pflaming Posted October 13, 2013 Report Share Posted October 13, 2013 How many remember the coffee percolators? The ones with the dual glass bowls. Water was put in the bottom bowl and coffee grounds in the top. Then the water when it got hot went up into the top bowl and then it was drawn back down into the bottom bowl, or something like that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Coatney Posted October 13, 2013 Report Share Posted October 13, 2013 I have an old percolator that looks like the one pictured below. When traveling my wife and I frequently carry it with us so we can have good coffee in the hotel room. I am not old enough to recall any made of glass. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search Percolator A coffee percolator is a type of pot used to brew coffee by continually cycling the boiling or nearly-boiling brew through the grounds using gravity until the required strength is reached.[1] Coffee percolators once enjoyed great popularity but were supplanted in the early 1970s by automatic drip coffee makers. Percolators often expose the grounds to higher temperatures than other brewing methods, and may recirculate already brewed coffee through the beans. As a result, coffee brewed with a percolator is susceptible to over-extraction. Percolation may remove some of the volatile compounds in the beans, resulting in a pleasant aroma during brewing, but a less flavourful cup. However, percolator enthusiasts praise the percolator's hotter, more 'robust' coffee, and maintain that the potential pitfalls of this brewing method can be eliminated by careful control of the brewing process. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merle Coggins Posted October 13, 2013 Report Share Posted October 13, 2013 I also remember the ones like Don showed. In fact, I believe you can still buy them new. I don't recall any class coffee peculators. Merle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
squirebill Posted October 13, 2013 Report Share Posted October 13, 2013 I seem to remember my Mom had a clear glass percolator but the innards where metal like shown above. I think the glass was called "Pyrex" and could go from hot to cold without cracking. Also remember a "Corningware" percolator, again, glass with metal lid and innards, but the glass part was white, and you couldn't see the color of the coffee as it was brewing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grdpa's 50 Dodge Posted October 13, 2013 Report Share Posted October 13, 2013 Those were all modern perc'ers . What about the old style that went directly on the stove for heat. OR the campfire for the cowboys out there. BTW I dont drink the stuff,tastes like creek water stirred with a green stick. You can have my share Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pflaming Posted October 13, 2013 Author Report Share Posted October 13, 2013 This is the percolator I remember. The water would rise up into the top then as it cooled would be drawn back down by the vacuum pressure in the bottom bowl. As a kid it was fun to watch. Do and of yuse guys remember REAL CREAM, home made butter and horse feathers? How about real horses? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greg g Posted October 13, 2013 Report Share Posted October 13, 2013 (edited) We still have a small one 8 cup, in our camper. It is metal but has the glass insert in the top. Works on the stove top. The glass allowed you to see how dark (strong) the coffee is getting. The trick was to keep the water between 180 and 190 so that while it perked, it didn't boil. Takes about 10 minutes to brew a full pot, not that much longer than Mr.Coffee. They are still available, Farber ware Makes them and you can find enameled ones in places like Gander Mountain, and Bass Pro Shop. We also have a Drip style which is a two chamber deal that fits together, has the place for the coffee basket and brewed in the bottom, and the top chamber which you fill with hot water. It then drios through the coffee into the bottom chamber at a controlled rate. Edited October 13, 2013 by greg g Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Young Ed Posted October 13, 2013 Report Share Posted October 13, 2013 Those were all modern perc'ers . What about the old style that went directly on the stove for heat. OR the campfire for the cowboys out there. BTW I dont drink the stuff,tastes like creek water stirred with a green stick. You can have my share My parents bought a new one of those a few years ago for the cabin. Worked great before we had electricity. