How to Make Swedish Coffee
Many who grew up in Northern Minnesota or in other Swedish communities remember the smooth, rich flavor of the coffee served at the Lutheran church after services on Sunday. While many folks tout egg shells in the coffee grounds for helping to clarify the coffee, this is the only recipe I’ve found that calls for using an entire egg in the coffee.
According to chemists, the egg is the reason that Swedish egg coffee is so smooth – the proteins in the egg bind with the acid in the coffee to neutralize it. That could make Swedish egg coffee ideal for someone who loves coffee but can’t drink it because they have a sensitive stomach. Here’s one recipe for Swedish coffee that you can try for yourself and see if it doesn’t make the smoothest cup of coffee you’ve ever tasted.
Swedish Egg Coffee Recipe
You need:
In a small bowl, mix the ground coffee with the beaten egg until the coffee grounds are well coated. Stir in the crushed eggshell, then add in the cold water. Meanwhile, bring 8 cups of water to boil in a large saucepan. Add coffee mixture to the boiling water and stir for about four minutes, or until the foam subsides. Remove from the heat and cover the pan. Let stand for 7-10 minutes, until the grounds and eggshell have settled to the bottom of the pot. Strain the coffee through a wire or cloth strainer into coffee cups or into a serving carafe. Add sugar and milk to taste if desired.
April 5th, 2009 at 11:43 pm
You swedes are funny.
May 13th, 2009 at 8:15 am
This sounds like a very interesting mix. I will look forward to trying it. Also, I appreciate the fact that you shared such a different recipe with the world, that is outside of the normal “coffee box”. Thank you for helping us entertain culture through taste. Courtney-Blarney Stone Cafe
April 28th, 2010 at 12:42 pm
Hahaha, dont drag us real swedes into this!
I’ve lived in Sweden for all of my 33 year old life and I’ve never heard of this recipe. 
Or crazy lutherans. 
Crazy americans!
December 20th, 2010 at 10:23 am
I don’t know of anyone in Sweden having egg in the coffee nowadays. We usually drink our coffee black and strong, sometimes with a small bit of sugar or some milk, but not always. (Regular American coffee basicly taste like hot water to us!).
The egg coffee is (I would guess) probably an older tradition that the emigrants from Scandinavia brought with them when they came to the United States back in the days. Interesting read!
August 9th, 2011 at 5:20 am
I remember, as a kid, my (Upper peninsula, Copper Country, Michigan) Swedish Grandpa making coffee always boiled egg coffee, and all the old folks said he always made the best coffee. I never got a direct recipe from him just remember watching him. He would mix an egg with water enough to fill the large size baby food jar, put the grounds in the bottom of his coffee pot and pour in about 1/3 (one third)of the egg-water mix over the grounds and swish it around to mix it with the grounds. Mean while he was heating the water in the tea kettle, once the water boiled he poured the water over the grounds then put the coffee pot over the fire until it boiled up a few times, he would slosh it around to knock the foam down, repeated a couple times until it would just come to a rolling boil. Then he added a little cold water and let it settle a few minutes before pouring it out through an old fine brass screen strainer into the cups.
When I decided to try to make some I started looking for recipes and all of them I found called for 1 egg which gives the coffee more of a egg flavor then I wanted and I knew he used his jar of egg water a couple days, after several pots of coffee I figure 1/3 egg came out pretty good.
October 19th, 2011 at 3:24 am
Having grown up on the Iron Range (e.g. Northern Minnesota), I am almost certain that I had had coffee made this way; think church basement coffee after a funeral or something.
I had been listening to Minnesota Public Radio over this weekend, and the Road Food Couple mentioned having been in Iowa, having has “Swedish Coffee”. I looked it up and found this site.
I have been sipping a couple pots of the stuff throughout the day, today. Very smooth.
I also agree with the previous comments; I traveled Scandinavia (several years back), and most of things that we mid-westerners of Scandinavian decent think of the “old country” is just that, it is thoughts of an old country that no longer exists – just stories and memories from a bygone era. Cultures and languages change.
Finland, by the way, has the best coffee (in my humble opinion).
November 21st, 2011 at 12:15 am
I have a stainless steel Swedish coffee pot on my range that has been in the family since the 50s. It has a very thick (1 inch) bottom for making coffee this way. It’s made it’s way to San Francisco, and we only use it for boiling water, but I know about its history and this is the way coffee was made. Welcome to Swedish culture in the US
January 23rd, 2012 at 11:08 am
This is quite funny.. I’m swedish, and I have never heard of this ordinary mix…