🎵 You’re the egg in my coffee, you’re the salt in my stew 🎵
January 31, 2017 12:29 PM   Subscribe

The Japanese do it
The Vietnamese do it
Even Scandi-nav-ians and Minne-sot-ans do it.
Let’s do it!
Let’s make coffee with an eeeeggggggg!

Yes, these are two different songs. No, I don’t mind.
posted by Going To Maine (41 comments total) 22 users marked this as a favorite
 
Is that butter in coffee thing still a thing?
posted by GallonOfAlan at 12:34 PM on January 31, 2017 [2 favorites]


Ask an Australian, mate.
posted by Going To Maine at 12:34 PM on January 31, 2017 [1 favorite]


Is that butter in coffee thing still a thing?

Only for closers
posted by thelonius at 12:37 PM on January 31, 2017 [21 favorites]


You need a cup of my java.
posted by me3dia at 12:42 PM on January 31, 2017 [5 favorites]


One of my co-workers told me she grew up making egg coffee for her parents. I asked her why they put an egg in it, and if it was any good. She said she didn't know, and she wasn't a coffee drinker so couldn't comment on the flavor.

That's Minnesota, I guess.
posted by caution live frogs at 12:43 PM on January 31, 2017 [3 favorites]


Other than a single spoonful of sugar, the only thing I put in my coffee is the wretched tears of my personal frustrations and shortcomings. And really, if the tears weren't so bitter, I could skip the sugar.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 12:59 PM on January 31, 2017 [19 favorites]


Going to poach this recipe if you don't mind.
posted by hal9k at 1:00 PM on January 31, 2017 [21 favorites]


One cuppa coffee
two eggs
one tablespoon of maple syrup
blend thoroughly
drink

Breakfast of champions.
posted by JohnFromGR at 1:01 PM on January 31, 2017 [2 favorites]


This must be related to the cowboy coffee method of filtering coffee with eggshells. Not being a coffee drinker, of course, this just strikes me as a waste of a perfectly good egg.
posted by Faint of Butt at 1:04 PM on January 31, 2017 [2 favorites]


This must be related to the cowboy coffee method of filtering coffee with eggshells. Not being a coffee drinker, of course, this just strikes me as a waste of a perfectly good egg.

Actually, the Japanese, Vietnamese, and Scandinavian recipes are all different from each other. The Scandinavian one might be, but not the other two.
posted by Going To Maine at 1:08 PM on January 31, 2017


You need a cup of my java.
This is never gonna heal.
posted by plinth at 1:27 PM on January 31, 2017 [3 favorites]


I just used to put a raw yolk in my cortadito.

IDK, it wasn't weird to me.
posted by oddman at 1:28 PM on January 31, 2017


Put another way, it is the difference between thickening a sauce with cornstarch versus thickening it with blood. One is a milquetoast childhood in the suburban Midwest. The other is being wasted in Paris with Henry Miller.

*cracks egg*
posted by ethansr at 1:34 PM on January 31, 2017 [1 favorite]


As long as there's not a fish in the percolator.
posted by Halloween Jack at 1:47 PM on January 31, 2017 [1 favorite]


Vietnamese egg coffee (invented by a guy in Hanoi when milk was scarce) is simply amazing. It doesn't taste like egg. It's kinda like a coffee-flavored whipped mousse.
posted by mkuhnell at 1:47 PM on January 31, 2017 [1 favorite]


Church Basement Coffee is now added to my list of things that I thought were pretty standard but might in fact make me a weird Minnesotan. I don't make coffee like this but I have had it plenty of times and if you drink it black (which you do if you're a good Scandinavian Lutheran) it does have a nice flavor. I had thought you needed a big industrial pot for this to make any sense, but it doesn't look like it based on these links so maybe I'll give it a try.
posted by Clinging to the Wreckage at 2:03 PM on January 31, 2017 [2 favorites]


I fell into a video hole and landed at Turkish coffee. I now have a terrible craving.
posted by 80 Cats in a Dog Suit at 2:24 PM on January 31, 2017 [2 favorites]


Hah, the Rocketnews article confirms that even Japan is susceptible to the "it happened once, somewhere in Japan, so now it's a Trend In Japan" phenomenon
posted by DoctorFedora at 2:29 PM on January 31, 2017 [2 favorites]


Yeah, I learned to put an egg in campfire coffee from Idaho cowboys.

But you still have to filter the grounds through your teeth.
posted by BlueHorse at 3:04 PM on January 31, 2017


...Turkish coffee. I now have a terrible craving.

Oh yes.
posted by Splunge at 3:14 PM on January 31, 2017 [1 favorite]


The way that the egg apparently clarifies the coffee is reminiscent of what home brewers do with beer, well not with eggs, there are a variety of finings but gelatine is the most popular… which naturally leads me to wonder about gelatine coffee (or Irish moss coffee for vegans), which somehow sounds even less appetizing than egg coffee.
posted by rodlymight at 3:25 PM on January 31, 2017 [2 favorites]


Kaisermelange is my favorite coffee these days. With a good whisk it comes out like a quick and easy cappuccino.
posted by bashos_frog at 3:36 PM on January 31, 2017 [1 favorite]


Let's not forget about Smoked Salmon Scrambled Egg Coffee by way of Nathan Barley
(further fish coffee research)
posted by Frikki at 3:53 PM on January 31, 2017 [1 favorite]


The cool thing I took away from the article on the Vietnamese egg coffee was that the cup is served sitting in a bowl of hot water so it doesn't cool too fast. As someone whose coffee always cools too fast, this made my little ears perk up.
posted by Orlop at 4:49 PM on January 31, 2017 [2 favorites]


I'd heard of eggs in coffee, but had never understood how the coffee was made or why it worked. This was really interesting to read. I might try one of these recipes sometime, even.

