is frequently badly made because the above rules are not observed; it should be a golden liquid, not a drabbish brown and should be served without either milk or lemon, but with a saucer of preserved kumquats or litchis. (These can be bought in London at the Army and Navy Stores, at the Civil Service Supply Association Stores and the various Chinese restaurants.)

(2) Tea made and poured off as above, using freshly boiled milk instead of water, is most refreshing. Sir Henry Thompson, a leading authority on food and feeding, says:

‘It would be almost as rational to add cream and sugar to wine as to fine and delicately flavoured tea! Occasionally tea is served with lemon in this country, but it is mostly added in excess. A very slight shaving which contains both peel and pulp is ample for an ordinary cup.’