# What method did Preserved Killick use to brew coffee? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** coffee\ **Created:** [May 1, 2017, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-method-did-preserved-killick-use-to-brew-coffee/785634 "2017-05-01T12:55:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2017, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-method-did-preserved-killick-use-to-brew-coffee/785634/21 "2017-05-03T22:06:00Z")
> [@nightshadea](#): > > hmm could ask the author … Via Ouija board, perhaps? ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2017, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-method-did-preserved-killick-use-to-brew-coffee/785634/22 "2017-05-03T22:27:35Z")
> [@nightshadea](#): > > like a certain modern novelist that writes about a british naval officer but every paperback version he has to print a 10-20 page PS about what he got wrong because he knew nothing of sailing let alone Napoleonic era sailing so the books are rarely on the ship unless its a battle … Not to mention cologne. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2017, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-method-did-preserved-killick-use-to-brew-coffee/785634/23 "2017-05-04T02:06:05Z")
> [@nightshadea](#): > > hmm could ask the author … but I hate people writing things in historical novels that they know nothing about … Are you…_criticizing_ Patrick O’Brian? Best prepare yourself for 3 well aimed broadsides in 5 minutes. ---
**Author:** ![Airk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de053/32.png) [@Airk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airk)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2017, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-method-did-preserved-killick-use-to-brew-coffee/785634/24 "2017-05-04T13:44:58Z")
> [@nightshadea](#): > > hmm could ask the author … but I hate people writing things in historical novels that they know nothing about … Other than the fact that he’s been dead for 17 years? > [@](#): > > like a certain modern novelist that writes about a british naval officer but every paperback version he has to print a 10-20 page PS about what he got wrong because he knew nothing of sailing let alone Napoleonic era sailing so the books are rarely on the ship unless its a battle … Well, if you think you can do better… ---
**Author:** ![John\_Bredin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@John\_Bredin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Bredin)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2017, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-method-did-preserved-killick-use-to-brew-coffee/785634/25 "2017-05-04T15:10:37Z")
> [@Evan\_Drake](#): > > Yup, same name as the president of the Bank of America: **[Preserved Fish](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preserved_Fish)**. Give a man a preserved fish, he’ll eat for a day. Teach a man that someone was once named Preserved Fish, he’ll laugh for a day. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2017, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-method-did-preserved-killick-use-to-brew-coffee/785634/26 "2017-05-04T17:13:35Z")
> [@John\_Bredin](#): > > Give a man a preserved fish, he’ll eat for a day. Teach a man that someone was once named Preserved Fish, he’ll laugh for a day. 🙂 Sell a man a fish, you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, you lose a steady customer. ---
**Author:** ![gkster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gkster/32/14107_2.png) [@gkster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gkster)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2017, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-method-did-preserved-killick-use-to-brew-coffee/785634/27 "2017-05-05T17:10:14Z")
Here’s part of the coffee-making process at sea during the same period as explained by C.S. Forester in _Hornblower and the Hotspur_. However looking at it closely I see it’s all about grinding the beans and not much about the brewing; straining it is mentioned. Hornblower explained about coffee to Grimes while working up a lather with a quarter of a pint of fresh-water. “Count out twenty of those beans. Put them in an open jar—get that from the cook. Then you toast ‘em over the galley fire. And be careful with ‘em. Keep shaking ‘em. They’ve got to be brown, not black. Toasted, not burnt. Understand?” “Well, yes, sir.” “Then you take ‘em to the surgeon, with my compliments.” “The surgeon? Yes, sir.” Grimes, seeing Hornblower’s brows come together like thunderclouds, had the sense to suppress in the nick of time his astonishment at the entry of the surgeon’s name into this conversation. “He has a pestle and mortar to pound his jalap with. You pound those beans in that mortar. You break ‘em up small. Small, mark you, but you don’t make dust of ‘em. Like large grain gunpowder, not mealed gunpowder. Understand?” “Yes, sir. I suppose so, sir.” “Next you—oh go and get that done and then report to me again.” Grimes was clearly not a man to do things quickly. Hornblower had shaved and dressed and was pacing the quarterdeck, raging for his breakfast, before Grimes appeared again with a panful of dubious powder. Hornblower gave him brief instructions on how to make coffee with it . . . “Coffee, sir?” said Grimes. . . He poured from a jug into a cup, and Hornblower sipped. It was only just hot enough to drink, which meant that it was not hot enough, and it was muddy. “See that it’s hotter than this another time,” said Hornblower. “And you’ll have to strain it better than this.” ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2017, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-method-did-preserved-killick-use-to-brew-coffee/785634/28 "2017-05-05T17:26:13Z")
That leads to one of the humanizing incidents of Hornblower. WWJD?\* \*What would Jack do? ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2017, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-method-did-preserved-killick-use-to-brew-coffee/785634/29 "2017-05-05T17:45:49Z")
I find it odd so many British heroes prefer coffee to tea. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2017, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-method-did-preserved-killick-use-to-brew-coffee/785634/30 "2017-05-05T18:05:00Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > I find it odd so many British heroes prefer coffee to tea. Perhaps it is authors who prefer coffee. ---
**Author:** ![bbonden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecb155/32.png) [@bbonden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bbonden)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2017, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-method-did-preserved-killick-use-to-brew-coffee/785634/31 "2017-05-05T18:06:15Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > I find it odd so many British heroes prefer coffee to tea. Well, Hornblower and Aubrey are both based in part on the same real-life man. I don’t know whether Cochrane himself preferred coffee to tea, but he wrote plenty, and Forester and O’Brian would have read it all. That would make the connection in a single step. Coffee also is a nice literary device, as it provides an element of distinction/personality for the character. ---
**Author:** ![gkster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gkster/32/14107_2.png) [@gkster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gkster)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2017, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-method-did-preserved-killick-use-to-brew-coffee/785634/32 "2017-05-06T06:20:17Z")
Here’s an article describing how in the late 1600s-early 1700s “London became a city of coffee addicts. By the dawn of the eighteenth century, contemporaries counted over 3,000 coffeehouses in London although 21st-century historians place the figure closer to 550.” > **[The surprising history of London's fascinating (but forgotten) coffeehouses](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/united-kingdom/england/london/articles/London-cafes-the-surprising-history-of-Londons-lost-coffeehouses/)** > > Centuries ago, London cafes were politically provocative, intellectually charged dens frequented by eminent scholars and louche libertines. London historian Dr Matthew Green recounts some unexpected tales. And another article about the London coffeehouse of the 1700s as “a haven for caffeine-fueled debate and innovation which helped to shape the modern world.” > **[The Lost World of the London Coffeehouse](https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/the-lost-world-of-the-london-coffeehouse)** > > In contrast to today's rather mundane spawn of coffeehouse chains, the London of the 17th and 18th century was home to an eclectic and thriving coffee drinking scene. Matthew Green explores the halcyon days of the London coffeehouse, a haven for... According to this article, coffee was viewed as a man’s drink while women drank tea: [https://www.janeausten.co.uk/what-would-jane-drink-coffee-in-jane-austens-work-and-world/](https://www.janeausten.co.uk/what-would-jane-drink-coffee-in-jane-austens-work-and-world/) As for coffee and distinction, when Jack and Stephen are on the _Lively_ they’re not happy that it’s a cocoa-drinking ship and coffee is not served. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-method-did-preserved-killick-use-to-brew-coffee/785634.md?page=1)