I realized through my reading that I had several methods of roasting available to me without buying any equipment. I have a heavy, cast iron frying pan, a hot air popcorn popper, and a stovetop whirly top popcorn popper. These are all viable, economical methods.
I tried pan roasting first. One thing to know when you start roasting is that roasting coffee produces smoke. It isn’t unpleasant, I rather enjoy it but you will need a well ventilated place to roast. If you have a powerful hood on your stove you might try it in the kitchen…with the window open. I started with a camp stove in the back yard. I used an oven thermometer to make sure the pan was hot enough and a clear lid as you need to keep the lid on to keep the heat up. Challenges to pan roasting are: keeping a constantant temperature; roasting evenly; and keeping the coffee moving so it doesn’t burn.
I have to admit that the first time i tried this I burned it a bit. However, with practice, this can be a great way to roast your beans.
Here is one link to pan roasting coffee. It is a little different from the method i used but it is well illustrated. Here is another pan roasting link. This pan roasting link is very close the the one i used. I like it because leaving the lid on to keep the heat up make sense to me. It requires constant motion of the pan to keep the beans moving.
Some people prefer a wok or a sauce pan to a skillet. You’ll find your own favorites if you adopt this method.
In future posts I’ll describe the hot air popper method and the stovetop popper method.
Let me know how it works for you!
