Turkish Coffee: Where's the Foam?

October 27, 2009 12:08 PM

I tried to make Turkish coffee, but it doesn't foam up like it's supposed to. What am I doing wrong?

This is my understanding of how to make Turkish coffee: grind coffee to a really fine powder, put it in a pot with water, and don't stir (so the coffee stays at the top and forms a layer over the surface of the water). Heat until the surface foams up, then remove the pot from heat. Put it back on the stove and do the same thing two more times, then pour it into cups.

When I try to do this, the coffee doesn't foam very much the first time, and it hardly foams at all after that; it just boils. I tried using more coffee than I was supposed to, but that didn't help much. I'm using a small saucepan, since I don't have a real Turkish coffee pot (cezve/ibrik/briki)--I wonder if the problem is that, unlike a cezve, a saucepan has a wide surface area at the top, which thins out the coffee layer. Still, some recipes say it's fine to make Turkish coffee with just a regular pot. Any ideas of what the problem might be?

posted by k. to food & drink (10 comments total)

I'd have two guesses... first is the saucepan. The Turkish pot (and the Greek pot) are pretty narrow at the top and the foam/bubbles all build up in one spot.

My second guess would be that you didn't get the coffee ground fine enough, but it sounds like that's not the problem.

As you say, there's really not much more to it than that. I'm betting on the saucepan...
posted by Pantengliopoli at 12:14 PM on October 27

Could it be that the coffee isn't fresh enough? Freshly roasted coffee contains CO2, which is released when you add hot water to it--the process is called "bloom" and can make the coffee overflow whatever brewing vessel you happen to be using. I've never made Turkish coffee, though, so I don't know if that phenomenon is what they mean when they say "foam."
posted by fermion at 12:21 PM on October 27

I make mine with a crappy aluminum saucepan, so it's probably not the pot.
Is the coffee the texture of baby powder? Is it difficult to wash off of your hands? If not, it's not ground fine enough.
posted by Cat Pie Hurts at 12:30 PM on October 27

It boils? It should not boil. Once coffee boils (in any method), it's irreparably bitter.

The trick to good foamy Turkish coffee, as I understand it, is almost boiling it. This takes vigilance. If you can't stop it from boiling, you've either got too much water (too little coffee) or your heat is too high. Again, you want it to almost boil... those teeny bubbles that start before real boiling is what brings the foam. If it's getting too close to real bloop-bloop boiling, quickly lift the pot off to reduce heat before it's too late.

If you want to be super careful, use a thermometer and stop at about 95 degrees C.

Also, my Turkish friend only "almost boils" it twice, not three times. She uses a very small saucepan, not a real whatchamacallit pot. I asked once and she made a "meh" face, as if there's no difference.
posted by rokusan at 12:30 PM on October 27

Thanks for the suggestions so far. I think the coffee is ground finely enough; I got it ground at the store where I bought it (not ideal, but they can grind it for Turkish coffee and a regular coffee grinder can't). I got it 2 days ago, but I have no idea how long ago it was roasted. By "foam", I think they mean it kind of puffs up and looks like thick mud (appetizing, I know). There are innumerable videos on YouTube.

I'm aware that it's not supposed to boil; the problem is that it goes from not-boiling to boiling (or to small bubbles) without the intermediate puffing-up stage.
posted by k. at 12:35 PM on October 27

It's probabaly the ground. Turkish coffee needs a specific grind. Put your water in the finjan , add the coffee, put on burner and watch the edges of the coffee for any sizzling. That should be your indicator that the foam is about to rise. Just before it gets to the rising state you remove it from the heat. I never heard about double or triple risings in all my years around Turkish coffee - once seems to suffice, but if you do want to go the 2 and 3 rise route, it should work the way the first rise does - keep monitoring the edges each time.
posted by watercarrier at 12:35 PM on October 27

I've always "almost boiled" 3 times. I've had success with an ibrik but equal success with an old aluminum pan. I've even made it on a camp stove!

And I definitely stir the grounds into the water. I would think having them not in solution would prevent the bubbles from forming.
posted by Kafkaesque at 12:40 PM on October 27 [1 favorite has favorites]

I agree with everyone who says "not fresh enough." Freshly-roasted (and, to an extent, freshly-ground) coffee foams in hot water. Grinding it and leaving it around for a while eliminates this, and serves as a good indication that the coffee has usually lost some of the more volatile flavors/aromas as well.

Get fresh coffee, and only grind it right before you're going to prepare it, and it should both foam and taste better.
posted by pullayup at 12:52 PM on October 27

I have the same problem, and I agree - I think it's because the coffee is old. Mine was given to me by a Turkish friend, whose parents brought along on a visit from Turkey, and he had the coffee in his cupboard for months before he gave it to me.

Still tastes okay, but no foam. I'm definitely grinding my own next time.
posted by patheral at 4:15 PM on October 27

I'm not sure if freshness is the key issue. I use coffee that was purchased pre-ground in Turkey and stored in the freezer (for many months), and I still get foam. Here's what I do: I put the water into the cezve and stir in the coffee (yes, I do stir it at the beginning, but I don't stir again afte I've started heating it). Then I heat it over relatively low heat until bubbles start to form around the edge. At this point, there should be a good head of foam on the coffe, and I pour enough of the coffee into the cup so that it's half full. This is where most of the foam in the cup comes from, so you want to make sure that the foam is going into the cup when you half-fill it. Then I heat the remaining coffee again until it just comes to a boil and pour that into the cup to fill it. There probably won't be much foam left at this point, so it's important that you get the foam into the cup on the first pour. If I'm making sweet coffee, instead of filling the cup after the second heating, I stir in the sugar and heat the coffee again until it just comes to a boil and then fill the cup with that.
posted by klausness at 5:30 AM on October 29