| |
Main
Date: 11 Dec 2006 09:23:18
From:
Subject: First Pan Roast - longer than really necessary
|
Howdy All;
I wanted to post about my first experience with pan roasting. Events
led me to give it a try and would like to say that I found it much less
scary than I had expected. I have been home roasting about 1lb per
week for four years. I have been curious about pan or wok roasting but
hadn't yet had the opportunity or motivation.
My wife was out running errands Saturday morning and left the kids with
me. The kids are still young enough that they don't know enough people
to have figured out that daddy's nuts; they still think dragging home
junk to disassemble and filling your house with acrid smoke is normal.
My usual winter workspace in the shed still has the parts to three
bicycles, a bike trailer and some square steel tubing from a
mostly-done project. The weather was pretty moderate - mostly sunny,
50F but windy - but not right for roasting outside with the wind.
All these factors led me to decide that I would need to break my usual
indoor roasting ban. I don't mind the smoke from roasting as long as
it is only once in a while. The thing that really keeps me from
roasting indoors is the chore of collecting all the chaff from the
kitchen, although it does help to find EVERY LAST STRAND of spider web
that may have been strung in the last century :). My usual approach,
heat gun into mesh strainer, is the best chaff spreader ever, followed
very closely by my backup army of popcorn pumpers.
Some time ago I found a tall, heavy SS pot at the thrift store. It is
like a humongous sauce pot, but with a curved in lip around 180* and
opposite that a tang. I'm guessing that this would have mated to some
sort of clamping lid, but I don't have that part. It is about 8"
across and 10" high, more like a stock pot but MUCH thicker - perhaps
as thick as two US quarters. It was made by Reveal and has the copper
colored base. I keep looking for a cast iron skillet to show up at the
thrift store, but no such luck so far.
I tried to get a quantifiable preheat on the gas range by using a cheap
long stem turkey fryer thermometer that I use with the popcorn pumper.
10 minutes at a low heat brought the air in the pot to about 150F. At
that point I decided that what I really needed, but didn't have handy,
was my TC probe. Pan roasting not being an exact science anyway, I
decided to just drop the beans and see what would happen.
I loaded that pot with 1# of sweetmaria's harar and started to whisk
like crazy. I chose this bean because it is the absolute most
forgiving bean I have ever found. DP Harar would definitely be my
stranded-on-a-desert-island choice. It will give drinkable results
from cinnamon to Spanish. This DP will also never give an even roast,
so pan roasting will not be a disservice to its nature. This DP Harar
is also drinkable straight from the cooler, which was good since I was
out.
At about 3:00 not much had happened, maybe a little less green. I
bumped the heat from low to medium-low. At 6:00 it was just starting
to yellow: no changes to method yet, but starting grow impatient. At
9:00 the roast was between yellow and golden, bumped the heat to
medium. At this point the roast pick up speed and began to follow what
I would consider a standard roasting speed. First crack sounded at
about 15:00 and continued, weakly, through to EOR at about 22:00. I
heard a first few snaps in the cooler rig, so I think I probably dumped
too soon.
The end result is probably a solid cinnamon, not the city+ I was
shooting for. For my input of 16oz I got about 14oz. The brew I got
from the press straight out of the cooler is about the same as my Nicro
today at 40h post roast. This end point from a popcorn popper would be
like drinking carbonated hay, but at 22:00 it has some spice and fruit.
It would have been better had it gone a little faster or longer, but
it'll keep me happy for the week.
If you were thinking about trying something new, pan roasting is not as
hard as it might first appear. The one mistake I made was in greatly
underestimating the strength of flame I would need; I should have
started at 50% on the range burner. Keeping the beans moving quickly
continuously gave me a roast that was actually /more/ even that what I
get from the heat gun. I like the fact that I can do my roasting for
the week in one 1# batch rather than splitting it in two batches for
the heatgun or five batches for the popper. The other great thing
about pan roasting is that all the chaff broke up and fell to the
bottom of the pot. All I had to do was transfer it between pans a few
times outside in the wind, no chaff got loose in the house.
I think I'll try the PNG I have next week and see how that goes.
Matthew
|
|
| |
Date: 11 Dec 2006 13:15:55
From: Jack Denver
Subject: Re: First Pan Roast - longer than really necessary
|
It sounds like what you have is a pressure cooker without the lid. The
thickness may have contributed to even roasting and lack of tipping
(external charred spots on beans), which is a good thing. I'm glad you
don't mind the smell in your house - a lot of people do. That and the need
to stir continously for 20 minutes. Pan roasts can be terrible if you don't
maintain proper heat and agitation - burned on the outside, raw on the
inside. Or they can be pretty good like yours.
