This aromatic drink invigorates you in the morning and energizes you during the day. Amateurs and professionals use classic and homemade recipes to pamper themselves, family and friends. Gourmets value Turkish coffee with foam - an original way to enjoy its taste. To make it delicious, take suitable utensils, good coffee beans and water. Observe the proportions and follow the cooking rules.
Today we will teach you how to properly brew coffee in a Turk.
Still from the film “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels”
You can talk about making coffee for a long time and thoroughly, you can even learn it in order to bear the proud title of barista. But if you are quite happy with your current job, and want to drink good coffee at home in the morning, then we will try to explain the main rules as usual - simply and in detail.
Even if you don’t have an expensive and fancy coffee machine at home, you can always brew coffee in a Turk on the stove, and now we’ll tell you how to do it correctly.
Preparation
Three ingredients
To prepare a delicious drink at home, prepare a Turk, ground grains and water. Each component is important, so choose based on your own tastes and needs.
The heating element does not play a special role: Turkish coffee on a gas stove turns out no worse than on sand or an electric burner.
Choosing a cezve
The shape of the container for brewing coffee should be conical, with a noticeable expansion of the bottom. This type of Turk will not allow sediment to rise along with the foam, so the liquid will be obtained with a minimum amount of impurities.
The top of the cezve is also important - the thinner the neck, the denser the foam. Copper is considered the best material for Turks, as it has good thermal conductivity (401 W/(m K)).
Continuing the topic, we recommend that you read the article “How to choose a Turkish coffee pot.”
Selecting grains
The grains must be of high quality, with a shiny, even texture, free of foreign odors and impurities of sand and insects. It is better to buy them in specialized stores and in their entirety.
Grind the grains into powder. The finer the grind, the denser the cream and the richer the infusion. But not to the point of dust, otherwise there will be a lot of sediment in the finished coffee.
Interesting! How to brew instant coffee correctly
If it is not possible to grind the grains before cooking, buy fresh grinding, in small quantities. Stale powder loses its odor and fat content. If stored improperly, ground grains may go rancid.
The article “How to store coffee beans at home” will help you avoid this.
The variety depends on preference. Some choose elite Arabica, others choose strong Robusta, while others choose a mixed version.
What should the water be like?
High-quality water is the key to a pleasant, rich taste and aroma of the drink.
According to coffee connoisseurs, the best option is well or spring clear liquid.
Experts say that using filtered tap water you can get expressive coffee with dense foam. This is due to minerals (calcium, magnesium, potassium) and salts in the water.
In urban conditions, when preparing an invigorating drink, it is better to take soft bottled water.
Don't use distilled water. The coffee will be watery and weak.
What is the best coffee to brew in a Turkish coffee pot?
Ideally, you should do the entire process yourself. Or rather, almost all of it. The cultivation and harvesting of grains, so be it, can be entrusted to the Brazilians or Ethiopians, but the roasting and grinding can be taken care of. Because only freshly ground coffee will be Coffee with a capital letter.
But if you are not ready for such feats, then try to find a specialized place where they sell ground coffee by weight: it will be fresher and better quality than what you get from the supermarket. And one more thing - for brewing in a Turk, choose finely ground coffee.
Turk
To properly brew coffee in a Turkish coffee pot, you need to choose it wisely. The first thing people pay attention to is the material. Ideally, copper with good thermal conductivity and a safe coating on the inside. When it is placed on fire, the metal heats up evenly. Due to this, the grains extract the aromatic and flavor components as much as possible.
The second thing to consider when choosing a vessel is volume. If coffee is brewed daily for one person and rarely for a larger number, choose a 100-150 ml Turk. It will be completely filled, which means the heat will not escape and the drink will be rich. The bottom of the Turka should be 3-4 times wider than the neck. The narrower the top of the vessel, the more aromatic the drink will be.
A ceramic pot is considered a good option, but when cooking on gas it often cracks, so it is not durable in use. Glass, tin and silver Turks are more suitable for kitchen decor than practical use. So, how to brew delicious Turkish coffee?
