Camp coffee

[Loyalist Dave]

Many can't remember details from last week and decades-later memories are to be taken with a bag of salt......,
..., I'll take it with a bag of salt as most would be 2nd or 3rd person recollections already "colored" by having been filtered through someone else's memories...
..., And then we have "eye-witness" testimony to crimes where the witness was completely wrong. Memory is plastic...

Memory is plastic for a population; one cannot predict for the individual. I deal with first person accounts acquired immediately after crimes have occurred, as well as those collected days, weeks, or months after...perhaps years. Some are by witnesses, and some are by victims. Some are so bad I have to ask "are you sure you were there?". Some are so accurate they give chills down the spine to a defense attorney. Today we have the luxury of physical data, sometimes, to confirm or dismiss the information in first person accounts, because several first person accounts of the same event in no way overcomes the problems and possible flaws of a first person account.

Yet from all that you've written, you can't really accept any first person accounts, whether journals written within minutes of the event or memoirs done some time after the event. So what's the point of looking for a first person account when there is no physical archaeology or preserved artifacts to confirm the account?

LD

 

[Black Hand]

Yet from all that you've written, you can't really accept any first person accounts, whether journals written within minutes of the event or memoirs done some time after the event. So what's the point of looking for a first person account when there is no physical archaeology or preserved artifacts to confirm the account?

Odd - I don't remember saying anything of the sort.

Some written accountings are obviously first person while others are not. I can't tell in the Doddridge book which are first person and which are not - I'll wager others can't either...as I don't remember him writing "I" or other indicators that he was personally present. His writings are primarily descriptions, and as such, could easily be second- or third-person...

Also, my standards of evidence require more than just a single account for confirmation. No different than any other piece of evidence/data that I use in my work.

 

[satx78247]

OBVIOUSLY, you have "better quality witnesses" than I was usually "blessed with". = I've had "witnesses" swear under oath to things that they couldn't possibly have witnessed.
(In one GCM case for "indecent sexual assault upon a minor child" & "Misbehavior by a Sentry" I had an adult female "eyewitness" that was proven AFTER the General Courts Martial was over & the defendant was incarcerated at the USDB, to have been at least 50KM away from the crime scene, at the time that the assault happened. = When questioned by the Trial Counsel about her perjury, she said that she "wanted to be on TV".)

I generally take "eyewitness statements" with a cup of salt.

yours, satx

 

[George]

This post is exemplary in that it "wanders" on topic and somewhat off and is interesting reading...but isn't pertinent asre our camp coffee.

I agree, Fred, so I've started a new thread in the Primary Documentation forum hoping to continue the off topic topic there.

Spence

 

[Kansas Jake]

Now back to the original topic. BTW, who drinks cream or sugar in their coffee. I prefer black.

 

[Calum]

'afternoon,

Black by preference, although if there's French Vanilla creamer around, a slug may mysteriously find it's way into my cup. :idunno:

Calum

 

[Black Hand]

Camp coffee - Black.

Espresso is my preferred form of coffee - lightly sugared. I think I'll go make one shortly...

 

[sidelock]

I stopped drinking coffee about 8 years ago. I never was a big fan and my wife insisted on making the strongest, and to me, the nastiest stuff you could get. I have OJ for breakfast now.

 

[satx78247]

The famous Southport, NC author, Robert C Ruark, said that IF you could make a coffee at home that tastes as good as coffee boiled on the creek bank tastes, "early on a frosty morn", that that person would soon be a millionaire.

I agree as hardly anything is as GREAT as that 1st cup of "creek-water coffee" at a campsite.

Fwiw, I've several times visited "The Old Man's" famous home in Southport (while staying at my adopted family's beach-house on Oak Island) & tried even to buy the house at least 4-5 times. = NO LUCK. ====> Fwiw, Robert Ruark is NOT at all popular with "the local folks" in his hometown, as it is said that he made too much money, lived too long in NYC, was several times divorced & drank too much whiskey.
(Even if everything nasty/hateful/belittling that "the old families" say is 100% true, I still admire his writing & wish that I could write even HALF as well as he did in HORN OF THE HUNTER, POOR NO MORE, SOMETHING OF VALUE, UHURU, THE OLD MAN & THE BOY, THE HONEY BADGER & his other books/short stories. = I literally "wore out" two HB copies of THE OLD MAN & THE BOY when I was a "wet behind the ears" kid.)

yours, satx

 

[graybeard]

mustaches too.

 

[spudnut]

:idunno:

OR you can get those coffee filter packs, and simply toss them into the boiling pot, and make camp coffee that way. :haha:

LD

I have a Turkish grinder I bought years ago from a garage sale (and they were turks ) that grinds it to a powder . Makes great coffee , but any more I use these filter packs at rondy

 

[graybeard]

What is the recommended amount of coffee, ground or whole bean, in the pot per planned cup of coffee? How big a pot works best? BTW cognac makes a good non-dairy creamer and grounds should be strained out with a bushy mustache. graybeard

 

[satx78247]

I use a tablespoon of "expresso grind" to each cup of coffee. = I like great quality, STRONG, coffee.

yours, satx

 

[Loyalist Dave]

"There are two ways of making good coffee in an ordinary pot. (1) Put coffee in pot with cold water (one heaped tablespoonful freshly ground to one pint, or more coffee if canned ground) and hang over fire. Watch it, and when the water first begins to bubble, remove pot from fire and let it stand five minutes. Settle grounds with a tablespoonful of cold water poured down spout. Do not let the coffee boil. Boiling extracts the tannin, and drives off the volatile aroma which is the most precious gift of superior berries. (2) Bring water to hard boil, remove from fire, and quickly put coffee in. Cover tightly and let steep ten minutes. "
From Camping and Woodcraft V.I by Horace Kephart.

