brew coffee in a saucepan?

I've certainly made coffee in a pan when on holiday. One tip - after it has brewed for the required time (3 to 4 minutes), take a teaspoon of cold water and sort of dribble it over the surface of the brew. This settles the grounds and enables you to carefully strain into cups.

That's a common way of brewing in northern Europe in the old days. I do it that way at the cottage and put it through a filter in a thermal carafe and it's good enough coffee for the working day. My two cup filter plugs up fast, so you may want to look for a bigger or coarser filter, or strainer. I find it tastes better with a lighter roast of coffees than the dark ones. At home it's always dark roast espresso.

Dave

This is an old way of brewing coffee, which I'm sure many oldsters still prefer.

One way of preventing the grounds from getting into the poured cup(s) of coffee is to break an egg into the coffee when it is just about done brewing.

I've never done this, but it is supposed to keep the grounds in the pan. Maybe they like the taste, too?

Don't know about the egg, but adding egg SHELLS is a well know method for settling grounds.

Yes, Mark Prince has done something similar in his CGeek item

OK it's a fancy $70 Eva Solo, but the method of extraction is the same as your thermal carafe method. It's worth noting his comment "total immersion brewing. What does that mean? It means that all the coffee is in contact with all the brewing water for the same period. In my opinion (and an opinion shared with most coffee professionals), total immersion brewing is the best way to make coffee outside of espresso." If you googled up a cheap washable filter similar to :- see KC104 and combined it with the carafe or vacuum flask, you have a winner. It's also worth noting Mark's suggested immersion time of between 4 and 12 mins depending on your taste. The grind will depend on the gauge of the filter you buy - prob between drip and press .

Pete