Anyone ever make coffee on the stove? If so, what's the best way to do it?
Old fashioned percolator? ?
Old fashioned percolator? ?
Perk coffee on stove?
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I would think you would want to put a percolator on an extra stone on top of your stones or use a trivet somehow. I would be concerned about staining your stone with coffee.
My experience (when the electricity has gone off) has been that it'll take a long time, but if you're in no hurry...
All things considered you would be much better off getting a French Press and just heating your water on the stove and pouring it over the coffee in the press. Making or heating your coffee on the stove will only give you nasty, burnt tar sludge.
I know there is something masculine about drinking burnt strong "cowboy" coffee but seriously - do you eat burnt up toast?
For the record coffee is best when brewed with 200 degree water - (just prior to boiling) so keep that in mind when heating the water for better tasting coffee. Also, if your coffee grounds are coming from a can you may as well brew them right on the stove with a dirty sock and boiling water because bitter is all you will get anyway.
I know there is something masculine about drinking burnt strong "cowboy" coffee but seriously - do you eat burnt up toast?
For the record coffee is best when brewed with 200 degree water - (just prior to boiling) so keep that in mind when heating the water for better tasting coffee. Also, if your coffee grounds are coming from a can you may as well brew them right on the stove with a dirty sock and boiling water because bitter is all you will get anyway.
toddnic
Minister of Fire
Perculated a lot of coffee over a camp fire with an "old style" coffee pot. I would think that it would work just as well over a hot woodstove. I see that you have a Progress Hybrid. Just lift up the middle stone on top and put your old style perculator on the 500 degree metal heating area. You will have coffee in a short while without staining the soapstone!
I perked a lot of coffee in an old aluminum camping-style percolator on my Morso 1410. Made fine tasting coffee and made the house smell great too. Never made a mess. Took about 30 to 45 minutes.
I was surprised to see a small percolator common in coffee loving Italy. We had one in one of our rooms and the coffee wasn't bad. It only tastes burnt if you leave it on the heat.
Is the coffee making on your stove out of necessity or for fun? The sideburner on your prropane BBQ makes fine coffee. We own one of those coleman stove top drip coffee makers that work great in the RV on the stove without electricity. 12 cups too!
The top of my Progress Hybrid does not get that hot, I have an insulated cooktop (because they were getting too hot and cracking), covered with Soapstone. So a trivet will not be needed. And no worries about staining the soapstone, the PH lets you flip it up to reveal the cooktop underneath it, which is where I would like to make coffee.
That's my concern, will it take too long. And if so, what would be the fastest way/method to do it: Perculator, drip type, just boil water and poor into press.... ? When power out, obviously the time isn't a big deal, ya gotta do what you gotta do. But I'm wondering if I can make this a normal thing to do, with power.
That's the plan (use cooktop). But my cooktop doesn't quite get that hot as it's insulated a bit to keep it from cracking/warping. So again I'm wondering the best way to try this?
Both necassity (no power or to save power), and "fun"/why not. I have no side burner on my propane BBQ, they take up too much space on my small deck. But to me, the point is I have a hot stove, why not use the heat and power of it to do more than just heat the house. Would be great to throw a few splits in, put a pot of coffee up, wait a few minutes and have fresh hot "wood fired" coffee while admiring my wood fired "show".
So the real question I'm asking is, what is the best/fastest way to do this, knowing we don't have a 500 deg. burner to do it on, more like 325 or 350 ?
I have a couple of old blue enamel percolators that I used for camping trips once upon a time (great on a coleman stove, or as mentioned on a bbq side burner too). I used to do coffee on the old woodstove with one of these sometimes, as we had no power then, and there was a perfect space on the front top corners of the small Drolet to sit the pot. I had a couple boil overs and it could be a bit messy but with a bit of playing around I got a routine down. I would sit the pot right on the stove top close to the flue - hottest spot - let the pot just start to reach a boil then slide the pot towards the outer corner of the stove. Once the fast perk started I'd move the pot onto couple of old small ceramic tiles on the other corner of the stove where it would pretty much just perk away without issue. I got to know the stove / coffee pot "sweet spots" and it worked pretty well.
I heat the water to a boil on the stove and then pour it through the coffee in a filter in my coffee maker. Unless the generator is running already.
