# New Orleans Coffee: Coffee w/raw egg?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-orleans-coffee-coffee-w-raw-egg/141045
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [December 6, 2002, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-orleans-coffee-coffee-w-raw-egg/141045 "2002-12-06T23:20:31Z")
**Posts on this page:** 12
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2002, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-orleans-coffee-coffee-w-raw-egg/141045/1 "2002-12-06T23:20:31Z")
In the autobiographical diary/novel, “Travels With Charley”, John Steinbeck writes of having coffee with raw egg in New Orleans. Is it a popular drink to have raw egg in your coffee, esp. in and around New Orleans? Is this just a Cajun thing? Or, a Southern specialty? - Jinx
---
### Author:  [@11811](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/11811)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2002, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-orleans-coffee-coffee-w-raw-egg/141045/2 "2002-12-06T23:35:00Z")
I don’t know if this really answers the question, but some folks used to put raw eggs in a coffee pot (shells and all) so that as the egg cooks it binds up all the grounds. I’ve heard this called cowboy coffee.
---
### Author:  [@chique](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chique)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2002, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-orleans-coffee-coffee-w-raw-egg/141045/3 "2002-12-07T03:39:27Z")
I’ve always thought it was a Swedish thing, myself.
I forget the proportions now (one egg per enough grounds to use in a standard drip pot, maybe?). You boil the coffee grounds and an egg (including the shell) in a pot for a bit and strain out the chunks. It’s actually pretty good - something about the egg/egg shell picking up the oils.
---
### Author:  [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2002, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-orleans-coffee-coffee-w-raw-egg/141045/4 "2002-12-07T03:57:21Z")
Just to clarify the issue, you’re supposed to break the egg and add the contents and the shell to the grounds. I had an acquaintance once who read about the “raw egg and shell” method, and just set an intact raw egg atop the grounds in her drip coffee maker.
---
### Author:  [@chique](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chique)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2002, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-orleans-coffee-coffee-w-raw-egg/141045/5 "2002-12-07T04:40:06Z")
Ew.
---
### Author:  [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2002, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-orleans-coffee-coffee-w-raw-egg/141045/6 "2002-12-07T06:02:41Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by chique \*
> \*\*Ew. \*\*
It’s good fer ya! Put’s hair on your chest!
---
### Author:  [@BrandonR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrandonR)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2002, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-orleans-coffee-coffee-w-raw-egg/141045/7 "2002-12-07T06:33:05Z")
And salmonella in your stomach.
---
### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2002, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-orleans-coffee-coffee-w-raw-egg/141045/8 "2002-12-07T15:51:38Z")
I haven’t heard of putting an egg in boiled coffee, but I have heard of putting egg _shells_ in the coffee. It seems to me that people were more frugal a long time ago, so why wouldn’t they eat use the egg and just put the shells in the grounds?
**BrandonR** : I think boiling would kill the bacteria, wouldn’t it?
And FWIW, I’m sitting here with a cup of Swedish coffee that was made with a manual drip pot. 🙂
---
### Author:  [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2002, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-orleans-coffee-coffee-w-raw-egg/141045/9 "2002-12-07T16:01:04Z")
**Jinx** , I’m born and raised in New Orleans and lived there until I was 29. My family has lived there since the 1880’s. Never heard of egg-in-coffee, not even as a quaint-thing-people-did-back-in-the-day.
And in a city that clings tightly to its history like New Orleans, if egg-and-coffee was even halfway widespread, I would have heard about it.
Steinbeck may have stumbled upon a nearly-extinct practice.
---
### Author:  [@japatlgt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/japatlgt)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2002, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-orleans-coffee-coffee-w-raw-egg/141045/10 "2002-12-07T17:55:34Z")
Had not heard of that. Oh joy an experiment! \
---
### Author:  [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2002, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-orleans-coffee-coffee-w-raw-egg/141045/11 "2002-12-08T01:14:36Z")
I’ve always associated chicory with New Orleans+coffee.
---
### Author:  [@Stana\_Claus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stana_Claus)
#### Post date: [December 9, 2002, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-orleans-coffee-coffee-w-raw-egg/141045/12 "2002-12-09T21:36:42Z")
I’ve always believed that whole chicory thing was New Orleans way of getting back at the Yankees after the Civil War. Since the locals had been reduced to making imitation coffee from burned chicory roots for lack of the real thing, they somehow managed to convince the northern tourists that it’s fashionable to drink it. And then smirked behind their backs as the fools oohed and ahhed over how wonderful it was.