How To Make Coffee On The Stove

Almost all people will rely on one of two ways for getting their fresh cup of coffee first thing in the morning: through a coffee maker or through ready-made instant coffee. The lucky few are fortunate enough to have all the equipment needed to set up a small coffee shop at home. But what happens when you don’t have the tools or the coffee maker is no longer working? Learning how to make coffee on the stove will be the saviour in these instances.

Here’s what you need to make coffee on the stove: 

1. Stove – Gas, induction, or electric will suffice
2. Saucepan or Kettle – Deep enough to accommodate both coffee grounds and water
3. Coffee grounds – Standard drip grind or any ground coffee
4. Filter or Strainer – To prevent the grounds from pouring into the mug

Here is how to make coffee on the stove:

• Boil the water and coffee grounds in the saucepan or kettle. 
• Stir the coffee and remove it from the heat and let it rest. 
• Strain the coffee grounds out and pour the coffee into your mug. 

The most straightforward way to make coffee on the stove is to use a saucepan or pot, a stove, and then coffee of your choice. This method is mostly known as “Cowboy” or “Campfire” coffee since this is how coffee is usually made outdoors. 

However, there are more creative ways for you to make coffee on the stove that not only gets you your cup of coffee, but also making sure that you’re getting the best-tasting one possible. 

How To Make Cowboy Coffee 

Probably the most common method to brew coffee on your stovetop, the Cowboy Method is one of the quickest ways to make coffee when you’re in a rush. 

This is also one of the most popular ways to prepare coffee when you’re outdoors. Some campers and hikers use this method to prepare coffee. 

For this, you need the following: 

1. Small pot or tea kettle
2. 8 to 10oz of water
3. Standard drip coffee grind (or any ground coffee you prefer)

How to Brew It

1. Heat the water on your stovetop. Bring it just about to a boil. 
2. Add 1 to 2 tablespoons of your ground coffee per 8 oz of water. Stir enough to circulate the coffee grounds. You can also use instant coffee mixes if you want. 
3. Remove the mixture from the heat and let it rest for about 2 to 3 minutes. 
4. Pour the coffee into your mug slowly. You don’t want the coffee grounds to pour out as well. Use a strainer or filter to prevent the coffee grounds from getting into your cup. 

Small notes here. You can use any pot or kettle for this preparation. If you’re going camping, you can use the outdoor cooking pots. 

How To Make Stovetop Espresso With A Moka Pot

For those who want a cup of espresso without using an espresso machine, you can use a Moka Pot. This is an Italian-designed pot that’s made up of three parts and uses steam pressure to brew coffee. 

The Moka Pot has three chambers; the middle chamber for the coffee grounds, the bottom chamber for water, and the top chamber for the finished product. 

For this you’ll need the following: 

1. Standard drip grind coffee
2. 8 to 10oz of water
3. Moka Pot

How to Brew It

1. Preheat the water in a separate kettle or pot. Once that’s done, fill the bottom chamber with water, up until the valve ring. 
2. Fill the coffee basket with your standard grind coffee. Make sure that there are no loose coffee grounds on the top of the basket that prevents it from completely sealing. 
3. Screw the top and bottom of the Moka Pot. Make sure they are sealed tight enough that it doesn’t release the steam pressure. 
4. Place the Moka Pot on top of the stove over moderate heat with the top lid open. Once it begins to form, coffee will start to percolate into the top chamber. 
5. The longer it steams, the color of the steam also changes. Wait for the steam to reach a yellow honey color then remove the pot from the heat. 
6. Wrap the pot with a cold towel or run it through cold tap water. This is to make sure that the coffee doesn’t have any metallic taste. 
7. Pour the contents of the top chamber into a cup or a carafe. 

If the espresso flavor is too strong, dilute it with water. Again, the strength of the flavor could also mean that you brewed it for too long. Try to experiment with varying brew times and find the best flavor for you. 

How To Make Keurig-Style Coffee With A Hanky and Your Stove 

Don’t have a Keurig but curious to know how it tastes like? Well, this process churns out a better coffee than any Keurig machine and it’s less expensive too! 

Now, this process takes some practice and patience, but if you get it right, you won’t make coffee any other way. 

Here’s what you’ll need:

1. Coffee grounds
2. Hot water
3. Binder paper clips or clothespins
4. Clean hanky or other clean, linen or cotton cloth (cheesecloth works)
5. Mug or mason jar

How to Brew It

1. Place hanky across the top of the mug or mason jar, then press gently in the center to make a pouch to hold your coffee grounds.
2. Secure the cloth in place with the clips or clothespins. 
3. Scoop a single cup portion of coffee grounds into the pouch. 
4. Pour a small amount of hot water over the grounds. Don’t pour it all at once. Let the coffee grounds soak for at least 30 seconds. 
5. Pour the rest of the water. Check on the clips to make sure that they don’t start to slip. 
6. Remove the hanky and the grounds, and add sugar or cream to your coffee. 

How To Make French Press Without The French Press

Another popular way of making coffee is the French Press method, but you’d need a French Press coffee maker to do this. But this article is all about making coffee on the stovetop, and we’ll show you how to get French Press coffee without the French Press. 

You’ll Need:

1. Coffee grounds, preferably coarse-ground
2. Hot Water
3. Tablespoon
4. Deep bowl
5. Mug

How to Brew It

1. Put one tablespoon of coffee grounds per 8.oz cup into a bowl
2. Pour in boiling water in small amounts. Allow the grounds to be fully saturated by the water. 
3. Add the remaining water into the grounds and let it stand for four minutes. 
4. Once the grounds have settled, use your tablespoon to press the grounds to the bottom of the bowl. 
5. Pour the coffee into the mug slowly, still using your spoon to keep the pressed grounds from falling. You can also use a filter or strainer as well. 
6. Enjoy your cup of French Press coffee!

How To Make Stovetop Coffee Like The Swedish

Swedish people don’t just prepare the best milk chocolate; they also know how to tinker around with coffee. If you want to know how to make coffee like the Swedish, you’ll need one recipe to keep it interesting: an egg. 

Here’s what you need: 

1. Fresh eggs
2. Coarsely ground coffee
3. Room-temp water
4. Ice-cold water
5. Saucepan
6. Cup or small bowl
7. Filters, like a hanky or cheesecloth

How to Brew It

1. Boil room-temp water in a saucepan or a small kettle. 
2. While the water is boiling, crack the egg into a cup and mix it with coffee grounds. Stir together. 
3. Add the coffee-egg mixture into the pot of boiling water, and boil the mix for 3 to 5 minutes. 
4. When the mixture starts to clump into big chunks and starts to rise to the top, splash it with the cold water (1-cup). Let it sit for a minute to let the chunks and grounds settle at the bottom. 
5. Pour the coffee out through a filter or hanky to prevent the clumped mixture and ground coffee from getting into the cup. 

You can now enjoy this bizarre cup of coffee like the Swedish. 

How To Make Turkish Coffee

Just like the Swedish, the Turkish also have a unique way of preparing coffee. This time, instead of eggs, you’re using a material called Ibrik. 

Here’s what you’ll need:

1. An Ibrik (or Briki, Toorka, or Cezve). This is a small metal pot that is thinner at the neck than the base and has a long handle. 
2. Water and sugar
3. Turkish grind coffee (which is a fine grind coffee). You’ll find these in speciality shops, roasters, and some of the mainstream retailers. 

How to brew it

1. Add sugar to the ibrik, around 2 teaspoons per 8-oz of coffee
2. Fill the ibrik with water up until the neck. Leave enough room for the frothing. 
3. Add coffee to the water, but don’t stir the coffee just yet. Allow the coffee grounds to float on top of the water. Use one to two teaspoons of coffee per 8oz serving. 
4. Heat the ibrik with the coffee-sugar mixture on low setting. The coffee will start to foam as the water starts to boil.
5. Remove the ibrik from the heat source once the foaming reaches the top. Let it settle back down and then stir the mixture. 
6. Repeat this process three more times by putting it back on the heat and letting it froth up to the top of the ibrik. 
7. Pour the coffee into what’s known as demitasse cups or small cups. Let it rest for 2 minutes before you drink it. 

Important note: leave the last bit of the coffee ground or sludge in the ibrik. Don’t drink the sludge too as this can be very bitter. Turkish coffee is also best paired with a glass of water to cleanse the palate since it’s a lot bitter and the aftertaste is strong. 

How To Make Stovetop Percolator Coffee?

Did you know that you can make your own cup of percolated coffee without using a percolator? Well, most people prefer to drink percolated coffee over drip brews and any other pour-over system. 

Much like the Cowboy method, this is a traditional way of preparing coffee over the stovetop. 