WeldrDave
Feeling the Heat
I do it all the time and on my boat, no room for a Mr. Coffee or K-cup machine. I purchased my stainless perculator from Ace hardware store. Most home stores sell them. I personally believe the coffee is much better tasting. I believe the 9 cup one at the hardware store is $30 bucks, but it'll last forever. When the power goes out, I can make coffee on the wood stove too.
WeldrDave
Feeling the Heat
If the goal is to make good coffee, Bob and Brother Bart are right on the mark. You don't want to boil the coffee, which is what happens in a percolator. Removing the percolator from the heat quickly is a technique that can be effective, but the longer the coffee recirculates at boiling temperatures, the more bitter the coffee will be.
When I was in Italy, the home method of choice was a moka pot, which looks similar to a percolator but makes coffee very differently. Again, the key with a moka pot is
to not let the coffee boil. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moka_pot
I've used a moka pot frequently while camping. We don't get power outages very often, but if we did, I would have no qualms about using a moka pot on my woodstove.
I have a Zassenhaus knee grinder to make sure that I don't need to get my coffee from a can during power outages. Probably, the fastest way to make coffee on the stovetop is simply to boil water and then use the boiling water to make coffee with your method of choice. (french press, Chemex, melitta filter).
When I was in Italy, the home method of choice was a moka pot, which looks similar to a percolator but makes coffee very differently. Again, the key with a moka pot is
to not let the coffee boil. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moka_pot
I've used a moka pot frequently while camping. We don't get power outages very often, but if we did, I would have no qualms about using a moka pot on my woodstove.
I have a Zassenhaus knee grinder to make sure that I don't need to get my coffee from a can during power outages. Probably, the fastest way to make coffee on the stovetop is simply to boil water and then use the boiling water to make coffee with your method of choice. (french press, Chemex, melitta filter).
Depends on how you like to brew your coffee. Disclaimer: I don't like or drink coffee, but my wife does all day. When it's wood-stove season, we keep a teakettle on the stove all day long. Therefore, we always have hot water. [I drink a lot of tea, too.] My wife likes to make coffee with the filter-paper-in-funnel method, either one cup at a time or a large drip funnel if she has guests. She also has a French press for now and then. Boiling water on a wood stove is as fast as using our propane countertop burners. We haven't tried a percolator....
Nick Mystic
Minister of Fire
Just a reminder that you could end up breaking your glass in the stove door if any water were to spill on it when it is hot. I can recall reading past posts here at the forum where that has happened to people, so be cautious as you experiment with you water heating/coffee making.
yeah but I kinda like a little fuzz on my coffee.
I do have a 2-cup auto brew now that I'm no longer electricity challenged (and nobody else drinks coffee, so I don't have to dump any down the sink). I have a french press too. Also use the k-cups at work sometimes. But the best coffee that I ever sampled came from beat up old implements over an open fire somewhere out in the middle of nowhere. Several beers the night before might have something to do with that, but regardless, I'll take my grungy old percolator brew over a Starbucks any day.
yeah but I kinda like a little fuzz on my coffee.
I'll take my grungy old percolator brew over a Starbucks any day.
As a former professional coffee roaster and coffeeshop owner, I am no fan of Charbucks. People should drink what they like. A wood stove will supply
hot water.
Lately, the only coffee I make myself at home is in a little 1 cup Moka pot, as pictured. That thing makes the best coffee, hands down, period! Hadn't thought of that. The only down side to it is, you have to monitor it and remove it from the heat when finished. I kinda had in my mind, throwign a pot on there, and letting it do it's thing and coming back at my convenience (10 minutes or 30 minutes later...) and having a cup of jo. hmmmmmmm I'm going to have to try the moka pot on the stove first chance I get. I just don't know if it will be hot enough....
No glass on my door!
But the front does have glass, but it would be pretty hard to splill something on the cooktop and have it fill up the copoktop which is an inch below the sides of the top, and then go over the glass. But duly noted.
The Moka pot is what I was trying to remember that we used in Italy. It does make good coffee. So does the french press.
I'm suprised this has not been discussed, and perfected on here before! Don't you guys drink coffe?
I will have to remember that one.
A former roaster - former coffee shop owner or are you still in the business? You guys seem to be a dying breed. I'm sure I've seen that moka pot around based on the pics in your link, but otherwise clueless about it till now. I might have to give that a try one day - if they're not over the top expensive.
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