Turk is no less important than coffee
A turk (also called a cezve) can be copper, ceramic or metal. There are other varieties, but we'll talk about these three.
Copper
Turku is called classical.
the metal one
to more experienced coffee makers, because without sufficient skill and dexterity, it is easy to burn coffee in it.
Copper Turk (300 ml)
716 rub.
Buy
Here's ceramics
more suitable for beginners: it heats evenly and retains heat for a long time, but be careful - it is very fragile and can crack due to temperature changes. Another important detail: a pot with a narrow neck will allow you to brew a more aromatic drink, while a pot with a wide neck will produce more foam.
Ceramic Turk (150 ml)
RUB 2,552.
Buy
The essential minimum for excellent taste
You can prepare an amazingly tasty drink on a regular stove. It is enough to stock up on high-quality Turkish tea, clean drinking water and understand the basic principles of brewing. There are countless recipes for making coffee at home. They indicate how much and what varieties to use, what spices and additional ingredients to add. However, you can begin creative experiments only after learning the basics, otherwise you can ruin the taste of even the most exquisite varieties.
We select a Turkish woman
Turk is a classic utensil that allows you to brew coffee correctly. For thousands of years, the aromatic drink was brewed in copper, achieving the maximum development of taste.
Ceramic and clay
Gourmets who enjoy the process of preparing the elixir of vigor prefer to use a clay pot. The porous structure of the clay is thoroughly saturated with the taste and aroma of coffee grounds, so for each type it is necessary to have a separate container for brewing.
Ceramic products are more versatile, but have a capricious disposition - they are “afraid” of mechanical damage and require careful adherence to temperature conditions.
It is difficult to use ceramics and clay - one awkward move and your beloved Turk breaks down. Don't feel the need to go fancy and just want to make decent coffee every day? Then use a traditional copper cezve.
Copper
Copper Turks are ideal for preparing coffee masterpieces at home. The metal heats up evenly, allowing you to prepare the drink quite carefully. Using a cezve is easy - brewing does not take much time.
When brewing coffee in a pot with a narrow neck, it is important not to miss the moment of boiling, otherwise the coffee will “run away”
Which Turk should you choose to brew a very tasty drink? There are two types of products - with a wide and narrow neck. The ideal development of the taste qualities of grain coffee allows you to achieve a cezve with a thin throat. However, it is quite difficult to cook in it, since the drink tends to instantly “run away” before boiling. It is much easier to brew coffee in a Turkish coffee pot with a wide top, but the taste will be less rich.
Before purchasing any type of cezve, you should make sure that the inner surface is high-quality coated with food-grade tin, which protects people from the harmful metal impurities characteristic of copper.
A small-sized Turk is considered ideal, allowing you to cook only one portion (from 75 to 100 ml). Are there many coffee drinkers in your family? It is more profitable to use large cezves. The final drink is less strong, but everyone can enjoy it at the same time.
Clean water – delicious coffee
You need to brew the drink wisely! Chlorinated or boiled water will not reveal the true taste of selected grains. Use purified or spring (bottled) water. Are you used to taking water from the tap? Then accept that even the most expensive varieties will not be able to make the right impression on you - bad water simply kills their taste.
Brief tips for brewing:
- “Boiling means killing,” coffee is brewed over low heat and removed from the stove a moment before the boil begins. A boiled drink loses 70% of its taste and aroma.
- “Don’t forget to warm it up,” - before preparing the elixir of vigor, the Turk needs to warm it up well.
- “Beans for once” - it is not customary to prepare grain coffee “for reserve”. The grains are ground on a one-time basis. How much do you need to grind? Depends on the desired volumes and expected strength.
- “Sugar is friends with coffee,” - those with a sweet tooth should remember that sugar is added along with ground beans. And then everything is poured with water and cooked over low heat.
- “Slow and tasty” - want to get a tasty drink? Use the lowest heat possible.