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grdpa's 50 Dodge Posted October 13, 2013 Report Share Posted October 13, 2013 Real cream?? we milked cows so always had the real McCoy. Homemade butter not so much cause the creamery we sold our cream too was famous for their butter so that was left for them. We traded cream for butter so to speak. Took our eggs in at same time on Saturday nights 'egg and daughter' night. Kids socalized up and down main street and older people and such in grocery stores, hardware stores and the 5 taverns up and down a 2 block Main Street. Most weeks we went to the show (movie picture show) and found the parents where ever they were after. Now those horse feathers,,,are they located close to the snipe traps at the store? Next to the board stretcher and the sky hooks?? As to horses,,I recall when real small the day the 'work' horses left the farm.,,whose job was taken over by the "M" tractor. We had a saddle horse when growing up because one of Dad's friends from town wanted his kids to ride so bought one and we kept it since we were a mere mile from town and they could come ride any time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pflaming Posted October 13, 2013 Author Report Share Posted October 13, 2013 As near as I can recall the horse feathers were by the hen's teeth! But then maybe not. I too remember when the horses suddenly disappeared. That was when we got our first new Model D John Deere. PEDA would not like to hear what happened to all those horses, but that was the reality of the time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
desoto1939 Posted October 13, 2013 Report Share Posted October 13, 2013 Acutally we had one of the old style with the glass knob at the top to see the color of the coffee. We used one a Hershey this year. We used is to make a good cup of coffee. The clear glass knob at the top was used so you can see the color of the coffee as it was perking. so you could make a weak or strong cup. As the water got hot it would be sent up the tube from the bottom to the top of the basket and then the hot water would then flow through the coffee grounds to make the coffee. ANd the smell of the coffee was also a great part of making the coffee. Yhis is smoething that the kids of today will never experience. This was a great part of growing up. You had to guess when you had the right strength of coffee. The good old days. Rich HArtung Desoto1939@aol.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pflaming Posted October 13, 2013 Author Report Share Posted October 13, 2013 Rich, you are right on. If Dad was in a hurry, he'd put a couple teaspoons of coffee in the pot, bring it to boil and then strain it through his handkerchief then he would dip the tired end pieces of the bread loaf in the brew. I think they sell that stuff today as biscotti. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Coatney Posted October 13, 2013 Report Share Posted October 13, 2013 Rich, you are right on. If Dad was in a hurry, he'd put a couple teaspoons of coffee in the pot, bring it to boil and then strain it through his handkerchief then he would dip the tired end pieces of the bread loaf in the brew. I think they sell that stuff today as biscotti. Would he strain it through his hanky before or after he blew his nose? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plymouthy Adams Posted October 13, 2013 Report Share Posted October 13, 2013 Remember..still use them..but got to admit only when camping I have a gasoline stove with zero moving parts/no pump of any sort that will take very cold water to a perked pot of coffee in about 15 minutes..physical size would allow it to fit inside the coffee pot. It was one of my favorite setups when I used to camp while riding the motorcycle around.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scruffy49 Posted October 13, 2013 Report Share Posted October 13, 2013 Still have several stove top and electric percolators. And a pair of "real" horses, if a Class B mini and a Shetland count as horses... The Shetland is Boodini, our escape artist. The brown miniature quarter horse is Centurion Minimus Maximum (Max) also known as Maxi Poop and Sir Sh**salot... Self propelled composting units. Both are broken to ride and drive, but we have no kids around the place. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grdpa's 50 Dodge Posted October 13, 2013 Report Share Posted October 13, 2013 Those "Shetlands" had a mean streak a mile wide. Dad would never have one around. They knew how to kick and bite tho. Neighbors and cousins had them and they were always nipping at you. I bet it can escape almost as bad as a holstein cow. They have all day to stand around figuring that stuff out and fiddling with the gate latches and chains. Always had to double and triple chain gates and that was never enough sometimes Neighbor when elderly made a business out of playing Santa Claus in December and would go to neighboring towns with his shetlands and a sled. He made those things jump in a truck 3 foot high or higher to load. never bothered with a dock,,loaded and unloaded any where and you know how high a truck bed is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
