Wanting Turkish Coffee but only have electric cooktop

[Deffy]

A few weeks ago I picked myself up an inexpensive Ibrik and canister of Turkish coffee on Amazon. After numerous attempts I just can't get the coffee to foam up at all, just sits there flat, even if I leave it on the stove for 30 minutes. I'm thinking the problem is my stove, it is one of those fancy glass topped electric ranges. At low temperatures the burner doesn't maintain constant heat but instead just turns off and on. The only way I can get the burner to stay on constantly is to turn the heat to max, which puts me at risk for burning the coffee and causing a boil over.

Should I pickup a seperate burner that I can use just for Turkish coffee? Any recommendations? I have also seen a few butane powered burners that would work but most are designed for outdoor use and I am just not that big a fan of carbon monoxide poisoning.

Thanks!

 

[Saxman11290]

When I lived in a dormitory once, I unfortunately came across this same problem. While electric stoves may be OK for some cooking methods, Turkish / Greek coffee (see what I did there, I'm part Greek so I prefer to call it Greek coffee even know I know it's the same darn stuff ) is always better with a low constant heat source.

Perhaps try using a high heat setting and see if you can lift the Ibrik (or as I would say, Briki) off the heat source regularly enough so you are applying sufficient heat, but not enough to scorch your coffee.

If you really like your Turkish coffee and this is too much of a hassel, I would definitely look into a separate burner for outdoor use. I don't see why CO poisoning would be an issue with using a butane burner for a short period of time. But then again, I'm no expert. Use at your own risk, or perhaps someone else will come along this thread an suggest another method or elaborate on those safety issues.

Good luck!

 

[ironfisted]

Regarding butane burners, I believe there is no issue with using them indoors. I believe that the Tokais are built for just that. It's propane burners that can't be used indoors.

My folks are from the former Yugoslavia, and Turkish coffee is a staple over there (probably the most important drink after slivovitz). I'm pretty sure everyone in my family and also their friends are using electric stovetops. I have an induction cooktop which provides constant heat, but I used to use a standard coil cooktop, and my mom uses a glass cooktop, and both of us would do the same thing - let it foam up, lift it off, then put it back on and let it foam up again. We usually did that cycle three times. Perhaps this is not the way to get a proper cup of Turkish coffee, but it's how everyone in my family has been doing it for my whole life.

Now you have me thinking that it's time I break out the Turkish coffee. It's been a while.

 

[rajagra]

How about a heat diffuser? They are mainly for spreading the heat out over the whole width of a pan, but they also tend to reduce the amount of heat reaching it a bit - good for low simmering. I imagine they will be very good at averaging out temperature over time.

 

[Kazeryu]

This is why I will never buy one of those stoves. It makes cooking everything difficult, not just coffee. I honestly don't understand what the stove/range industry was thinking when they did this.

 

[ShaverGN]

I recall seeing Turkish coffee made in a heated sand. Place some fine sand in a large pot design for your tipe of stove. Heat the pot. The place the cezve into hot sand.