# Leftover coffee uses?



## callie

Any ideas what I can do with leftover coffee?  Should leftover coffee be refrigerated?  frozen?  

Thanks


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## SimonJ621

Callie,

Left-over coffee is actually very versatile. At the restaurant I work at, we make our iced coffee with our left over coffee, so if you like iced coffee, just put it in a pitcher and in the fridge. You can also add some flavorings like caramel or chocolate when serving.

As for more creative uses, left over coffee is great for making coffee ice cream, cakes, brownies, cookies, almost any desert really. 

And even though this sounds odd, marinating a steak in a little coffee, and then later encrusting it with pepperocorns and a little ground coffee make for a wonderful flavor. 

Oh, and about freezing the coffee. If you aren't going to use it within one or two days, then I would definately freeze it. Maybe even partition it out if you have a lot. 

Hope that gave you some ideas.

Gruss,
Jason


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## kadesma

_ Hi Callie _
_Lots of times I'll use left over coffee in things I'm cooking, say  a stew or even pork chops, gives them nice color and you really don't taste the coffee as such. I also freeze leftover coffee in an ice cube tray, then when I have iced coffee I add some of the cubes, that way my coffee isn't diluted with plain ice, it's pure caffiene _

_kadesma_


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## BigDog

From a personal standpoint, I will just nuke it the following day for another cup or two of coffee. This option expires on the second day. I can't drink a whole pot in one day, but I can't tolerate the taste after day two. Not sure exactly what changes, but something does.

Obviously this is not an option from a commercial standpoint, but I wasn't sure if that was exclusively what you were talking about.


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## TATTRAT

Use it for baking, and even finishing gravy/pan sauce...adds alot of earthy aroma and rounds out the flavors...


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## callie

You all are great!  I just love this place...you all share such good ideas!  BigDog, I'm talking personal/household use.  I'll heat up yesterday's coffee in the microwave, too.  Not as good as fresh - but not bad.  I'm going to try all your suggestions! Thanks


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## mish

Try it in a gravy when preparing a roast.  Very tasty.


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## Horab

I've never heard of most of these ways to reuse coffee grounds, thanks for all the info.

The only uses I've ever tried for them was for fertilzer for house plants and to divine the future.


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## licia

I really like the idea of using it in chocolate cake. Mocha - my favorite.


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## callie

Horab said:
			
		

> I've never heard of most of these ways to reuse coffee grounds, thanks for all the info.
> 
> The only uses I've ever tried for them was for fertilzer for house plants and to divine the future.


 
Horab...just so there's no misunderstanding - my question is about leftover coffee (the beverage) not the coffee grounds.  But then I don't know what to do with leftover coffee grounds either.


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## licia

Another use for leftover coffee is to make a milk shake similar to the Arby's Jamocha.  Mix cold coffee with either milk and chocolate ice cream or chocolate milk and vanilla ice cream and a bit of ice in a blender. It is great.


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## Dina

SimonJ621,
You have great ideas.  I've used in baking before and on chocolate desserts but will certainly use your suggestions.  Thanks.


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## Steve A

*RedEye Gravy*

Don't forget the (once) ever popular redeye gravy.  Fry ham, remove.  Sprinkle in flour, pour in leftover coffee, heat and thicken.

10,000 cowboys CAN'T be wrong.  LOL!

Ciao,


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## callie

Again, thanks everyone for the ideas!  I've got ice cream in the freezer so will try the shake...and redeye gravy sounds really good.  I hate wasting food so am excited about all these suggestions!


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## pdswife

Left over coffe... is that like left over chocolate chip cookies?  LOL!!!


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## wills53

*leftover coffee*



			
				callie said:
			
		

> Any ideas what I can do with leftover coffee?  Should leftover coffee be refrigerated?  frozen?
> 
> Thanks


Hi there,  I use leftover coffee in my mom's southern recipe for b-b-q sauce. It's best if you use pretty strong coffee ( about 1/4 cup) in your b-b-q sauce. I also make homemade beef tamales at Christmas and I add about 1/2 cup strong leftover coffee with my other spices, etc. when I  slow cook the meat 'till it's fall-apart tender.wills53


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## urmaniac13

Just nuke it in the microwave and serve it to the unannounced/unwelcome guests just to spite them


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## Harborwitch

Seldom have leftover coffee - it get's put over ice for iced coffee.  If there is any left over I use it in gravy, BBQ sauce, stews, and marinades too.  Fresh finely ground coffee  with cracked black pepper and chili  powder make an excellent dry rub for really good steaks.