A lot of maligned coffee related techniques (pan roasting, using a "steam
toy", etc.) can actually produce good results if you have a lot of
experience with coffee and how it behaves. Those techniques are often the
ones that are most attractive to beginners because of low entry barriers ,
but beginners are not likely to get good results from them (and maybe give
up on coffee roasting/espresso entirely as a result). But if you have a lot
of experience, even if you can get decent results you are not likely to be
satisfied with these techniques except when no better alternative is
available - the great is the enemy of the good. So these techniques are
"orphans" - too difficult for beginners, not usually practiced by the
advanced and that is why you don't hear much about pan roasting.
<mandtprice@gmail.com > wrote in message
news:1165857798.357508.80490@f1g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> Howdy All;
>.
>
> Some time ago I found a tall, heavy SS pot at the thrift store. It is
> like a humongous sauce pot, but with a curved in lip around 180* and
> opposite that a tang. I'm guessing that this would have mated to some
> sort of clamping lid, but I don't have that part. It is about 8"
> across and 10" high, more like a stock pot but MUCH thicker - perhaps
> as thick as two US quarters. It was made by Reveal and has the copper
> colored base.
> I tried to get a quantifiable preheat on the gas range by using a cheap
> long stem turkey fryer thermometer that I use with the popcorn pumper.
> 10 minutes at a low heat brought the air in the pot to about 150F. At
> that point I decided that what I really needed, but didn't have handy,
> was my TC probe. Pan roasting not being an exact science anyway, I
> decided to just drop the beans and see what would happen.
>
> I loaded that pot with 1# of sweetmaria's harar and started to whisk
> like crazy. I chose this bean because it is the absolute most
> forgiving bean I have ever found. DP Harar would definitely be my
> stranded-on-a-desert-island choice. It will give drinkable results
> from cinnamon to Spanish. This DP will also never give an even roast,
> so pan roasting will not be a disservice to its nature. This DP Harar
> is also drinkable straight from the cooler, which was good since I was
> out.
>
> At about 3:00 not much had happened, maybe a little less green. I
> bumped the heat from low to medium-low. At 6:00 it was just starting
> to yellow: no changes to method yet, but starting grow impatient. At
> 9:00 the roast was between yellow and golden, bumped the heat to
> medium. At this point the roast pick up speed and began to follow what
> I would consider a standard roasting speed. First crack sounded at
> about 15:00 and continued, weakly, through to EOR at about 22:00. I
> heard a first few snaps in the cooler rig, so I think I probably dumped
> too soon.
>
> The end result is probably a solid cinnamon, not the city+ I was
> shooting for. For my input of 16oz I got about 14oz. The brew I got
> from the press straight out of the cooler is about the same as my Nicro
> today at 40h post roast. This end point from a popcorn popper would be
> like drinking carbonated hay, but at 22:00 it has some spice and fruit.
> It would have been better had it gone a little faster or longer, but
> it'll keep me happy for the week.
>
> If you were thinking about trying something new, pan roasting is not as
> hard as it might first appear. The one mistake I made was in greatly
> underestimating the strength of flame I would need; I should have
> started at 50% on the range burner. Keeping the beans moving quickly
> continuously gave me a roast that was actually /more/ even that what I
> get from the heat gun. I like the fact that I can do my roasting for
> the week in one 1# batch rather than splitting it in two batches for
> the heatgun or five batches for the popper. The other great thing
> about pan roasting is that all the chaff broke up and fell to the
> bottom of the pot. All I had to do was transfer it between pans a few
> times outside in the wind, no chaff got loose in the house.
>
> I think I'll try the PNG I have next week and see how that goes.
>
> Matthew
>
|
| |
Date: 11 Dec 2006 13:25:35
From: Todd94590
Subject: Re: First Pan Roast - longer than really necessary
|
when our new kitchen gets finished (hopefully by the end of Jan) I may
give this a try, myself. Since the kitchen will officially be "hers,"
there
has been no issue with what appliances to pick out-- whatever she
wanted, basically, except I did want one thing specified: a vent
hood/fan powerful enough that I can bring the hottop inside to roast.
Don't know what model number or manufacturer, but was told that it's
500 cfm. Further, not really having a clue (as to how much air that
is),
contractor enlightened me to imagine 500 basketballs per minute of
air volume. Oh yeah! We be roasting inside!
'course the darn kitchen is way over, time-wise; and budget, too, but
to be expected. Still planning on posting pictures of it in
alt.bin.coffee
once we're there.
Todd in Vallejo
Jack Denver wrote:
> It sounds like what you have is a pressure cooker without the lid. The
> thickness may have contributed to even roasting and lack of tipping
> (external charred spots on beans), which is a good thing. I'm glad you
> don't mind the smell in your house - a lot of people do. That and the need
> to stir continously for 20 minutes. Pan roasts can be terrible if you don't
> maintain proper heat and agitation - burned on the outside, raw on the
> inside. Or they can be pretty good like yours.
