mhardy6647
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We have a problem at our house in the wintertime with the large, aggressive songbirds known in the US as bluejays.
They peck at the paint on our house.
Why do they do that? I hear you ask.
They're hungry (so to speak) for calcium.
A couple of years ago, in an attempt (only semi-successful) to thwart this behavior, I took to collecting, washing, drying, and crushing eggshells* to supplement the rascally birds' diets.
For a while, I've been remembering the old trick of adding crushed eggshells to ground coffee to alleviate some of the bitterness (with a bit of collateral damage to the depth and complexity of flavor, according to internet reports). Yesterday, I decided to try it.
Now, if I were smart, I would've said nothing to Mrs. H before doing so. That could have enabled at least a single-blind test.
But, after nearly 40 years of marriage -- I am smarter than that.
So, this morning I announced to her that I was going to try an experiment with the morning's coffee. Now, Mrs. H is also trained as a scientist, so she can manifest a healthy amount of skepticism when circumstances dictate such. She wanted to know exactly what I was going to do... and I told her. She was pretty skeptical, even to the point of asking whether I'd read this idea on the internet on April 1st! Nope, I reassured her. It's a thing (as the say); one of those old, old tricks. Ergo, and with regrets, I unblinded the would-be experiment (so to speak -- there was no control coffee to be made, so, yeah, not even a proper single-blind test).
At any rate, I made the coffee avec eggshells and sampled the result, saying nothing of my impressions to Mrs. H. After breakfast, I asked her, warily, but got not much of a response as to what she thought of it. "I certainly have my opinion, although I think it's influenced by the knowledge of what I did" said I. "You liked it, then?" she asked (kind of rhetorically).
Nope, I didn't. It tasted... perfectly OK... but I sensed a chalky background flavor. I am pretty darned sure that's because I knew that I'd put the eggshells in -- basically a slug of calcium carbonate. Calcium carbonate is, of course, the same stuff that makes up chalk.
Mrs. H never did really comment one way or another.
I don't think I'll be repeating the experiment**.
_________________
* We eat a lot of omelets, so we generate a lot of eggshells -- all from farm-fresh and "organic", as they say, eggs, too.
** That said, it's reported that a harsh, bitter pot of coffee can be rescued after the fact by the eggshell treatment, though -- so, there is that.
They peck at the paint on our house.
Why do they do that? I hear you ask.
They're hungry (so to speak) for calcium.
A couple of years ago, in an attempt (only semi-successful) to thwart this behavior, I took to collecting, washing, drying, and crushing eggshells* to supplement the rascally birds' diets.
For a while, I've been remembering the old trick of adding crushed eggshells to ground coffee to alleviate some of the bitterness (with a bit of collateral damage to the depth and complexity of flavor, according to internet reports). Yesterday, I decided to try it.
Now, if I were smart, I would've said nothing to Mrs. H before doing so. That could have enabled at least a single-blind test.
But, after nearly 40 years of marriage -- I am smarter than that.
So, this morning I announced to her that I was going to try an experiment with the morning's coffee. Now, Mrs. H is also trained as a scientist, so she can manifest a healthy amount of skepticism when circumstances dictate such. She wanted to know exactly what I was going to do... and I told her. She was pretty skeptical, even to the point of asking whether I'd read this idea on the internet on April 1st!
Nope, I reassured her. It's a thing (as the say); one of those old, old tricks. Ergo, and with regrets, I unblinded the would-be experiment (so to speak -- there was no control coffee to be made, so, yeah, not even a proper single-blind test). At any rate, I made the coffee avec eggshells and sampled the result, saying nothing of my impressions to Mrs. H. After breakfast, I asked her, warily, but got not much of a response as to what she thought of it. "I certainly have my opinion, although I think it's influenced by the knowledge of what I did" said I. "You liked it, then?" she asked (kind of rhetorically).
Nope, I didn't. It tasted... perfectly OK... but I sensed a chalky background flavor. I am pretty darned sure that's because I knew that I'd put the eggshells in -- basically a slug of calcium carbonate. Calcium carbonate is, of course, the same stuff that makes up chalk.
Mrs. H never did really comment one way or another.
I don't think I'll be repeating the experiment**.
_________________
* We eat a lot of omelets, so we generate a lot of eggshells -- all from farm-fresh and "organic", as they say, eggs, too.
** That said, it's reported that a harsh, bitter pot of coffee can be rescued after the fact by the eggshell treatment, though -- so, there is that.