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## FryBoy

When I was a kid, I raised earthworms for fishing. About once a week or so I'd mix a couple of tablespoons of used coffee grounds into the can of dirt they lived it, and it kept them fat, happy, and very active. 

Cold brewed coffee will reheat nicely in the microwave, provided that you didn't leave it on the burner too long when you first made it. It ain't the best, but sometimes that just don't matter none too much!


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## phantomtigger

I don't drink much coffee, but I love making coffee shakes.  I used to work at an IHOP, and that's where I made most of my shake experiments.  I made a coffee or mocha one a LOT.  I actually used hot coffee in the shakes, but I got the technique down to where I could use the coffee and ice cream and not get a watery mess.  THere's just this little trick you have to do....use more ice cream and no milk.  The hot coffee makes the ice cream melt enough so you don't have to use the milk.  Then I started working at a Dairy Queen and had to change my technique because they use soft-serve.

My mom decorates cakes, and she makes a killer mocha frosting.  I'm not sure how she does it, but it's great!  

Another way I can think of, like others here, is to freeze them in an ice cube tray.  My parents like to put ice in their coffee first thing in the morning to cool it off a little, and if they did freeze the coffee, it wouldn't get all watered down.

I hope this gives you a little more ideas!


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## StirBlue

Coffee or Tea molds rather quickly so it must be refrigerated after it has cooled.  There are a number of small coffee makers on the market and they look very interesting.  With the price of coffee, it would be a good investment.  Also some coffee companies offer coffee sold in a personal one cup bag (just like a tea bag).  Another alternative is to use instant coffee.  It comes in every brew imaginable.


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## jpmcgrew

You can sprinkle a little coffee grounds around your plants when you water them it will add some nitrogen to the soil.


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## Robo410

use used coffee grounds for compost and or mix with soil directly.  No other culinary uses for that grit to my knowledge.


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## Caine

pdswife said:
			
		

> Left over coffe... is that like left over chocolate chip cookies? LOL!!!


 
It is at my house! When I make it, I drink it. ALL of it. I've been known to make a 10 cup pot on a Saturday morning, drink the entire pot, then take a nap. I must say though, that as I've gotten older, I have reduced the quantity I make on Saturdays to 8 cups, sometimes 6, if I have somewhere I need to be in the morning.

Until my son got married and moved out, I never even knew the meaning of the word "leftover."


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## PA Baker

*Coffee Granita with Bailey's Whipped Cream*

4 c hot strong brewed coffee
1 c superfine granulated sugar
1 c chilled heavy cream
4 tsp powdered sugar
4-5 tsp Bailey’s
½ c bittersweet chocolate shavings 

Stir together coffee and granulated sugar until sugar is dissolved, then chill until cold.

Pour into an 8”-9” baking pan and freeze, stirring and crushing lumps with a fork every 30 minutes, until evenly frozen, about 4 hours.  Then scrape with a fork to lighten the texture.

Beat cream, powdered sugar and Bailey's in a chilled bowl with an electric mixer until it just holds soft peaks.  Place a dollop of whipped cream in bottom of a glass, add a scan cup of granita (don't pack it when measuring), then top with more whipped cream and chocolate shavings.  This looks really nice in martini glasses.


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## Caine

StirBlue said:
			
		

> Also some coffee companies offer coffee sold in a personal one cup bag (just like a tea bag).


 
I have a Krups KP1010 pod style machines at work (I bought it at a going out of business sale for $49.95), and I have calculated that it cost between 24¢ and 30¢ to make a cup of coffee with it, while buying your own beans, grinding them, and making coffe in a drip style coffeemaker will cost you anywhere from 4¢ and 10¢ a cup, depending on the brand of coffee you buy. In fact, I bought several packages of empty pods and a machine that hermetically seals them so I can make my own own coffee pods with the coffee of my choice. This brings the initial cost down to about 18¢ a cup, and even less once the cost of the machine has been amortized.



			
				StirBlue said:
			
		

> Another alternative is to use instant coffee. It comes in every brew imaginable.


 
Drinking, or serving, instant coffee is like eating, or serving, Franco-American macaroni & cheese.


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## Katie H

There's a recipe for a black devil's food cake that's been in my family since I was a little girl.  One of the ingredients is a cup of strong coffee.  It's just about the darkest, moistest, chocolateyist (word?  Is now.) in the world.  I'll look for it and if anyone is interested, I'll post it in the cakes section.