What can you add to coffee?
Ground coffee brewed in a Turk is good in itself, but you can always modernize it a little, not only with the help of special syrups, but also spices. Here are the top most suitable ones, which affect not only taste, but also health:
- cinnamon (cleanses the blood)
- black pepper (has a stimulating effect)
- vanilla (on the contrary, it calms)
- ginger (improves metabolism)
- cloves (good for preventing colds)
Step-by-step recipe for making Turkish coffee on the stove
And here, finally, is the recipe itself - we have selected the simplest one, which is the most convenient for learning the basics of making Turkish coffee step by step.
When you get good enough at it, be sure to try Turkish, Arabic, Viennese and other variations to find the One. Or invent and patent your own method - why not?
Step one: place the ingredients in the pot
Here and below are screenshots of the Combit video, youtube.com
If you want strong espresso, then take half a glass of water for three teaspoons of coffee, and a glass for an Americano. Make sure that there is no more water than up to the narrowest part of the Turk. Add sugar and spices first too.
Step two: brew coffee
Over low heat, without stirring, until the first bubbles appear.
Step three: remove the Turk from the heat
As soon as the coffee starts to boil, immediately remove it from the heat. This is the most insidious moment of preparation - if you miss it, the coffee will “run away”.
After removing the Turk, wait until the foam settles a little. To speed up this process, you can lightly tap the bottom of the Turk on the table.
Step four: continue cooking
As soon as the foam has settled, return it to the heat and wait until the foam rises again - this step must be repeated at least three times, but no more than five.
Step five: pour the coffee into a cup
Or rather, first put the foam into the cup, and then pour the coffee. Let it sit for a bit (literally a couple of minutes).
And then get your well-deserved portion of vigor and combat charge for the day!
Turkish coffee
Photo pixabay.com
Do you like it stronger? Then we suggest you take a look at how coffee is prepared in Turkey. The main secret here is to grind the coffee so finely that the beans practically turn into dust.
Ingredients :
- 100 ml water;
- 2 tsp. ground coffee;
- sugar and spices as desired.
Boil water and cool it to about 40 degrees. Place the bulk ingredients at the bottom of the cezve, fill them with water and mix lightly. Turn on the heat and, just like in the previous recipe, wait for the foam to rise.
Then remove it and place it in a warm cup. Repeat several times (no more than six), then turn off the heat and wait about three minutes. Now pour the contents of the cezve into a cup with foam. Ready!
Arabic coffee
Photo pixabay.com
If you somehow find yourself in some Arab country, keep in mind that the coffee traditions there are very unique. For example, first the drink is served to the oldest person present, it is indecent to ask for more, and if you are served coffee in a large mug, then it seems that you are not very welcome (this is done so that the unpleasant guest drinks everything at once and leaves quickly).
The grind for Arabic coffee is coarser than for Turkish coffee, and the presence of spices is a must.
Ingredients:
- 80 ml water;
- 2 tsp. medium grind coffee;
- 1/2 tsp. cardamom;
- sugar as desired.
Pour sugar into the cezve and lightly fry it until it turns light brown. Pour in cold water and turn on the heat again. As soon as the water boils, add coffee and cardamom into it and wait until the coffee boils again.
We remove the foam in the same way as in the previous recipe, the number of repetitions is three.
Coffee
It is a very common belief that dark roasted coffee performs well in cezve. In fact, experts recommend using light roast coffee, roasted under a filter (alternative), that is, group D. Properly prepared coffee will open up perfectly, you will catch all the floral, berry, fruit and other flavor notes that your grain is rich in. Turkish coffee also has special roasting requirements, but I will talk about this another time when I have more information.
What about dark roast?
I tried brewing dark roast Cuba Serano. The coffee turned out to have a pronounced cocoa bitterness (very similar to roasted cocoa beans or chocolate containing 99% cocoa). The bitterness appeared even brighter than in espresso. Sugar makes a wonderful flavor if you like to add it to your coffee.