LD

 

[crockett]

Well I am a newbie to camp coffee. I thought you had to percolate the grounds. I bought some cheap coffee from the Hispanic food area ($3 a loaf).
1. Measure 1 1/3 cups of water- bring to a boil.
2. Toss in a level table spoon of ground coffee. Let boil 20 seconds. Take the pot and set on the ground to steep about 5 minutes. The grounds settle to the bottom.
3. Slow pour into a mug, leaving grounds in pot.
4. Drink but toss out the last swallow as it will have a few grounds.
5. If you are on the trail, forget the cream and sugar thing.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Naw, percolation needs a percolator. It's different from boiling, or pressing, and the caffeine is water soluble too. Caffeine levels tested using the same amount of coffee to make the beverage showed the following methods from least caffeine to most:

Espresso
Drip/Filter
Pressed
Percolated
Boiled

There are a couple more factors...., IF you reduce the actual amount of coffee, but you switch to a darker roast to keep the coffee dark, you get less caffeine. The finer the grind and the longer the time the grounds are in the water, the more caffeine is extracted. Some of the pressed versions might be actually less than drip/filer. So if you leave say a half-pot of coffee near the fire, with the grounds, and a guest comes by after a couple of hours and you reheat it and give them a cup..., that's probably going to have more caffeine than did the first cup from the pot. :shocked2:

LD

 

[crockett]

Well, I didn't realize that the grinds in boiling water are moving all over the place. I tried boiling about 3 minutes and you get "more" coffee but it is pretty high octane/bitter. I timed things and settled on 20 seconds actual boiling and then rest 5 minutes- BUT that's just for one cup. Things could be different for more coffee grounds/water.
In any event now I'm doing camp coffee and hoe cakes. Actually- not bad all things considered.

 

[Black Hand]

Well I am a newbie to camp coffee. I thought you had to percolate the grounds. I bought some cheap coffee from the Hispanic food area ($3 a loaf).
1. Measure 1 1/3 cups of water- bring to a boil.
2. Toss in a level table spoon of ground coffee. Let boil 20 seconds. Take the pot and set on the ground to steep about 5 minutes. The grounds settle to the bottom.
3. Slow pour into a mug, leaving grounds in pot.
4. Drink but toss out the last swallow as it will have a few grounds.
5. If you are on the trail, forget the cream and sugar thing.

To settle the grounds, dribble a little cold water into the pot after steeping. If you boil the coffee, it can become bitter.

 

[Black Hand]

Naw, percolation needs a percolator. It's different from boiling, or pressing, and the caffeine is water soluble too. Caffeine levels tested using the same amount of coffee to make the beverage showed the following methods from least caffeine to most:

Espresso
Drip/Filter
Pressed
Percolated
Boiled

There are a couple more factors...., IF you reduce the actual amount of coffee, but you switch to a darker roast to keep the coffee dark, you get less caffeine. The finer the grind and the longer the time the grounds are in the water, the more caffeine is extracted. Some of the pressed versions might be actually less than drip/filer. So if you leave say a half-pot of coffee near the fire, with the grounds, and a guest comes by after a couple of hours and you reheat it and give them a cup..., that's probably going to have more caffeine than did the first cup from the pot. :shocked2:

LD

Another thing to remember - the darker the roast, the lower the caffeine content but the greater the flavor.
People are convinced that the more assertive the flavor, the stronger the coffee. They are surprised when you tell them espresso has less caffeine than a cup of regular coffee.

 

[Billnpatti]

Returning to the original question, Just allowing the coffee to "sit a spell" will allow the grounds to settle and you can pour coffee and leave the grounds behind.

My great grandma taught me how to make "boiled" coffee in a granite pot. It is called boiled coffee but it is never actually boiled. Boiling spoils the taste. You bring the water to a boil, remove the pot from the fire and add the coffee. Stir it and then let it sit while the hot water extracts the coffee flavor. Then, she would add either a few egg shells or some cold water to settle the grounds. I don't know why either worked but they seemed to do the job. Grandma made mighty good coffee and you never got any coffee grounds until you got down to the bottom of the pot and then you had to pour carefully to minimize the amount of coffee grounds that you got in your cup. Even then, just give your cup a bit to settle and drink carefully and you had no problem.

With our new Mr. Coffee coffee makers and espresso makers, we have forgotten how to deal with coffee grounds. Back in the day, even as recently as when I was a kid, folks knew that they might get a few grounds in their cup of coffee if they poured it too soon or got the last cup from the bottom of the pot but they thought nothing of it, they just sipped carefully from their cup.

Well, it's getting close to supper time and I need to fire up my Cuisinart coffee maker.