The Surprising Ingredient Grandma Used For Unbeatable Coffee

MSN Lifestyle ^ | August 11, 2018 | Lauren Cahn

[2ndDivisionVet]

If your family's from the Midwest (especially Wisconsin or Minnesota, both of which have a significant Scandinavian-rooted population), you might remember your grandma boiling up big, big batches of what she called Scandinavian coffee (or perhaps Norwegian or Swedish coffee, if she wanted to get specific). If she was making it for a church get-together, she might have called it church basement coffee and brought along one of these heavenly potluck dishes.

But what was that secret-ingredient coffee that Gran made? If you peeked in the percolator, you might have seen it.

The secret ingredient in Scandinavian coffee

Eggs!

They are what make Scandinavian coffee the richly-flavored, amber-hued, perfectly-balanced perfect brew that it is. Or more specifically, a raw egg—shell and all—which you crack over and mix it into your coffee grounds to form a thick slurry, which you then boil for three minutes in a pot of water (we'll get to the how-to just below).

Why?

Not everyone knows this, but eggs have a seemingly magical power to "clarify" liquids from broth to wine to...yes, coffee. As the liquid is heated, the egg coagulates, drawing impurities out of the liquid and into itself. In the case of coffee, those impurities include substances that can cause coffee to taste bitter or burnt. Ultimately, the impurities also include the grounds, themselves. In other words, the egg acts as an "ick" magnet, filtering your coffee without the need for a paper or mesh filter (yay!). After a mere three minutes, the egg and grounds have formed a unified lump that you can easily strain as you pour yourself a cup....

[Dogbert41]

I like Community Coffee when I can get it. Here's some with that chicory mentioned...

[editor-surveyor]

.
Egg shells, not eggs.

Egg shells de-acidify the coffee, thus a strong brew can still be palatable to everyone.
.

[Westbrook]

LOLOL!!!

That was GREAT!

[Fightin Whitey]

Patiently reported by Lauren Van Winkle.

[M1903A1]

They burn their coffee on purpose...that way it can sit around a while longer. Seriously.

[M1903A1]

Also called “caboose coffee” on the railroads, once upon a time.

[Captain Compassion]

Sounds weak. I drink Cuban Espresso. Makes you feel alive.

[Bigg Red]

LOL!

[Dutch Boy]

I have a guy in the neighborhood with a front yard that looks like he is farming chicory. A little forest of the stuff when he lets his lawn go.

[Bigg Red]

Yuck, Starbucks. I have boycotted them for years because of their political stances. This summer, the husband was in the hospital for several weeks, and there was no coffee available for sale except Starbucks. I learned that, in addition to being overpriced, it is just awful.

[Jed Eckert]

Sounds weak. I drink Cuban Espresso. Makes you feel alive.

Try Turkish coffee made in a copper ibrik. So strong you can use it as a defibrillator. Drink too much and you'll be wired for hours and hours.

[norwaypinesavage]

"If you're Lutheran you probably knew this already."

Yes, and yes, and from Minnesota, ya' sure. Coffee from the church basement was made with the biggest ceramic coated gray with white specks coffee pot you've ever seen. Water was heated to a boil in the pot, and the grounds were thrown right into the boiling water. After a minute, or so, an egg was broken into the pot to "settle the coffee grounds".

[Nifster]

Yup. My dad’s side of the family is Swedish. My mom’s side Scottish

The Christmas Eve dinners were incredible.

Only catch would be when times were tough you wouldn’t waste an egg in the coffee just the shells

[Nifster]

Chicory ain’t coffee. Was what was used during the Civil War when Southerners didn’t have coffee

It’s an acquired taste

[iontheball]

Here is a slight variation my mother used to make. This is for a 12 cup coffee pot without a percolator insert and, preferably, with a screen on the inside before the spout. Fill the pot with fresh water and heat to a boil. While the water is heating up get an eight ounce cup and fill about 3/4 full of regular ground coffee. Break an egg on top of the coffee grounds (she did not use the shell) and, with a spoon, carefully mix the raw egg into the coffee grounds, coating all the coffee grounds. You can add a little cold water to the cup when mixing to make the process easier. When the water has reached a boil, add the coffee ground mixture to the pot. You may wish to pour a little water from the pot into the empty cup to clean the cup and wash out any remaining grounds into the pot. Now with the cover off, monitor the pot closely because as the pot comes back to a boil the egg/grounds mixture will be floating on the top of the water like a cap and will rise up and boil over if you do not at this critical point in the boil stir the mixture with a spoon to break up the rising coagulated cap on top of the water. After a good stir let the coffee boil at medium boil for three minutes. At the end of the boil, add a half cup of cold water to the pot to cause the coffee ground mixture to sink to the bottom. Cover the pot and serve. This coffee will likely be considered way too ‘soft’ for the Starbucks aficionados. None of my children think this coffee is strong enough for their liking. It just proves that when it comes to drinking coffee, everyone as his/her own preference.

[BipolarBob]

Egg albumin is a flocculant.

hey! This is a family friendly website. So watchit.

[Tuketu]

My dad always said, “When you boil water for hard boiled or soft boiled eggs; use the water for coffee.” I still do ;and it even improves the flavor from K-cups

[Dr. Sivana]

Chicory ain’t coffee. Was what was used during the Civil War when Southerners didn’t have coffee

It’s an acquired taste

In the TV mini-series Amerika it replaced coffee during the Soviet occupation.

[apocalypto]

This is the first I’ve heard of it.

[Postman]

My mother used to boil coffee like this but her magic ingredient was an egg shell or two - ONLY the egg shell... NOT the contents. She would serve the eggs separately with delicious, strong coffee...free of coffee grounds which, with the egg shells, remained on the bottom of her coffee pot, not in our cups. If you need to try both methods, try this first.