When I was a child my mother put a thick fudge icing on it.  Most of the time when I made it for my family, I just sprinkled a little powdered sugar on each piece as I served it.  I didn't think it really needed icing.


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## kadesma

Katie E said:
			
		

> There's a recipe for a black devil's food cake that's been in my family since I was a little girl. One of the ingredients is a cup of strong coffee. It's just about the darkest, moistest, chocolateyist (word? Is now.) in the world. I'll look for it and if anyone is interested, I'll post it in the cakes section.
> 
> When I was a child my mother put a thick fudge icing on it. Most of the time when I made it for my family, I just sprinkled a little powdered sugar on each piece as I served it. I didn't think it really needed icing.


Katie,
I'd love your family recipe for the chocolate cake. Cade and Ethan adore anything chocolate and the others won't pass it by either..I've been looking for a good chocolate cake to make them..This sounds just the ticket.

kadesma


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## Katie H

I've found it.  One thing I forgot to mention is that it's baked in a 9- x 13-inch pan, so there's no need to make layers, etc.  I almost always have several 1-cup containers of leftover brewed coffee in the freezer for an "emergency" chocolate cake attack.  

A cake that size is too big for Buck and me, so I usually bake it in two 8-inch square disposable pans.  Freeze one and eat one.  Freezes very, very well.  I'll go post the recipe.  Enjoy!


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## StirBlue

Caine said:
			
		

> I have a Krups KP1010 pod style machines at work (I bought it at a going out of business sale for $49.95), and I have calculated that it cost between 24¢ and 30¢ to make a cup of coffee with it, while buying your own beans, grinding them, and making coffe in a drip style coffeemaker will cost you anywhere from 4¢ and 10¢ a cup, depending on the brand of coffee you buy. In fact, I bought several packages of empty pods and a machine that hermetically seals them so I can make my own own coffee pods with the coffee of my choice. This brings the initial cost down to about 18¢ a cup, and even less once the cost of the machine has been amortized.
> 
> 
> 
> Drinking, or serving, instant coffee is like eating, or serving, Franco-American macaroni & cheese.


 
Don't berate my mac & cheese.  I'd like to see yours hold up in the bottom of a bait bucket on a fishing boat!  Many people have a can of instant flavored coffee that they make for an afternoon refresher.  

If your pot holds 10 cups (make the math easy for me) that would be anywhere from $2.40 to $3.00 a pot.  (I'm just leaving that as cost because I don't want to price out all the other expenses that you mentioned)  If you make one serving with a coffee bag that might cost .50 cents, no expense for left overs.  While making a lot might be cost effective if you have many to serve, making a little might be cheaper by the spoonful.


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## Aria

Katie E   Want you to know I am waiting for you to post your family chocolate cake.  I know I will have one cup of strong coffee ready.


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## Katie H

It's right here, darlin':  Black Devil's-Food Cake Recipe TNT


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## Caine

StirBlue said:
			
		

> If you make one serving with a coffee bag that might cost .50 cents, no expense for left overs. While making a lot might be cost effective if you have many to serve, making a little might be cheaper by the spoonful.


 
I'm just worried that one of my neighbors drift by my window and see me sitting at my kitchen table with my digital scale measuring, weighing, bagging, and sealing, and get the wrong idea!


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## Katie H

Caine, I think you are safe for a while if your neighbors see that what you are weighing and measuring _isn't _some kind of white powder.


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## StirBlue

Caine said:
			
		

> I'm just worried that one of my neighbors drift by my window and see me sitting at my kitchen table with my digital scale measuring, weighing, bagging, and sealing, and get the wrong idea!


 
People in your business have Doberman Pinschers for drifty neighbors.


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## xmascarol1

Leftover coffee grounds?  Why, you put them on your roses in the garden.  They love it.
Now left over coffee--it can be used in making "red eye " gravy.  Just pour it into the pan that contains the carmelized  drippings after you have just cooked up country ham.  Then get all the little pieces of drippings loosened from the pan, and spoon the mess over homemade biscuits with country ham slivered on top of it.
Or use some as the liquid in making gingerbread, or rye bread to get a nice color.
Try making some coffee liquer from some leftover coffee that you've boiled down to half.


