Percolated coffee

[duncan webster 1Participant @duncanwebster1]

I use a cafetiere, so have to buy ground coffee. Managed to buy some beans, and didn't notice until I'd opened the packet. I don't want to buy a grinder, so has anyone got any good ideas how to grind it up? Or can I just boil the beans in a pan?

[WatfordParticipant @watford]

Have you got a food processor? A good whirl in one of those should do the trick.

Perhaps a kind neighbour could help you out with a one off so as not to waste the beans.

Mike

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by Maurice on 24/03/2018 15:49:18:

Before you condemn Camp coffee, try some in a large glass of cold milk. It's delicious! First tried it at a Knoll Hill traction engine rally. It was baking hot that day, and a glass of that from a vendor was just what I needed.

Maurice

My dad used to drink Camp. It's mostly chicory. Made for people who don't find acorn coffee disgusting enough.

"Waiter, this coffee tastes like mud."

"Well it was ground this morning, sir."

[Mike PooleParticipant @mikepoole82104]

Posted by Russell Eberhardt on 24/03/2018 15:38:52:

I'm old enough to remember the Mods congragating outside the local coffee bar. There was a milk bar nearby as well! A bar is definitely the place to go for a coffee here in France.

I find the italian style coffee percolator makes the best tasting coffee but use a pump cafetière for my BIG bowl of morning coffee.

Russell

I visited Paris on a school trip and breakfast was a bowl of coffee plus croissant and baguette, this was around 1969 but the bowl of coffee seems to be absent in hotels these days, is the bowl of coffee a thing of the past or is it still alive and well in traditional France?

Mike

[Speedy Builder5Participant @speedybuilder5]

Still very much done at home. We have taken French Students for a week of intense English, and most prefer coffee / chocolate in a bowl and then everything dipped into it, croissants, toast,cerial fingers etc. At the end of the "drink" there is a deep sludge that they won't eat or drink.
BobH (SW France)

[Clive IndiaParticipant @cliveindia]

Posted by Neil Wyatt on 23/03/2018 22:35:00:

Posted by Andrew Johnston on 22/03/2018 16:10:17:

But you don't normally go to a "coffee shop" for coffee.

Genuinely confused? They may all be called 'bars' these days but when I were a young un' they were coffee shops…I bet you're one of those posh people who calls red sauce ketchup.

Neil

And thinks dinner is in the evening?

[richardandtracyParticipant @richardandtracy]

Dinner is too vague. Should be 'Luncheon' or 'Supper'.

As for coffee… Nothing is better than ground coffee. Vastly better. Much nicer altogether. Give me a mug of tea where the stuff is so stewed the spoon floats, despite the 1/16" thick tannin deposit coating it. Decent tea, that. Leave it stewing until you can grab the bag out with your fingers, then re-heat in a microwave if need be. It'll remove the varnish on an old bench, and do the job nicely when you swig it down.

Regards

Richard.

[CirclipParticipant @circlip]

"who can remember Camp coffee? I'm horrified to discover that you can still buy it."

Bet they've changed the label.

Regards Ian.

[MikeParticipant @mike89748]

Yes, they have. The Indian servant is no longer serving the Scottish officer. Rather, an Indian officer and a Scottish officer are enjoying coffee together, as equals.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by Clive India on 25/03/2018 10:26:09:

And thinks dinner is in the evening?

Heaven forbid!

[Mike PooleParticipant @mikepoole82104]

When is snap time then?

Mike

[MikeParticipant @mike89748]

………..or docky time, if you're a Fen Tiger?

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by Mike Poole on 25/03/2018 14:11:20:

When is snap time then?

Mike

Whenever the foreman isn't looking, in these parts

Neil

[the artfull-codgerParticipant @theartfull-codger]

When I was a lad[a long time ago] we used to go to my aunties She was german & she had an old cast iron coffee grinder bolted to a table & we used to love the smell [we didn't have anything like that] I never forgot it & when I got married 44 yrs ago I got hold of one,it's moved house a couple of times but I still use it & grind beans only as needed & have an italian percolator that goes on the rayburn stove, last yr I bought a milk frother & that makes it tast even better,the wife uses camp coffee for baking with & I also like that as well,not too keen on the powdered stuff.

[ChrisHParticipant @chrish]

The powered stuff, instant (so-called )coffee, is absolutely disgusting and should be banned.

My predecessor at one job I had was a Dutchman. The Dutch know a thing or two about good coffee. When the secretary made him a cup of instant (so-called) coffee he told her she should put it down the drain as that was all it was fit for, he was that impressed. Very true.

[larry PhelanParticipant @larryphelan54019]

Any good for removing rust ?

[Anonymous]

Posted by Neil Wyatt on 23/03/2018 22:35:00:

Posted by Andrew Johnston on 22/03/2018 16:10:17:

But you don't normally go to a "coffee shop" for coffee.

