On Tue, Dec 14, 2010 at 2:25 AM, Deepa Mohan <[email protected]> wrote: > On Mon, Dec 13, 2010 at 8:42 PM, Aditya Kapil <[email protected]> wrote: >> How does one roast green beans? > Charles will no doubt specify the density and material of the vessel you > must use....but in the days when I was roasting and grinding the beans at > home, I would just use a heavy "kadai" (traditional wok), and keep stirring > the beans until they are a nice dark brown, with a greasy "sheen" on them. > I've ground the coffee both on my mother-in-law's wrought-iron coffee > grinder, and on my little Braun, too.
I roast in the oven, I turn the oven up to 200/250c put about 300gm of beans in a baking pan and stick it in the oven. I stir it every minute or so until it's as brown as I like. There are distinct stages of roasting that are pretty obvious while you're watching but harder to describe. The first stage the beans are green to greenish yellow and smell almost grassy. The second stage the beans start to turn a light tan and smell like roasting grain. Not long after that the beans start to brown a little and make little "crackling" noises. That's "first crack." The beans at this point are at what's called a "city roast" and you can take them out now if you prefer a lighter roast. After that they settle down for a bit, deepening in color and becoming more uniform. They start generating smoke at this point. The next obvious stage is when they start crackling again. This is "second crack" and if you remove them just before the start of second crack you'll have a "full city" roast. That's my preferred roast for most beans, dark enough to have the roasty caramelly flavors I like, but not so dark as to start obscuring the character of the beans. If you let the roast continue a bit more you'll find roast character starts to obscure the varietal character, next is what's called a "vienna" roast where you're into second crack, then "french" roast where the varietal character has been almost entirely roasted away. This is the stage where you'll get that oily sheen and huge clouds of smoke. It's also easy to roast on the stovetop in a wok or other heavy bottom pan. Try to time it so your roast takes at least 15 minutes but no more than 30. Too quick and the center of the bean will be under-roasted, too long and the flavors won't develop properly and the beans will taste "baked." But really, despite all the detail above, it's really really easy to roast your own coffee. The simplest way may be to buy a used hot-air popcorn popper and roast in that. http://www.sweetmarias.com is an awesome source of information (and Tom and Maria are very friendly.) > And Charles, you'll kill me for this, but it was entirely TOO much trouble > (everyone would ask me to roast and grind some for them, too!)..... I find > buying 200gms of coffee powder from Cotha's at 2.30pm works fine for me! :) I would never kill someone for having different food preferences than me! I would just mock them. Consider yourself mocked. Now how about coming over for a cuppa? -- Charle
