Coffee Making How did the first explorers make their coffee? How did the cowboy out on the range make his coffee? They didn't own coffee grinders and fancy makers. They carried sacks of green, unroasted coffee with them in leather pouches. They put the green coffees into their cast iron skillets, added a touch of grease, and roasted over open flame until brown. Then they pulverized the roasted coffee beans, put them into a pot of water, and boiled. Soon the coffee grounds settled at the bottom. At home, the cowboy took a piece of old sheet, approximately 5 inches square, placed several ounces of skillet roasted beans inside, and tied it with a string. It was them placed on the old wood shopping block. After hitting the beans with a wood mallet, he boiled the pouch filled with pulverized beans with water in a quart saucepan. After boiling one minute, it was removed from the stove to steep, like tea. After the sheet square folks became more gentile and used a cotton or muslin culinary bag with a drawstring at the top. After making coffee similar to the way cowboys did, they turned the culinary bag inside out in the sink and rinsed it out and let it dry for later use. This is the way Grandmother Hayes made her coffee. This made perfect coffee every time, without any fancy, expensive or complicated equipment. Coffee is still made this way, without an automatic coffee maker using the "French Push". This infuses the coffee just like tea. Automatic drip makers cannot infuse the coffee because the water does not get hot enough to steep the coffee; you must steep coffee the exact way you steep tea. French Push extracts all of the oils for a fuller flavor. The regular cereal spoon slightly larger than a teaspoon, and use one spoonful of medium ground coffee for each regular size coffee cup plus one for the pot because oils cling to the glass. Put this in the French Push then put in the strainer of the French Push about halfway down and add boiling water, Push the streamer down to the bottom, then bring it halfway up and allow the coffee to steep about 4 minutes. To prevent over steeping, pour the coffee into an insulated carafe. We don't use an electric grinder to grind our coffee. We use two flat 7-pound stones to pulverize the beans. Simply put the beans in the bottom stone, place the other stone on top, and turn in a circle to grind. The stones are also great for making the "3 finger grind powder" necessary for real Turkish or Greek coffees. If the Italians thought espresso was strong and concentrated the Turks and Greeks could teach the Italians!