Tired of Grounds in Your Turkish Coffee? Throw an Egg in It!

Some call it Turkish coffee, some Arab coffee, some Cowboy coffee, while others know it as Swedish coffee. The similarity between them all is in the brewing; they're all brewed by boiling fine grounds in water right over the stove. The differences are in the nuances of the boiling -- and then, there’s the egg. The egg is an extra ingredient added to the Swedish coffee to keep the grounds from floating from the pot to your cup.

An article titled “Cooking Outside the Box” on Nonrecipe.com just published an article describing several ways to brew coffee. It has links to more than a few videos about making coffee if you’re interested. But the most unusual demonstrations involved Swedish coffee, that one with the egg. To make it, you toss the whole egg, shell and all, into your grounds that you’ve measured out according to the amount of servings. The video demo used a French press pot as the water measure and used the same amount of coffee that would have been used for the press (say, about one tablespoon per cup). The grounds and eggs are stirred together in the saucepan, making a kind of paste. Then the water is poured in and the pot is set on the burner. After it boils a few minutes, the heat is turned off but the pot is left for a few additional minutes. Once the grounds have calmed down, pour the coffee off into the French press pitcher. The liquid should be beautifully clear, as the protein from the egg bound the grounds together.

The eggshells also reduce the acidity of the coffee. Besides alleviating the problem of the grounds, this method was recommended for making a large volume of coffee if you don’t have a party percolator. A large volume, such as forty cups, can be made this way without too much trouble. With Turkish coffee, the grounds are also finely ground, but they are put in a special long handled pot called an ibrik. The water is added, the pot is brought to boiling. If you watch the video you’ll see how it is removed from the heat and returned two more times, for a total of three boilings. You can also boil water with sugar, without stirring so the sugar caramelizes. Then this water is used for the brewing water and added to your grounds, resulting in a sweet coffee with its own crema. Other videos linked to this article include the how-to’s for perfect American drip, espresso and French press, and other subjects. If you enjoy coffee videos, just click on the image above to access the article.