De Soto Frank Posted October 14, 2013 Report Share Posted October 14, 2013 (edited) How many remember the coffee percolators? The ones with the dual glass bowls. Water was put in the bottom bowl and coffee grounds in the top. Then the water when it got hot went up into the top bowl and then it was drawn back down into the bottom bowl, or something like that. You are describing a vacuum coffee maker. There were stove-top versions made by Silex and Cory, and there were electric, all-metal ones made by Sunbeam. They do not "perk" the coffee, rather , the water in the bottom vessel boils, and the resulting steam expands, forcing the hot water up the center tube into the top camber with the ground coffee. When the water is gone, the boiling stops, you remove the whole thing from the heat, and as the bottom vessel cools, what was steam condenses, and creates a vacuum pulling the water in the top chamber back down through the grounds, and a filter, and into the bottom vessel. Percolators employ a stem and basket, and keep forcing boiling water up the stem, over the grounds, where it drips down through the basket. Over-percolated coffee can be lethal... Edited October 14, 2013 by De Soto Frank Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJ194950 Posted October 14, 2013 Report Share Posted October 14, 2013 Percolated coffee!! Mom or dad set their alarm for 15 minutes before the time they needed to get up every day...Plugged in the electric percolator and got up when the coffee smell reached the bedroom, it it was cold out the heat got turned on too..Always turned off at night. Lots of blankets!! But in Ca. seldom below freezing. Dad was sick when he could no longer buy electic percolators new when the old one quit. Bought one of the cheap Mr. Coffee's, he was never satisified with the coffee! We had in the family camp gear the old heavy alum. percolator than my sister used at home for years.Her daughter uses it every day now at least once, often twice to make the coffee on the stove top.Does not have any other coffee maker, when asked why- her reply is Why? It will not wear out, period, and likes the coffee! Doug Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plymouthy Adams Posted October 14, 2013 Report Share Posted October 14, 2013 (edited) Desoto..the old vacuum syphon type you described was very popular and I saw many of them on navy vessels.... Vacuum syphon on left and the percolator on the right Edited October 14, 2013 by Plymouthy Adams Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Coatney Posted October 14, 2013 Report Share Posted October 14, 2013 As near as I can recall the horse feathers were by the hen's teeth! But then maybe not. I too remember when the horses suddenly disappeared. That was when we got our first new Model D John Deere. PEDA would not like to hear what happened to all those horses, but that was the reality of the time. I never saw a purple cow, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
De Soto Frank Posted October 14, 2013 Report Share Posted October 14, 2013 Desoto..the old vacuum syphon type you described was very popular and I saw many of them on navy vessels.... Vacuum syphon on left and the percolator on the right Tim - I have a Silex (before Proctor) vacuum coffe maker from the late Teens or early Twenties: looks more like a piece of laboratory equipment: bottom vessel is a Florence Flask ( round bottom, long neck) which is held by a clamp around its neck, supported by what is basically a fancy nickel-plated laboratory stand, and the top vessel looks like an over-grown Thistle-Tube, that seats in the neck of the bottom flask with a white rubber sealing sleeve. In the top vessel is a strainer plate that gets covered with a little white flannel bonnet, complete with a draw-string. The whole thing is heated by a little glass alcohol lamp. From stone-cold, you can have hot coffee in about 20 minutes. About two dainty-sized cups. It's a great party trick ! Then I have one of the chromed Sunbeam electric vacuum makers form the late 1940's... I'll try to grab some photos tomorrow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
P15-D24 Posted October 14, 2013 Report Share Posted October 14, 2013 You mean one of these? Make great coffee, just don't let the brewed coffee boil. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerseyHarold Posted October 14, 2013 Report Share Posted October 14, 2013 (edited) ^^^My parents had one of those into the early 1970's. I can still see it sitting on our stove in Brooklyn.... Edited October 14, 2013 by JerseyHarold Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eneto-55 Posted October 14, 2013 Report Share Posted October 14, 2013 I recall 'playing' with that sort of upside down funnel from the percolator when washing the dishes. You could push it down into the suds, and they would shoot out of the top.... I think no one was slower than me washing dishes - too much imagination. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Neon Posted October 15, 2013 Report Share Posted October 15, 2013 I have never acquired a taste for coffee. I used to drink a cup now and then when I worked graveyard for a few weeks at an ethanol plant in 1999. My grandfather swears by percolated coffee, but has never been known to turn down a cup of black coffe regardless of how it is brewed. When he was farming full-time, he drank 5 pots of coffee/day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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