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## wysiwyg

Leftover coffee grounds?  If you have a severe case of ants coming into the house or in undesirable areas of your garden, spread some grounds or surround the plants affected with them.  Ants will avoid the area.


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## lyndalou

I saw something on television the other day . A "helpful hint" kind of thing. Anyway, it says to use leftover cold coffee to stain a piece of furniture.


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## Maverick2272

Left over coffee can get used in recipies, but we never drink it. The longer it sits on the burner the more the oils seperate out or something like that, and it starts tasting funny. We have a 12 cup coffee maker, but only make 8 cups at a time. We also buy only whole beans and grind them just before brewing. We find it better to make a new pot rather than have left over coffee. Sometimes my wife will pour the left over coffee onto her house plants, but not too often she says. She also uses the grinds in her garden and in the house plants as well. They seem to love the stuff. 
I know we sound snobbish not wanting to drink coffee that is more than a couple of hours old, but we blame it all on the guy at our local farmers market that got us into all this. He roasts his own blends and sells them there along with fresh made coffee. He is even more strick than we are, he only uses a french press to make his coffee. He told us with our coffee maker to use the same amount of freshly ground coffee as we usually do to make 8 cups, but use only half the water. Then he has us boil the other half of the water in a seperate pot, let it cool to just under boiling and add it into the pot. He told us the longer it has to drip down over the coffee grounds the more it distorts the flavor. This way it brews in half the time. We tried it, and it did improve the taste. But I do have to agree with him, the best we had was his made in the french press. And since you can only make a cup at a time, there is no waste. I have noticed, however, that I seem to use more fresh ground beans than with the coffee maker.
Its a far cry from my college days of "if it still looks like coffee then its still good to drink!" I think we applied that same rule to pizza, its a miracle we survived.
Also, as I just saw on HGTV, the caffeine found in just one cup of coffee will deter all but the largest of slugs and snails and is more effective the much more toxic commercial chemicals. So, if you have this problem in your garden you can use it to get rid of em!


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## lyndalou

I saw a tip on HGTV to use coffee (cold) as a stain for furniture.


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## Caine

lyndalou said:


> I saw something on television the other day . A "helpful hint" kind of thing. Anyway, it says to use leftover cold coffee to stain a piece of furniture.


You mean like a coffee table?


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## ella/TO

Instant coffee...ugh....LOL.....that's what my husband drinks. I drink "real" coffee and the leftovers are used for iced coffee which my husband really likes.....go figure.....


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## ErikC

I know this does not fit in with the "leftover" aspect of the thread, but I have heard you can make a really good dry rub using espresso coffee grounds, brown sugar and kosher salt. I plan on trying this soon!


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## Maverick2272

EricC:

There is a thread on here with a recipe entitled coffee Choco rub. It is for meat, but uses fine ground fresh roast instead of espresso. I can repost it here:

*Coffee Choco Rub*

Finely Ground French Roast Coffee
Finely ground Spanish Cocoa
Finely ground brown sugar
Hot Red Pepper powder
Finely Ground Cinnamon
Finely Ground Ginger
Kosher Salt

I do grind the brown sugar, or sieve it or something to make it as fine as possible. The quantities are listed in order. The coffee and cocoa are almost equal, the cocoa, slightly less. Then the brown sugar amount is just below the cocoa amount.

So, an example is:

1 cup coffee grounds (8 oz.)
1/2 to 3/4 cup cocoa (4-6 oz)
1/3 to 1/2 cup brown sugar (3 - 4 oz)

then just tablespoon or teaspoon amounts of seasonings, such as, based on the amounts above;
1 (or less) TBSP Hot Pepper
1 (or lesss)TBSP Cinnamon
1 - 2 TSP ground ginger
1 - 2 TSP Kosher Salt


As you can see, the measurements are flexible, but I follow these basic proportions when I make a new batch.

Now, as far as to what this can be applied, I have used it on EVERY protein main object, including;

Beef ribs
Beef steak
Beef stew chuncks
Ground Beef (burgers)

Pork Roast
Pork chops

Whole Roast Chicken
Roast Chicken parts
Slow Baked Crispy Chicken wings
Grilled Chicken Breasts

Whole Roast Turkey

Mahi-Mahi Steaks
Swordfish Steaks

Sauteed Shrimps

It does sound interesting, I plan on trying it sometime soon.


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## Mel!

No dont refrigerate or freeze. 
Use soon in cakes or deserts. If not used soon coffee becomes bitter.

Mel


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