Saturday, November 3, 2007

Kahvi - Finnish Egg Cleared Coffee

A couple of weeks ago, my mother came over for dinner and we started talking about coffee. As an adult, I have become a coffee addict - must be my Finnish heritage coming through! She mentioned that my grandmother, for special occasions, would add an egg to the mix when making coffee. G. and I both thought that sounded strange and even a bit disgusting. Imagine my surprise, when I was looking through my newly acquired copy of "The Finnish Cookbook" and discovered a recipe for Kahvi or Finnish Egg-Cleared Coffee. Apparently, my grandmother was following a Finnish tradition, but we didn't know it.

Now, I will say that I still think that adding an egg to coffee seems a bit odd and I am not going to try it out myself! However, here is the recipe, courtesy of Beatrice Ojakangas. She writes, "The egg settles and clears the coffee."

Kahvi -- Finnish Egg-Cleared Coffee

8 cups cold water
1 egg, well washed
16 slightly rounded teaspoons coffee, plus one for the pot

Bring the cold water to a boil in a coffeepot or saucepan. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, crush the egg (shell and all) into the dry coffee grounds and mix thoroughly. When the water has come to a rolling boil, add the egg-coffee mixture and stir quickly. Let it come to the boiling point, and remove from the heat. Repeat this twice more. Then cover and let stand about 5 minutes so the grounds can settle. Makes 8 cups.

2 comments:

Catherine Yezak said...

I remember my grandmother doing this. Living in Michigan's upper peninsula, I thought this was just a "Yooper" thing. I should have known it was part of my heritage roots!

Anonymous said...

I was happy to find this recipe.This is the coffee my grandmother made, in the lower peninsula [g]. She gave me her copper coffee pot, but I forgot how to make it.I, too, thought the egg was weird, but it does seem to take the bitterness out.Looking forward to making it again. Thanks.