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Local Roots Menu Preview Evening Dining

April 14, 2014
Be one of the first guests to try the brand-new spring Eagle Tavern menu.

Local Roots Spring Evening Dining

May 2, 2014
Come see how the French have influenced Michigan’s cuisine.
View all food-related events
The Henry Ford has a "tasty" collection of food-related artifacts that let us peer into kitchens from America's past. It is one of the best collections of its kind in the country.

1800-1850
Coffee Roaster
United States
30.297.5
Though we began as a nation of tea drinkers, coffee grew increasingly popular in America throughout the 1800s. In fact, the Civil War helped add to the number of coffee fans. Civil War soldiers received coffee along with their food rations--when they returned home, they brought with them a taste for this beverage.

Before coffee can be brewed, coffee beans have to be roasted and then ground. Before the 1860s, housewives had to roast their own coffee beans--in the fireplace or, after its introduction, on a cast iron stove. The result was often unevenly roasted or burnt coffee beans.

This coffee roaster was made for use in a fireplace. A housewife placed her coffee beans inside the cylinder and then pivoted the roaster on its bottom point over the hot coals.