>
>
> A lot of maligned coffee related techniques (pan roasting, using a "steam
> toy", etc.) can actually produce good results if you have a lot of
> experience with coffee and how it behaves. Those techniques are often the
> ones that are most attractive to beginners because of low entry barriers ,
> but beginners are not likely to get good results from them (and maybe give
> up on coffee roasting/espresso entirely as a result). But if you have a lot
> of experience, even if you can get decent results you are not likely to be
> satisfied with these techniques except when no better alternative is
> available - the great is the enemy of the good. So these techniques are
> "orphans" - too difficult for beginners, not usually practiced by the
> advanced and that is why you don't hear much about pan roasting.
>
>
> <mandtprice@gmail.com> wrote in message
> news:1165857798.357508.80490@f1g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> > Howdy All;
> >.
> >
> > Some time ago I found a tall, heavy SS pot at the thrift store. It is
> > like a humongous sauce pot, but with a curved in lip around 180* and
> > opposite that a tang. I'm guessing that this would have mated to some
> > sort of clamping lid, but I don't have that part. It is about 8"
> > across and 10" high, more like a stock pot but MUCH thicker - perhaps
> > as thick as two US quarters. It was made by Reveal and has the copper
> > colored base.
>
> > I tried to get a quantifiable preheat on the gas range by using a cheap
> > long stem turkey fryer thermometer that I use with the popcorn pumper.
> > 10 minutes at a low heat brought the air in the pot to about 150F. At
> > that point I decided that what I really needed, but didn't have handy,
> > was my TC probe. Pan roasting not being an exact science anyway, I
> > decided to just drop the beans and see what would happen.
> >
> > I loaded that pot with 1# of sweetmaria's harar and started to whisk
> > like crazy. I chose this bean because it is the absolute most
> > forgiving bean I have ever found. DP Harar would definitely be my
> > stranded-on-a-desert-island choice. It will give drinkable results
> > from cinnamon to Spanish. This DP will also never give an even roast,
> > so pan roasting will not be a disservice to its nature. This DP Harar
> > is also drinkable straight from the cooler, which was good since I was
> > out.
> >
> > At about 3:00 not much had happened, maybe a little less green. I
> > bumped the heat from low to medium-low. At 6:00 it was just starting
> > to yellow: no changes to method yet, but starting grow impatient. At
> > 9:00 the roast was between yellow and golden, bumped the heat to
> > medium. At this point the roast pick up speed and began to follow what
> > I would consider a standard roasting speed. First crack sounded at
> > about 15:00 and continued, weakly, through to EOR at about 22:00. I
> > heard a first few snaps in the cooler rig, so I think I probably dumped
> > too soon.
> >
> > The end result is probably a solid cinnamon, not the city+ I was
> > shooting for. For my input of 16oz I got about 14oz. The brew I got
> > from the press straight out of the cooler is about the same as my Nicro
> > today at 40h post roast. This end point from a popcorn popper would be
> > like drinking carbonated hay, but at 22:00 it has some spice and fruit.
> > It would have been better had it gone a little faster or longer, but
> > it'll keep me happy for the week.
> >
> > If you were thinking about trying something new, pan roasting is not as
> > hard as it might first appear. The one mistake I made was in greatly
> > underestimating the strength of flame I would need; I should have
> > started at 50% on the range burner. Keeping the beans moving quickly
> > continuously gave me a roast that was actually /more/ even that what I
> > get from the heat gun. I like the fact that I can do my roasting for
> > the week in one 1# batch rather than splitting it in two batches for
> > the heatgun or five batches for the popper. The other great thing
> > about pan roasting is that all the chaff broke up and fell to the
> > bottom of the pot. All I had to do was transfer it between pans a few
> > times outside in the wind, no chaff got loose in the house.
> >
> > I think I'll try the PNG I have next week and see how that goes.
> >
> > Matthew
> >
|
| | |
Date: 11 Dec 2006 22:27:03
From: Ian Smith
Subject: Re: First Pan Roast - longer than really necessary
|
On 11 Dec 2006, Todd94590 <Todd94590@gmail.com > wrote:
>
> 'course the darn kitchen is way over, time-wise; and budget, too,
> but to be expected.
I took two weeks off work to sort out our kitchen about a month after
we moved house. Eight years ago. Currently, progress is going
backwards, because while I had most of the doors on the cupboards a
year ago, recently we bought a new washing machine and I had to
part-dismantle one of the units to fit it in. Further, someone has
bent one of the hinges (though both wife and elder daughter deny
swinging on the door in question). Also, I've no idea where the tiles
we bought eight years ago are now.
By teh time it's finished, it will probably be back in fashion...
regards, Ian SMith
--
|
|