Last summer, visiting a friend who is an excellent and creative cook, we had homemade pizza with egg. The eggs are just cracked on top of the pizza. This seemed like it would be a little weird, but it was so good I'm still thinking of it months later and looking forward to visiting so I can have it again.
posted by Orlop at 4:55 PM on January 31, 2017


Wasn't there also a way to use an egg as a filter, where the egg cooked and trapped the grounds? I thought I saw that on here once, but I can't find it now.
posted by Mister Moofoo at 5:14 PM on January 31, 2017


I liked butter coffee. It did not save my life but it was tasty.
posted by crush-onastick at 5:33 PM on January 31, 2017 [1 favorite]


No idea what the Norwegians have been up to, but speaking for at least some parts of Scandinavia, I've never heard of anyone putting eggs in their coffee. Googling for egg coffee-related keywords on Swedish sites seems to mostly bring up articles claiming that this is an American thing. (Found one blogger who tested it; tl;dr it removed all the taste from the coffee, thus confirming that it's an American thing.)

(To be honest, the concept strikes me as a bit absurd; Scandinavians consume more coffee than anyone else, why would we spend effort on making it taste less?)

Using fish skins ("klarskinn") used to be a thing, though, back in the early 20th century when coffee was of questionable quality and expensive and people reheated old coffee and reused old grounds to save money; adding dried fish skins made it look fresh again. I've never seen anyone do it in modern times.

PS. While we're on this topic, here's the story of when a Swedish king ran a scientific experiment to test his hypothesis that coffee was poisonous, back in the 18th century; unfortunately the physicians involved died before the test subjects, and the king himself was assassinated a few years later.

(The authenticity of the story has been questioned.)
posted by effbot at 5:54 PM on January 31, 2017 [3 favorites]


I thought I saw that on here once, but I can't find it now.

It's in the post!

Until today I only knew egg(white)-filtering as part of a technique of making consommé. Could have easily hopped to Viet Nam from France that way.
posted by rhizome at 6:06 PM on January 31, 2017


Didn't Balzac basically die of coffee? I heard that once.
posted by rhizome at 6:07 PM on January 31, 2017 [1 favorite]


We could all be so lucky.
posted by Going To Maine at 7:29 PM on January 31, 2017


Yeah, I learned to put an egg in campfire coffee from Idaho cowboys.
But you still have to filter the grounds through your teeth.


I thought that's what the mustache is for! [sam_elliott.jpg]
posted by BinGregory at 7:31 PM on January 31, 2017 [2 favorites]


of which the Malays have a poem, ahem:
“Daripada cincin eloklah rantai/
Rantai dibuat penghias diri

Daripada licin elok bermisai/
Misainya dapat menapis kopi”
Before a ring better a necklace /
A necklace graces the entire body

Better mustached than cleanshaven/
With a mustache you can strain your coffee
posted by BinGregory at 7:34 PM on January 31, 2017 [1 favorite]


Eggs? BAH!

Who else to turn to for the finest coffee than a professional golfer!
Fill to the top with coarse ground Ethiopian Yirgacheffe coffee, then add water heated to 200 degrees. Stir five or six times, wait three minutes and then plunge it. (If you wait too long the beans get bitter.) Phil then pours it into a Bodum pot and adds Califa Farms almond milk, a dash of cinnamon, a few Yiragacheffe Cacao nibs (80%) and a little medium-chain triglyceride (MCT) oil, which is extracted from coconuts. With a hand electric blender he mixes it until slightly frothy and that's it.
posted by Joseph Gurl at 7:47 PM on January 31, 2017


It's in the post!

Reading the reading links didn't seem like it, whereas the "nav" link seems close to what I remember. I got a very different impression of how it worked from whatever "my grampa used to..." comment I half-remembered.

My poor memory was giving me a different picture in my head, of a basically coffee omelette looking thing chillin' at the bottom of a cup.
posted by Mister Moofoo at 1:33 AM on February 1, 2017 [1 favorite]


Adding my moka pot to my bug-out bag as I type.
posted by mushhushshu at 2:40 AM on February 1, 2017


I'm wondering if there are any health benefits from the egg. Do you gain any calcium from the shell, or protein from the egg itself? Or does that disappear into the grounds and get discarded?
posted by jhope71 at 8:18 AM on February 1, 2017


* ahem *

That's a northern Vietnamese coffee style.

Pales in comparison with adding condensed milk to your coffee, the way my momma makes. It's divine.
posted by numaner at 8:27 AM on February 1, 2017 [3 favorites]


Man I just put an egg in my coffee during the weekly meeting and nobody even noticed.
posted by Going To Maine at 10:39 AM on February 1, 2017


Can't wait to try this. I often use an egg yolk to make my soups nice and velvety. I totally see how this can work. Probably want to temper the egg though.
posted by xammerboy at 6:26 PM on February 1, 2017


My Norwegian grandmother always made egg coffee. She stirred the coffee and egg together in a bowl and dumped the mix directly into the pot, the blue enamel kind with white spots. After that she poured in the water and boiled it all. The coffee was done when the grounds had sunk to the bottom of the pot. I asked one time "why the egg" and she said it kept the grounds from getting into the cup. She was right about that, plus her coffee was the strongest I've ever had. I was a punk ass twenty something at the time and told her that her coffee was so strong it needed a prescription. She didn't get my humor. Sorry, I don't remember if she used the whole egg or just the egg white.
posted by chance at 5:41 AM on February 2, 2017 [1 favorite]


« Older Worry and its role in our personal stories   |   #BadBeti Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments