Coffee Lythe Imperial Percolator
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the percolator
Pour boiling water into the percolator and let the metal heat.
Place coffee powder in the receptacle between the perforated bottoms of the upper and lower cylinders.
Discard the hot water from the pot.
Brew
Add enough boiling water to the upper cylinder to completely saturate the coffee powder (about ½ cup).
After 2 minutes, fill the cylinder with boiling water.
Place the percolator by the fire or over a hot‑water dish.
Once the coffee has filtered through, add more water to achieve the desired quantity.
Finish
Pour the filtered coffee into a small vessel.
Bring it to a boil.
Filter it a second time.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Coffee powder
- Provides the flavour and body of the brew as water passes through it.
- Boiling water
- Extracts flavour from the coffee grounds and carries it into the brewed liquid.
The step that matters
Saturating the coffee powder before the wait. Wetting all the grounds evenly at the start lets them swell and begin extracting, so the later flow of water pulls flavour through the whole bed rather than channelling through dry spots.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
You might also like
Vegetable Soup350 recipes
Raspberry Vinegar214 recipes
Brown Coffee with Egg175 recipes
Blackberry Cordial129 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.