Saucered Coffee Brings Back Precious Memories
Published in
5 min readAug 1, 2024
It is funny how a comment on Facebook can bring back sweet memories. I read the following comment: Did people actually drink their coffee from a saucer? One reader responded that his grandfather “saucered” his coffee and also enjoyed his “soakie”. This reminded me of my mother, she filled her coffee cup about 3/4s full of milk and then topped it off with coffee. We teased her about liking a little coffee with her milk.
What is a saucer? It is a type of small dishware. The saucer and cup are usually a part of a place setting in a tea or dinner set. Some teacups with unique styling are often sold with matching saucers, sometimes alone or as part of a tea set, including a teapot and small dessert plates.
In the Middle Ages a saucer was used for serving condiments and sauces, but today the term is used to describe a small plate that supports a cup and is usually used to serve coffee or tea. Some people pour their hot tea or coffee from the cup into the saucer; the size of the saucer determines the rate at which it cools.
The coffee left in the cup was used to “dip” her biscuit or toast. I did not remember it being called “soakie”. I asked the gentleman who had posted that his grandfather enjoyed his “soakie” if his grandfather dipped bread in his coffee, and he said, “Yes, he used a biscuit.”
Drinking coffee from a saucer was certainly a tradition in this area. I remember seeing lots of adults drinking their coffee from a saucer when I was a child. Coffee was very hot, and when they “saucered” their coffee, it was a way to quickly cool it down. This post started my mind turning, I could smell the coffee and see my parents sitting at the kitchen table having their morning coffee together.
How do you properly “saucer” your coffee? Is the coffee poured into a saucer to cool and then poured back into the cup? Or do you drink right from the saucer? Mom would pour some hot coffee into her saucer and then blow on it until it was cool enough to drink. Once the coffee was cool enough to drink, she would drink it from the saucer.
My dad would saucer his coffee, too, but once it was cool, he would pour it back into his cup, and the cool coffee helped cool the rest of the coffee in his cup. Was one way better than another?
My mom had a friend from England who sautered her hot tea just like her neighbors sauteed their hot coffee.
Then I remembered other ways my mother used coffee. When we had fried country ham, my mother would make Red-eye gravy. This was made with only two ingredients: the drippings of the fried country ham and black coffee. It was so good. We poured the gravy on our slice of ham and used a biscuit to “sop” it up.
Using the leftover coffee was not enough for my mom, and many like her. However, there are many great ways to reuse them. I grew up in a time when we did not waste. Most people discarded the grounds left behind after brewing coffee and poured the coffee they did not drink out. My mom used the coffee ground to fertilize her roses, and she had some of the prettiest roses I have ever seen.
Mom also used coffee grounds to repel bugs. She would keep a bowl of coffee grounds in the kitchen where she kept our fresh fruit. She always said the flies would not come around the coffee grounds. Today, I keep a box of baking soda in my refrigerator to help absorb odors, but Mom kept a clean sock filled with coffee grounds to do the same thing.
There are countless ways to reuse your leftover coffee, and I am sure my mom knew all of them. She did not want to waste a single drop of her coffee. Mom left the coffee on the heater after breakfast and would drink it during the day so not to waste any of it. For everything from cooking to degreasing her dishes, Mom used leftover coffee. Coffee is a really great cleaning agent and strong enough to clean up greasy surfaces. If you decide to reuse your coffee, just remember that coffee can stain. So, don’t use it as a cleaner on any surfaces that can be stained.
My mom used leftover coffee and coffee grounds without any waste. There are certainly quite a few ways to use this leftover drink. Let’s check out a few more ways. Once the leftover coffee had cooled down, it could be used to water plants, but only once in a while. You would not want to water the plants with coffee every day.
The women would wash their hair in the leftover coffee, it helped to remove dirt on the hair and scalp while making the hair shinier. When mom needed to cover a spot on a piece of furniture or baseboard, she used clothes and leftover coffee; it covered what needed to be stained, a cheap and easy solution in place of store-bought stains.
Mom used coffee in place of milk or cream and made chocolate cupcakes. She made a chocolate frosting with just brewed coffee, unsweetened cocoa powder, butter, and confectioners’ sugar for the cupcakes, and to make sure nothing went to waste, she broke up the left-over breakfast bacon and sprinkled it on top of the frosting. Not sure I would want to eat it today but I loved them back then. Coffee is a great ingredient to add to ribeyes, steaks, or any other meat. It helps the flavor of the meat while tenderizing it.
There are many uses for leftover coffee other than merely tossing it out. You can use it for cooking, baking, hair care, and more. In other words, you can use coffee just about everywhere in your home.
Just remember that leftover coffee only lasts for about four days when refrigerated. Don’t consume if it has been more than four days. If the coffee has been sitting out at room temperature, try to use it within 12 hours. Good luck and happy saucering!
