Drip Drop Drip Little Coffee Showers - Corningware Drip Coffee Maker

I originally posted this July 7th 2009 on Culinary Alchemy.  It pre-dates the creation of Corningware 411, but I feel that it should be included here due to it's particular subject matter.  It will continue to reside on Culinary Alchemy in it's original form, since it was part of the "Coffee Talk" series, but I have revised it just little before posting it on here.  I have recently discovered, through my research for this site, that the term "Drip-O-Lator" is a registered trademark of Enterprise Aluminum Company.  Thus I have removed all references to this product.  I did, however, choose to leave my comments regarding Percolated Coffee intact.... It was 4 years ago after all, and though I have changed my tune a little since then, it's STILL not my preferred method of brewing.  What can I say, I am a hard core Vacuum Pot & French Press guy.  That's just the way it is.

But enough of that.... Here are the instructions for usage of a Corningware Drip Coffee Maker (P-114).......

July 7th, 2009
Coffee – a dessert time beverage for some, a ritual of friendship for others, and a morning necessity for almost everyone else. It’s one of the hottest commodities on the planet, only shadowed by crude oil. I was originally preparing an exposé on Coffee, but once I started looking around the net I realized this approach has been done a million times already and there really isn’t anything of value I could add to the superfluity of information available. SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO…… Let’s get a little more specific…

I am going to talk about brewing methods… I have several available to me, for I am one of the people who fall into all three categories… It is a dessert essential, a joy when congregating with friends and the necessary catalyst for my morning transformation from “swamp thing” to a human being.

For this first method, we are going to have to travel back in time to a dark point in American coffee culture… the 1960s…. a time when the sinister percolator ruled the household and mud was served daily… and even worse… people liked it. (shudder) It truly was a bleak time in American history. The percolator is the worst possible way to make coffee for several reasons.

• The water can, and usually does, boil– This is too hot for proper extraction and makes for acidic highly caffeinated coffee.
• Once the extraction begins, the water saturated with “coffee” is heavier and falls to the bottom of the percolator, reheated to a boil and in effect burnt… then it ends up being shoved back up through the tube, to run back through the grounds again… Blech! (shudder)

Repeat after me…. Percolator is BAD….. (OK, maybe not SO bad)

But dawn was breaking in the mid 60s… It was not the messiah of coffee brewing, but it was a step in the right direction… for the theory is similar to that of espresso… One pass through the grounds.   In 1965 Corningware released a new gizmo for coffee preparation…. The Drip Coffee Maker. Now this is not to say they were responsible for a “Star Turn” in the saga of coffee extraction methods. That was already the province of Italy where Espresso was already being pulled from beautifully crafted machines. But, America was “waking up” to the realization of what coffee could be…

What the heck is a Corningware Drip Coffee Maker you ask? Well, it’s basically a manual version of what most people set every night before going to bed. (P-114)

It comes in several parts… So let's begin and I’ll walk ya through it.

First, water must be heated in the kettle (P-114-B or P-104) on the stove to between 200 and 205 degrees. NEVER use boiling water for coffee… not even with a French Press (Future post)

Meanwhile, place coffee in the bottom receptacle (I use about 1.5 TB per cup for drip)

The glass bowl screws down onto the bottom receptacle. (P-114-U)

Now this little plunger thing (flow control valve) prevents the water from flowing from the glass bowl into the coffee ground receptacle.

Once the water is ready, carefully pour the hot water into the glass bowl. (P-114-U)

Place the whole assembly into the pot. (P-114-B or P-104)

Pull the plunger to allow the water to drip through the grounds

and into the pot below. (P-114-B or P-104)

After about 4 minutes, (I usually whistle a little tune while I am waiting)

you have yourself a pot full of coffee.

Ah…

with just a little half and half to create a “Paper Bag Brown” color…

Awesome!!!

In case you are curious... The particular pattern (Wheat) on my tea/coffee pot was originally planned as the standard design for Corningware, but in the company's haste to get the product to market, the cornflower was used instead and it eventually became the brand symbol of Corningware. Later, the wheat pattern was revisited and released on a limited number of pieces (I have seen a pie plate on eBay and I have a 4 quart roaster)

Cin Cin!!
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Where is your Corningware??
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No Pain, No Grain - Wonderfully Winsome Wheat

So you may be wondering, at this point, if I am purchasing all the pieces I have been photographing in the thrift stores.  No.  My kitchen is not nearly big enough to house a collection of that size.  Neither is my pocket book large enough to support amassing a collection of that size.  Thus, mere photographs shall have to document the patterns I have come across in my rummagings.

There is one pattern though that I cannot resist purchasing, when found.  That would be my precious Wheat pattern.

It's somewhat rare, but it does crop up from time to time.  And I purchase EVERY single piece I find.  As is the case today.  A Saucemaker presented itself to me and, well.....  Veni, Vidi, Visa!

OK, it was really my Visa debit card, so technically it was "veni, vidi, checking account", but that just doesn't have the same ring to it.   Am I right?

The Saucemakers are kind of a strange anomaly.  I have 3 now... Two 1-quart models (seen below) and one 2-quart model in Cornflower.

NONE of mine have model numbers on them, they simply have "Saucemaker" printed on the backside under the handle tab.

Interestingly, if you look on eBay, some of them DO have numbers printed on them.  However, while the 1 quart models seem to have 2 different numbers (P-55 or P-64), the 2 quart model seems to be only a P-65.  Sometimes there is a "B" afterwards on both sizes, sometimes not.   It's inconsistent and very confusing.

To top it off, the Wheat pattern pieces do not start with a "P" (original) or "A" (post-1972) like most of the standard shaped pieces (French White is another story).... The wheat pattern pieces begin with "W"...  I don't know why the Wheat pattern has it's own beginning letter.  As a result of this, my guess is that this piece, being a 1 quart model, is either W-55 or W-64.  I have no idea which. 

Identity aside, I am extremely happy with this find.  It cost a little more than I am usually comfortable paying for pieces, that is for sure.  After all, for me, half the fun of collecting is getting a bargain.  In the grand scheme of things, however, I can think of many other things I could have spent $10 on and had nothing to show for it in the end.  Instead, I have a beautiful, and sligthly rarer piece of the elusive Wheat pattern to go with my Broil and Bake tray (W-35-B), 4 quart Dutch Oven (W-34-B), my 6 cup Drip-O-Lator (W-104 with P-114-U) and my Pie Plate (W-309)

So few pieces when compared to the amount of Blue Cornflower I have.  Must keep looking!

Where is your Corningware??
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