Anna's Scandinavian Egg Coffee Recipe

Anna is famous for her old-style egg coffee. It is a long standing Scandinavian-American tradition; the coffee is known for being light and free of bitterness or acidity. Here's how to make it.

Ingredients:

9 C. boiling water

1 1/4 C. cold water

3/4 C. freshly ground coffee, medium-coarse grind

1 large egg

Preparation:
Bring 9 cups of water to a rapid boil in a saucepan or enamel coffee pot.

Meanwhile, stir together ground coffee, 1/4 cup water, and 1 egg (Note: diehard egg coffee lovers use the crushed eggshell as well, but it works fine to leave this out). The mixture will look like wet potting soil.

When water is boiling, carefully pour in the egg-coffee mixture, turning down the heat if necessary to prevent it from boiling over. Boil the coffee for 3 minutes. (Note: You’ll see that the coffee grounds will gradually bind together into a single mass that floats at the top of the pot).

After 3 minutes of boiling, immediately remove pot from heat and pour in 1 cup cold water. Let the coffee settle for 10 minutes; the “lump” of grounds will settle to the bottom of the pot.

Pour through a fine-meshed sieve or strainer into cups and serve. The flavor of the coffee grows stronger, without becoming bitter, the longer that it simmers.

Yield: 10 cups coffee.