If you are matter to in clarifying your cowboy chocolate a bit, I recommend giving the shell method a judge. Start with my cowboy coffee recipe and just add one or two crushed shell.
Recipes for norwegian egg coffee take this concept in a different direction and include a unharmed egg minus the blast. As I was reading about norwegian egg coffee, I came across claims of the proteins in an egg constipate with some of the acerb and bitter compounds contained in coffee and basically removing them. I was curious. even though I know that a bang-up coffee, brewed properly should not be astringent or bitter ( or at least the bitterness should be balanced with the odoriferous and acidic flavors ), the think of throwing an entire testis into the mix was excessively matter to to pass up. conventional wisdom says that adding an egg to your coffee bean would not be an improvement but as they say, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. The only thing to do was to get a few eggs and try it out .
The History of Norwegian Egg Coffee
According to my research, norwegian ( or Scandinavian ) Egg Coffee has its roots in the american Midwest. Although the demand lineage is ill-defined, norwegian Egg Coffee has impregnable ties to Lutheran church gatherings by Scandinavian-Americans. I besides found an Egg Coffee recipe ( and a cold brew recipe ) in the 1918 Fannie Farmer Cookbook ( Check out the recipe here ). I have to admit, the more I read about this practice, the more doubting I became. Meister from unplayful Eats dubbed the practice “ church basement coffee ” and reported it to be like “ a big, overemotional kiss from your chain-smoke Aunt Sylvia. ” There is besides a problem of scale. Most recipe list the coffee bean dose as a cup of medium to coarse ground chocolate. That is a bunch of chocolate ( over 150 grams ). Committing over 1/3 impound of amaze coffee to a half-cocked experiment seems barbarous, but to use an inferior chocolate I disliked seems like laying up and not giving egg coffee bean a bonny handshake .
The Coffee Brewing Experiments
After looking at a few recipes and sorting through some articles about the subject, I came up with a two egg coffee experiments ( basically taste tests ) to try. even though I cringe at the think of boiling coffee for three minutes, I decided to stick with the suggestions of about all the recipes and boil the coffee. I besides decided it was not actually practical to compare with a percolator brew of chocolate. I supposed that comparing the testis coffee method acting to a french press of the lapp coffee bean would be a fair assessment of its capabilities .
My Norwegian Egg Coffee Recipe
- 600 grams boiling water
- 50 grams cold water
- 25 grams of coffee (Note: I changed the ratio to 1:18 for my second experiment)
- 1 egg beaten mixed with ¼ cup of water
- Throughly mix the egg mixture with the coffee grounds and add to boiling water.
- Boil your concoction for 3 minutes. At the 3 minute mark, take your coffee off of the heat and pour the 50 grams of cold water on top (like with cowboy coffee).
- Let sit for 10 minutes and enjoy. It is best to use a ladle and avoid stirring up the flocculated grounds.
Egg Coffee with “Bad” Coffee Compared to French Press with “Bad” Coffee
For my beginning taste experiment, I went with a pretty standard no-name “ Bad ” coffee. It was pre-ground and cold. I figured that if norwegian Egg Coffee was going to shine anywhere, here was a well place to start. ( This coffee was not enjoyable and could decidedly use a little aid. ) Using the recipe above, I made a batch of the egg coffee bean and a batch of french iron coffee for comparison. here is what I found out :
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- The egg coffee was lighter in color than the French pressed coffee. It is possible that the color difference was due to the difference in the brew ratios. The egg coffee was brewed at a 1:24 ratio and I brewed the French press at a 1:18.75 ratio.
- I preferred the egg coffee to the French press but neither was very good.
- The egg coffee was thinner and a little sweeter (the thinness could have been due to the dosage). As it cooled, the egg coffee pulled even further ahead of the French pressed coffee.
- Bad coffee is really bad at room temperature but the egg coffee was just a below average cup of coffee.
Don ’ triiodothyronine get me wrong, neither cup of coffee bean was full. I think it is possible that the reason that the egg coffee was preferred was more due to the dose than the brewing method. possibly I liked the egg coffee bean better because it was more water down and therefore didn ’ deoxythymidine monophosphate taste as bad. I did find it interesting that even though I boiled the coffee bean for 3 minutes, it did not have a coarse boiled or over-extracted preference .
Egg Coffee with Good Coffee versus a Good French Pressed Coffee
For the second taste experiment, I decided it would be best to keep the coffee bean dose the same for both brewing methods. I decided to go with a 1:18 proportion for both ( even though I will typically use 1:16.6 for my french press recipe ). I was primitively planning on removing the boiling step from the recipe, but I found the results from the first experiment intriguing enough to try the boiling again. here are my thoughts and results from the irregular test :
- I immediately could tell the difference between the two coffees. It was actually pretty surprising. The egg coffee was thin and one dimensional even though it had been boiled for 3 minutes and steeped for another 10. The French press (a nice Yirgacheffe from my friends over at FreshGround Roasting), was balanced, interesting and a good cup of coffee.
- I strongly preferred the French Press coffee.
- As the egg coffee cooled, it became very tea-like to me. It occurred to me that I could drink it (maybe over ice) and enjoy it. It was very light in body, had a hint of sweetness and really no bitterness.
When compared to the french press coffee bean, I was not a sports fan of the egg coffee. however, I think that without the manipulate coffee bean for comparison, I might have enjoyed the experimental coffee more. It was different enough from a traditional cup of coffee that I could be open to tinkering with the variables a little.
Conclusions on Norwegian Egg Coffee
norwegian egg coffee is an interest way to brew chocolate but I find it hard to pull identical many positives from the feel. It was enough of a harass and supernumerary steps that it will credibly be a long while until I fiddle with it again. Adding an egg to your coffee bean is not going to be a miracle step that turns bum coffee bean into a palette pleasing cup of Joe. Buying better coffee bean is placid the best way to dramatically improve your cup quality. good coffee is painstakingly developed by the roaster to bring a balance of sweet, acidity and resentment. The egg removed things from my full coffee that were region of that balance and left it feeling incomplete and bland.
While “ Church Basement Coffee ” may be a fun experiment or cool party antic, I actually can ’ t recommend it as a viable way to improve coffee at any level. Stick to the basics : Buy good chocolate that is fresh, grind it right before brew and choose a manual brewing method acting you enjoy. Fry the eggs and leave them to the english your good morning cup of coffee. Have you always experimented with eggs or other additives to the brew procedure ? Let me know what you think in the comments section below .