Who knew the average kitchen would be filled with so many appliances capabale of cooking food? And no, not just your electric grill or the toaster oven, but your dishwasher can whip up culinary delights and now people are apparently even cooking in coffee makers. Say what? Yup. Salmon in a coffee maker. It’s the fishiest part of waking up…?

Using your coffee maker to make an entire meal might sound like a crackpot idea, but NPR’s The Salt points out chefs who are turning out entire meals with the brewers, including steamed broccoli, salmon and couscous, scrambled eggs and even cinnamon buns.

Sounds… interesting, to say the least. But how did this weird idea come up, and is anyone actually good at coffee maker meals?

“My nephew came home from Afghanistan complaining about the food in the mess hall,” one coffee maker chef tells NPR. “But the soldiers were allowed only to have coffee makers in their rooms.”

She turned to her coffee pot and started pulling together recipes that would work in it, including comfort food like short ribs and mac ‘n’ cheese.

“I put all my recipes in a little book and sent it over to the boys in Afghanistan,” she explains. “I also sent split peas and canned ham so my nephew could make split pea soup.”

There are basically three ways to cook with a coffee maker: Steam, poach and grill.

Steaming is easy with the top basket, where any veggies can go in and get nicely done in about the same time as they would cook traditionally.

Poaching involves using the carafe as a vessel for chicken or fish, or to hard-boil eggs, make couscous or oatmeal.

Grilling is a little bit harder and will take a lot of time, but if you’re dedicated to making a grilled cheese in your hotel room, the burner can serve as a hot surface.

The Salt attempted a classic meal of poached salmon with steamed broccoli and couscous, and found that while the salmon looked “scary” while poaching, the entire meal was pretty tasty and only took 20 minutes.

You can check out their recipe for the above meal in the source link below, and in the meantime just make sure you thoroughly clean your coffee pot after poaching that fish. Because while salmon coffee would surely wake you up, it might taste pretty gross if you forgot you were cooking fish the night before. And while we’re not seriously suggesting you use a hotel room coffee pot — who knows what’s been in there — if you get desperate enough it’s always an option.

Coffee Maker Cooking: Brew Up Your Next Dinner [The Salt]

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