Genuinely confused? They may all be called 'bars' these days but when I were a young un' they were coffee shops…

I bet you're one of those posh people who calls red sauce ketchup.

Think Amsterdam, think "weed".

I never, ever use ketchup on food. On t'other hand HP brown sauce gets ladled on, and it has to be HP.

Andrew

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Posted by larry Phelan on 27/03/2018 10:49:16:

Any good for removing rust ?

Instant coffee hopeless on rust but it is good for developing photographs!

Instant coffee, I've read, is more popular in the UK than anywhere else as a side-effect of WW2. Because shipping prioritised food, petrol and military supplies it became almost impossible to get real coffee beans for about a decade. Instant was available for the large US forces based in the UK and also as a civilian luxury. The nation developed a taste for it, and also cheap 'ice-cream'. Spam remains highly popular in South Korea for similar wartime reasons.

During the war there was almost no coffee of any type available on the continent; most people drank vile concoctions based on chicory. After the war Instant had less opportunity of catching on because it and real coffee became available more or less at the same time.

Many other wartime substitutes were so horrible they've disappeared. Like 'Banana' made from parsnip and Amyl Acetate. Anyone got any other tasty WW2 recipes I can enjoy over a cup of well percolated Super-bargain Brand Value Instant Coffee?

Dave

[Mick B1Participant @mickb1]

Posted by SillyOldDuffer on 27/03/2018 12:13:06:

Posted by larry Phelan on 27/03/2018 10:49:16:

Any good for removing rust ?

…

During the war there was almost no coffee of any type available on the continent; most people drank vile concoctions based on chicory.

…

Dave

 

I think that varied. My grandparents in Berlin were able to get something that had at least some coffee in it throughout the war – though they said they boiled it up three times before chucking it away to get the most out of it.

I have a wall-mounted Spong grinder that I usually grind beans with. I can remember coming downstairs at the age of about 4, and thinking "Mmmm – coffee!" at the smell, so I've been addicted at least that long. I don't think any alleged risks linked to drinking coffee would've even occurred to my parents' generation.

Edited By Mick B1 on 27/03/2018 12:26:42

[MikeParticipant @mike89748]

I don't know about coffee removing rust, but tea can be a solvent for all sorts of crud. In the days when magazines used a lot of black and white photo prints, file prints often got filthy on their journeys through the print works. Our retouching artist would clean grease spots and muck by taking a swig of tea, then sucking a cotton bud for a few seconds before rubbing the affected area. He had a theory that the enzymes in spit and the tannin in tea did the trick. I don't know the chemistry of it all, but it certainly worked!

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by SillyOldDuffer on 27/03/2018 12:13:06:

Many other wartime substitutes were so horrible they've disappeared. Like 'Banana' made from parsnip and Amyl Acetate. Anyone got any other tasty WW2 recipes I can enjoy over a cup of well percolated Super-bargain Brand Value Instant Coffee?

I'm no war baby (baby boomer and proud!), but I have a soft spot for 'clinic orange' and rose-hip syrup.

Neil

[Rik ShawParticipant @rikshaw]

+ 1 for welfare orange – luvvly stuff. My gran always enjoyed a cup of milky Camp while listening to the Archers on her steam radio.

Rik

[MikeParticipant @mike89748]

I can remember free Ministry of Food orange when I was a small child in the 1940s. I loved it. We also got Ministry of Food cod liver oil, which I hated so much I used to spit it out. But my mum made sure I got it in another way – she mixed it with the chicken mash. The chickens loved it. Their feathers became glossy, and they laid big, orange-yolked eggs, which I loved to eat. When my little sister arrived in 1945, the chickens got a double dose, and were even more healthy.

[MeunierParticipant @meunier]

Posted by Neil Wyatt

I'm no war baby (baby boomer and proud!), but I have a soft spot for 'clinic orange' and rose-hip syrup.

Neil

I just qualify as war baby and also remember fondly the orange juice but unfortunately it was usually accompanied by cod liver oil in a similar glass bottle.
DaveD

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Posted by Mick B1 on 27/03/2018 12:25:44:

Posted by SillyOldDuffer on 27/03/2018 12:13:06:

Posted by larry Phelan on 27/03/2018 10:49:16:

Any good for removing rust ?

…

During the war there was almost no coffee of any type available on the continent; most people drank vile concoctions based on chicory.

…

Dave

I think that varied. My grandparents in Berlin were able to get something that had at least some coffee in it throughout the war – though they said they boiled it up three times before chucking it away to get the most out of it.

…

Edited By Mick B1 on 27/03/2018 12:26:42

Yes of course. I claim Germany to be the exception that proves the rule. Being able to asset strip their conquests kept many Germans insulated from serious shortages well into 1943 and beyond. Not so their neighbours. Be interesting to hear from a Dutchman or a Pole just how much coffee their relatives enjoyed during WW2.

If only there was some sort of mutually beneficial economic arrangement we could join to defuse the risk of another European War. Hmm…

Dave

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