The stovetop percolator has three parts: a bottom chamber for the water, a funnel filter with a basket for the coffee grounds, and an upper chamber with a lid on top. 

Think of the percolator as a Moka Pot, but it’s intended for producing coffee, and not espresso. 

Here’s what you’ll need: 

1. A clean Stovetop percolator
2. Fresh coarse coffee grounds (packed or home-ground)
3. Clean water (filtered or distilled)

How to Brew It

1. Pour water into the bottom chamber of the percolator. Measure the amount of water-based on the number of cups you want to make. You don’t want to produce a watery coffee or a coffee that’s too bitter. 
2. Place the funnel filter on top of the bottom chamber. 
3. Add 1 tablespoon of coffee grounds for every 8oz cup of water. Press the surface of the basket with a spoon but don’t tamp it like how you would with an espresso preparation.
4. Place the upper chamber on top and close the percolator. 
5. Using a medium-heated hotplate, place the percolator on top of it. Heat the water slowly and adjust the water during the brew so the water doesn’t boil. You just want the water to be hot, not boiled. 
6. As the coffee brews, the water should start to sputter and make bubbles in intervals. If it bubbles too fast then the water is getting too hot too fast. Turn down the heat if it does this. 
7. Turn off the stove and let it sputter for a moment. Percolating it for about 10 minutes gets you a stronger and richer flavor. A shorter percolating time means a mild coffee strength. 
8. Remove the percolator from the stove and remove the coffee grounds first by opening the percolator. Pour it into cups and enjoy. 

The Coffee Bag Method

If you just want to get your fresh cup of coffee without the fancy methods, you can use the coffee bag method. Think of it as a small teabag but contains your coffee grounds. This is how the French made their coffee during the 18^th century. 

Here’s what you’ll need: 

1. Coffee grounds
2. Hot Water
3. Coffee filter
4. String (any string will do as long as it’s not wax-coated)
5. Mug

How to Brew It

1. Pour a single serving into the coffee filter
2. Close the filter tightly, so you’ll have a pouch filled with coffee grounds
3. Use the length of the string to close the filter and leave some of the string to hang outside the cup, just like a teabag. 
4. Heat the water using any method such as a kettle or pot
5. Place the coffee filter bag into the mug. 
6. Slowly pour the hot water into the mug like you would with a cup of tea. Don’t overfill your cup. 
7. Let the coffee steep for about 4 minutes. Increasing the time it steeps gives you a stronger brew. 
8. Remove the filter and throw it away. 

The Strainer Method

No filters and no coffee makers? Just use a strainer to make a fresh cup of coffee with your coffee grounds. 

But don’t use any kind of strainer. Use a strainer with the very small holes or something similar to a double-layer mesh strainer so the coffee grounds don’t go into the cup. 

Here’s what you’ll need: 

1. Coffee grounds
2. Water
3. Kettle or saucepan
4. Mesh strainer (a small, conical one is ideal)
5. Mug

How to Brew It

1. Pour water into the kettle or saucepan
2. Add coffee grounds into the kettle or saucepan and stir
3. Bring the water to a boil and let it boil for 2 minutes
4. Remove the saucepan from the heat
5. Hold the mesh strainer above your mug and pour the coffee through it. 

Unlike the saucepan method, you don’t need to wait for your coffee grounds to settle because you’re using a strainer to filter out the coffee beans.

The Microwave Method

The microwave method is the quickest and easiest way to prepare coffee if you don’t want to do any of the fancy stuff above. I chalked this over the stovetop method because the microwave simply just replaces the stove as the heat source. 

You’ll Need:

1. Coffee grounds
2. Water
3. Microwave
4. Mug

How to Brew It

1. Fill your mug with water and pop it in the microwave for 2 minutes. It should be hot, but not boiling. 
2. Add in a tablespoon of coffee grounds and allow the mug to sit for about 4 minutes so the grounds can settle at the bottom. 

And that’s done. The microwaving method is the quickest way to prepare coffee if you’re in a rush or if you just a quick caffeine fix. 

Conclusion

Stovetop coffee is more than just putting coffee grounds inside a kettle. We explored the different ways of preparing stovetop coffee, where we even got two popular ways to make coffee from Turkey and Sweden. 

Whenever your coffee maker is on the fritz, at least now you’ll have the ability to prepare coffee in more ways than one. 

Personally, I can’t wait to try the Swedish method because I am curious to know how the egg and coffee complement one another.