Having enjoyed a wonderful Turkish coffee in a Turkish restaurant in London I decided to make some myself. I bought the fine ground coffee and a cezve I made what turned out to be an unappetising mud! What’s the secret of making Turkish Coffee?
Pour it in your cup(s) while it’s hot and let it rest after making. No milk or sugar added, because it means stirring and the leftover grounds won’t deposit to the bottom of the cup. Or add the sugar along with the coffee before brewing.
As for brewing, it’s customary to bring it close to boiling until it foams, pour some foam into cups, then boil it again.
That could be the problem, I mixed sugar afterwards and ended up with a mud of suspended grounds that would not settle.
You could also let grounds settle in the cezve and just be careful when pouring. Then you can add milk if you want. But that’s not the turkish way, it’s the east european way.
I’m going to be 100% honest… I’ve NEVER made it AND… I don’t drink coffee. :)
That being said, I love LEARNING, and I have made coffee for my wife using a moka pot which looks maybe a little similar?
Reading up on this:
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You need REALLY finely ground coffee, almost a powder.
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Use COLD filtered water.
For whatever coffee cup you are serving in, you want 1 and 1/2 of that in water. Use your serving cups to measure the water.
1 heaping tablespoon of coffee per cup, mixed with sugar if you want it.
Put the coffee, sugar, and water in the cezve, boil it over medium heat. 3-4 minutes.
As it starts to boil, a foam will rise to the top, before it boils over, take it off the heat and spoon the foam into the serving cup.
Return the cezve to heat and bring it to a boil again, when the liquid reaches the top, pour 1/2 the coffee into the serving cup, over the foam.
Return it to heat and bring it to a boil a THIRD TIME for 10-15 seconds, then fill the serving cups to the rim.
If you got mud, I’m guessing one of a couple of things:
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Your coffee to water ratio was off.
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You didn’t use coffee finely ground enough.
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You didn’t boil it multiple times.
There’s an alternate technique of controlling the heat with a pit of sand. You put the sand over the fire, then bury the cezve in the sand until the coffee boils.
Neat video here:
Notice it’s the same technique, take the foam off first, return to boil, 1/2 the coffee, return to boil, all of the coffee.
Recipe here:
https://foolproofliving.com/how-to-make-turkish-coffee/
For moka pot coffee, it’s a little more foolproof. You need a finer grind than “normal” coffee, but NOT as fine as an espresso grind.
The store bought Bustelo brand (yellow pack) is a perfect grind.
Like with the Turkish coffee, you fill the bottom water reservoir with COLD filtered water.
Fill the coffee filter with coffee, but don’t pack it tight.
Screw the moka pot together and heat it over medium heat until it boils, in THIS case, it’s going to boil over INSIDE the pot and that’s OK, you WANT it to do that.
When it starts gurgling and spitting at you, run the bottom of the pot under a cold faucet to stop the brewing process.
So same water, same temperature, not as fine a grind, and the grounds are retained in the coffee pot.
Recipe:
https://wolfewithane.com/secrets-of-the-moka-pot
Video:
+1 for moka pots, that’s what I make my usual morning coffee in. It’s really consistent. Though I don’t do the cold water thing, I let it boil through and remove from heat for a few seconds when the gurgling has slowed before pouring. I don’t really struggle with grinding my own coffee,
It’s up to personal preference. The cold water will stop the boiling early, leaving you with just the stronger stuff that comes out first, so more like espresso. Letting it boil through will have weaker coffee coming out towards the end and the final product is a little more like an americano. Supposedly that’s where the bitterness comes from too, so maybe I just don’t mind the bitterness.
If you want to get fun with a moka pot, and especially if you like sugar but no cream, a Cuban espresso is really good. Essentially you wait for it to just start boiling over and pour out whatever comes out in the first couple seconds. You want the thick, strong stuff. Then return the moka pot to heat for the rest of it to boil and whip sugar with a spoon into the strong coffee you separated. You’ll get a sugar coffee foam that smells like coffee ice cream, then pour the rest of the moka pot over it. Yum.
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Mmmh hot sand!
