A lost skill, making coffee

For many decades our standard coffee maker has been a 4 cup electric  Farberware.

I used to use a stove top percolator all the time.  But it is a skill that I have lost. How do I tell when the coffee is done when making coffee on a stove?   I seem to remember timing the coffee from the first perk.

I've got a little percolator that goes on camping trips, and I use the eyeball method. When the liquid sloshing through the glass thingie on top looks like proper coffee, it's ready.

We bought the Farberware in the late 70s, so I am taking my memory pretty far back.  Camping wise I used instant or tossed the grounds into the water and filtered the coffee through cheesecloth.

What brought this on is that I stumbled across my stovetop perk during my basement cleaning exploits.

Phil Stevens wrote: When the liquid sloshing through the glass thingie on top looks like proper coffee, it's ready.

Internet suggests 7 - 10 min, while keeping an eye on the glass window thing.
Percolator intrigues me, I grew up with everyone in my family using coffee makers and only saw percolators at church events (where they were enormous and impressive!).

Hi Tereza,

The perk is our standard…mostly because the darned thing won’t die ( it is around 50 years old). And, it is the right size for my wife and me,  overall, drip just doesn’t taste right.  Now, I did try a Keurig we were gifted with stainless steel strainers to hold the coffee grounds.  The coffee tastes decent, but it uses more grounds than the perk.   Still, I can see it might have a place if I only wanted one cup.

I am not a fan of drip coffee maker coffee (tastes nasty), nor keurigs (like you say, great for one cup or for folks who need assistance, but i find it wasteful and also no space on my counters for another device).
my husband and daughter do pour-over every day for themselves (we have big and small fabric filters for a whole pot or just a cup) but I have gotten attached to my tiny moka pot when I want a cup (maybe once a week, I'm more of a tea person) or make cold brew (in the fridge, pour it through a strainer like tea).

I agree with Phil, I just wait until the coffee looks right in the glass thingy.  Usually only use perk when camping or if power is out.

I am currently in Costa Rica for a couple weeks and the coffee here is wonderful...  Local grown and roasted.

Where I am staying only has a drip coffee maker and it is "ok" but I prefer my french press.

I have been trying coffee at a variety of coffee shops and must say it will be hard to come back to Montana and my coffee.   lol

I am going to try roasting my own coffee when I get home.

I have used my percolator every day for many years. It doesn't have the glass bubble indicator. When the house smells like coffee it's done. Granted, it's a small house.

I perc mine for 8 minutes, but I've also developed a high tolerance for bad coffee.

I have two stove top purculators. A 8 cup which is my first one. No glass part in the lid. 2nd is a 12 cup with glass part in lid. I originally bought them for camping. But I've used both during outages as well. Love them both.

I agree with poster’s saying 8 minutes after water starts to perk.

Make sure it starts and will keep perking then turn burner to low so it’s not boiling out.

A perfect perk is when water/coffee is a steady bubble.

Another Farberware fan here, the electric percolator.

I gut them of all the aluminum parts (Alzheimer's risk) and proceed to make coffee cowboy style...although I don't strain it through an old sock as tradition might dictate.

Cowboy style = fill it with water, add grounds, plug it in, setting a wind up timer for the amount of time discovered in what I'll explain Next.

My Dad worked for the folks who invented the percolator, Landers, Frary and Clark, the Universal was its brand name.

He told me about the great amount of testing that went into figuring out when the coffee was done, but not overdone.

The magic number they turned up was right around 150 degrees F.

Slight variations either side of that produced different tastes but 150 was right in the middle of what was acceptable. Much over that and bitterness begins.

I timed my pot to find out it hit 150 in exactly 10 minutes, hence the wind up timer to track it.

The grounds will be floating on the top, so mix them in and wait a few minutes, or, go get the strainer if you're in a hurry. It's tastier if you wait.

Hi D,

Welcome to Permies.

To help sink the grounds in cowboy coffee faster just drop an ice cube or two into it after brewing.

I've used a stainless steel small percolator since a time when the electric went off, and I had this pot because of prepping. Lehmans has them in several sizes. It had a plastic bubble top but I bought a glass one online. So now I'm all stainless and glass. I put water in the pot on a high burner. Put coffee in the basket and set it aside until the water starts boiling. Then I lower the burner to medium and set the basket in.  It will start percolating immediately. (If you put the basket in cold water and leave it on high, it will boil over if you don't turn it down fast enough, and it will seem like waiting forever for it to boil. This way you just go about your other tasks and when you see it's boiling, stick the basket in.) I don't really time it. With the bubble top you can see that it's coffee. Some say you should put a paper filter in to keep out the oils.  Others say the oils are good, so who you gonna believe?  I just use the stainless filter. I like dark roast and drink it black.