Thursday, April 7, 2011

Swedish Egg Coffee Tutorial


Egg coffee?? Yes, egg coffee. I don't know the history behind this crazy Swedish concoction but it's delicious, trust me.

My grandma told me about this back when I was in high school and we made it together one afternoon. Then when I was over having a scrabble tournament with her yesterday, we made it again. It's so simple and actually makes one great cup of coffee. This is especially good if you don't own a coffee pot or are out of filters (which has happened to me one too many times).

Ready to get started? Here's what you'll need:

water
course ground coffee
1 egg, shell included

Ok. First, fill up your Swedish coffee pot (or saucepan) with approximately 6 cups of water (or however many cups of coffee you will be drinking).


Set your pot full of water on the stove to boil.


Next, crack the egg in small bowl or glass, shells included.

Then add a little water, about 2 teaspoons or so. Stir together with the egg until it's completely mixed.


Put your coffee grounds in a bowl (about 1 Tbl of coffee grounds for 1 cup of coffee, more or less depending of your strength preference) and pour some, not all, of the egg mixture over the grounds. Mix together until all the coffee grounds are wet and "feel right" (direct quote from my Grandma).



When it reaches a boil, dump in your grounds/egg mixture.


Turn off the heat and stir vigorously. Let sit for 4-6 minutes.

After boiling, the egg mixture should sink to the bottom of the pan with the grounds after a few minutes. If not, add a few teaspoons ice cold water. Below you can see the clumps still floating, we added 2 tablespoons cold water.


Strain your first cup through a coffee strainer to ensure the grounds are at the bottom.


No grounds were found - success!

Fika (Swedish loosely translated as "coffee break") it up!


23 comments:

  1. Thank you! I've been wanting to try this for some time, but sadly I didn't really take up coffee drinking until my Swedish grandmother had passed. We'll be giving it a go this weekend!

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  2. This is how we make coffee when camping.

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  3. How does this work? Does it taste "eggy", or like regular coffee? And, say hi to your Grandma for me! She always won (by a LOT!) at Boggle/Scrabble when your sister and I would stop by in high school.

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  4. How neat! And Gram looks great! Glad you're back and enjoying some time with her!

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  5. I'm glad everyone enjoys the "recipe"! It would totally be a great way to make coffee while camping, I never thought of that!

    Chiara - It doesn't taste at all "eggy", shockingly. My Grandma says the egg shells help make a clear cup of coffee and the egg part mainly helps sink the grounds. I'll tell her you say hi, she beat me in scrabble when we played, she's a tricky one. :)

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  6. I want your Grandma's coffee pot BAD!

    OMG it is so beautiful.

    My sweetie - who is the coffee master in this house - not yet up for trying this out but i will keep working on him!

    GOT to be good - it's Swedish!

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  7. Isn't it adorable!? She has an entire set of pots and pans that match too! Hope you like this version of coffee :)

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  8. I'll definitely give this a try - sounds like an excellent way to start the day!

    Good luck with your next move and thanks for commenting on my Aimee post. I'm happy to have found your blog :)

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  9. So, the title of this post got me...came over from totally tutorials. I love coffee, but I wasn't sure about eggy coffee. And then to see your gramma's coffee pot was awesome. I have one almost exactly like it that my granny made sweet tea in for Sunday dinners. Since she's not Swedish, and never been there, I think maybe my brother got it for her when he was stationed in Germany. Can't wait to try this recipe. Thanks bunches!

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  10. Good Luck Elena, I hope it turns out for you!

    Nitalinb - Var sa god! :)

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  11. I have a pot just like this! I was raised on Swedish egg coffee! In fact, I didn't know there was any other way to make coffee until I was in my 20's! Great to be a Swede! But we NEVER put the shell in - my mom and grandma were "appauled" when I told them some women did this! lol

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  12. It is great to be a Swede! :) I'll have to try it w/o the shell and see if I can taste a difference...

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  13. Sadly I can no longer drink real coffee due to a caffeine intolerance, but somewhere I have a sachet of decaf grounds (and no cafetiere of course!) so I shall give this a try for my Sunday morning treat tomorrow... oh, that'll be today now... whoops, stayed up too late again!

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  14. I love that coffee pot, I have my Grandmother's and it is a treasured heirloom. She made it the same way as your grandmother

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  15. Wow, this reminds me of a scene in the film noir spoof "Dead men don't wear plaid", where Steve Martin says "you need a cup of my famous java, I'll make you a cup of joe" and makes coffee in a saucepan with a lot of ground coffee and a whole egg. When I originally saw it, it was just insane (as is the whole film), now it actually makes sense...
    ClaireBear

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  16. This is how the cowboys did it in the "old" West! Also swung it around on a chain to help separate!

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  17. I was brought here by MDA and your comment. I so want to try this!! I'm going to try some before my sparring class tonight. :D

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  18. I tired a version of this (with just the yolk) on the Primal diet website. I actually used black tea and it was great! Very filling and lots of energy... Love her cute coffee pot!

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  19. Awesome recipe and I love, love, love the result :D With milk or cream and sugar it's amazing :D

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  20. I had never heard it called "Swedish Egg Coffee" before it has always just been "Campfire or Cowboy" coffee to me. I learned how to make it a child (If you are wondering I started drinking coffee around the age of 6 or 7 first on the weekends reading the paper with my parents and everyday by age 8 or 9) The only difference in the method I learned for making it was to add a teaspoon of sugar for every tablespoon of coffee, that way the coffee was "ready to drink". It should be noted that the water used to wet the grounds should be warm but not hot. PS The reason I knew it as Campfire or Cowboy coffee was we only made it that way when camping at home we had a percolator coffee maker.

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  21. I'm Swedish, have lived in Sweden my whole life but never heard of egg coffee. Not until my American fourth cousin told me about it. We never make this in Sweden.

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