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BOILED COFFEE – THE OLD FASHIONED, NO-FRILLS, MORNING EYE OPENER


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While reading some forum posts on re-using coffee grounds to make a second, and perhaps a third cup of coffee, I noticed that others had also noticed that the old percolators made stronger coffee than the current drip pots. It is getting hard to find percolators in the appliance sections of many stores, which seem to relegate them to the camping supplies, if they have them at all. Yet there is an even older way to make coffee which requires no special pot at all. I used it in my twenties, when my old percolator quit working, and I did not have the funds to replace it for several weeks.good old boiled coffee! My husband and I enjoyed the boiled coffee more than the perked stuff, especially if I added a crushed egg to settle the grounds, finding it had a stronger flavor, seemed to have more caffeine in it, and it was more smooth than the old percolator's coffee had been. The only drawback, is that it took a little more tending, so when funds allowed, we bought a new percolator which would make our morning brew as we dressed for work, and soon became accustomed to the slightly bitter taste as we enjoyed the convenience. But if there was no power, a pot of strong, smooth boiled coffee would be a treasure beyond compare to those of us needing help getting our eyes opened and our brains awake. So as a service to all the coffee drinkers out there, here is how to make boiled coffee.

 

First, decide how much coffee you are going to make and measure out the water in the proper amounts. Be sure you have a pot large enough to hold it at a boil stainless steel or granite ware pots or pans make good coffee. Spouts are optional, a saucepan will do. Avoid tin the acids in coffee react with it.

Separately measure out the coffee, 1 Tablespoon for each 6-ounces of water (which is what a standard cup holds). Put the grounds into the water, and bring everything to a boil. When it boils, watch the coffee color. You want a dark brown, which only takes 5 min boiling time.

Remove the container from the heat and settle the grounds by either throwing in 1/4 cup of cold water, or by adding a crushed egg (shell and all) to the pot. If money is tight, you can cook the egg and throw in just the shell to settle the grounds. It sounds gross, but the shell and egg will collect many of the grounds and help them settle to the bottom, and smooth out the flavor. Let the coffee sit until cool enough to drink, about 10 minutes, then pour or ladle from the top to serve, discarding the grounds at the bottom.

You can make the coffee and egg mixture ahead of time and use it for several small brewings of coffee through the day. Simply mix one cup of coffee grounds with 1 egg, slightly beaten, and the crushed shell. Keep in a cool place, and for a pint of coffee, add 1/3 of the mixture to a pint of already boiling water. Boil 3 minutes, let stand 10 minutes and serve.

Leftover coffee can be reheated, or saved and used to make coffee jelly (another old fashioned treat rather like coffee flavored jello), added to gravies for brown color, or added to hot cocoa to make a mocha drink. I have kept the grounds in the refrigerator and have re-boiled them with 1/4th fresh grounds to stretch my coffee. If you use a finer (expresso) grind of coffee, I have read you can use less, but I have not tried that out yet. If you do, let me know how it worked!

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Kappydell...you're right. For the coffee drinkers, this type of coffee is a treasure, especially when camping and you've got the wonderful smell it sends out and combined with the freshness of the morning air! Let's all your neighbors know "what's brewing"! LOL I have a graniteware coffee pot that I purchased not long ago to use for this very reason, even though I do have 2 aluminum ones (one 4 cup and one 6 cup) but I love the big graniteware pot. BUT...before I had these types of coffee brewing pots, I used to make what my Grandma called "dirty sock" coffee. You trim the toes off a pair of clean, white socks but leave enough to tie a knot. You put your coffee grounds into the toe and tie the knot, throw it into your boiling water and let it boil and steep until the coffee is nice and brown and you can really smell it. Boil it as long as you like to get as strong as you like. You can re-wash and the "dirty socks" when you get tired of just rinsing them out by hand. Oh...never bleach them and never use fabric softener.

Edited by Philbe
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While I can see boiling coffee for stretching grounds in a crisis, it really trashes the flavor - the acids come out which = bitter.

 

While drip is often wasteful, boiling or percolator (boiling) is like cooking a nice steak in the microwave. Yeah, you can do it, but it turns a nice steak into "just a piece of meat".

 

My compromise is a French Press, where I can use water that is hot, but not boiling, and let it soak. It's annoying to clean.

 

First 40 seconds. Bad words at 40 seconds.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pco6GFCVcHU

Edited by Gunplumber
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Ive tied up coffee grounds in a bandana and boiled and used a french press, have a big one and a small one. They are a pain to clean for sure. But I got the small ones that are plastic and safe to use camping. Since I dont have a bunch of folks to fix coffee for, it works for me.

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Coffee Jelly? My husband loves a strong coffee flavor in sweets. Would I make this like jams or like a jello?

 

Yes. To both.

 

The trick is to concentrate the coffee without burning, or allowing to get bitter.

 

To concentrate, we use a small stove top still, low/simmer heat. Do *NOT* boil. Reduce to one quarter, by volume.

 

For bitterness, take eggshells, lightly roasted (removes the oil), and crush. These will settle the grounds and absorb bitterness in settling. Crushed is the key, to maximise surface contact. About a half teaspoon per cup of concentrated coffee . Some folks swear on brown over white shells, but I never noticed any difference.

 

Some folks also do a charcoal drip, to counter bitterness, but I never have.

 

I have made both jellies (think 'gummies') and hard candies from this concentrate.

 

I am also aware of a 'pill'. If you have seen the pressed pellet snuff, like 'Stonewall', then you know of which I speak. I do not have the recipe, or remember exactly how mine mother made the 'carrier' from grits, sorry. Mine Father would grab a few each morning before going out into the fields.

 

Got a solder family member? These pills are always part of our 'care' packages to ours. And we usually toss in a pack of 'Stonewall' to placate his 'brothers-in-arms', usually the 'Java' flavor.

 

And an additional tip, the 'coffee' artificial flavors are a witches brew. If it were my man, I would wean him off, in favor of mine.

 

Sarah

of the Librum.

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