Perfect cup o' Joe

Captains Cat · Posted: Tue Dec 23, 2008 4:27 pm Post subject:

Marty, good thing they didn't know you or me very well or we'd have been working in the stables with the horses, shoveling! Cry

Charlie

dotnmarty · Posted: Tue Dec 23, 2008 5:39 pm Post subject:

Well, I did spend some time emptying bedpans in Sick Officer Quarters at the newly opened Guantanamo Naval Hospital! Disgust

CAVU · Posted: Tue Dec 23, 2008 6:52 pm Post subject:

Well since we are on the subject-I am retired Air Force and many years ago I worked for a while in the command post. During night shifts we would make coffee to be ready when the big shots came in at 0600. The coffee operation was financed by monthly dues and each officer had his own cup on a hook near the coffee bar. We had one officer who was always "thrifty" about paying up. When I was on duty I would save half a pot of the old dried up sludge til about 0500, dilute it with a few cups of fresh water and turn the burner on under it. Since Mr. Thrifty was always the first one by in the morning he got one of the "good" cups before we made some fresh coffee. For him it was the "perfect cup o' joe."

Pat Anderson · Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2009 12:54 am Post subject:

Tonight I am roasting Colombia "Los Pijaos de Tolima" green coffee beans from Sweet Maria's. The West Bend Poppery II can only roast about 1/2 cup at a time, but it has an awesome aroma, will do perhaps four to six little batches tonight, only takes about 6 minutes per batch to French Roast. Can hardly wait to brew a pot in the a.m. Earlier put a pork loin rubbed down with Morton's Tenderquick in the fridge, and also 5 lbs of pork shoulder cubes for Coppa. These will be dried for 3 - 4 weeks after curing for a couple of weeks, then sliced very thin. Lordy, roasting coffee, charcuterie, what else is out there? I already brew beer and make wine! Tell me what is next, Marc! Laughing

rogerbum · Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2009 7:06 am Post subject:

bshillam · Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2009 9:19 am Post subject: Easy and fantastic!

Recently the wife and I purchased a stove top espresso maker imported from - you guessed it - Italy. These little guys sit on the stove top and develop pressure from the bottom once they reach boiling temperture and push the water through your espresso grounds in a cup just under the main portion of the pitcher. The quality of the stove top makes a huge difference in the taste of the coffee. From what I've been told the stainless is the only way to go. Bodum makes a real nice maker, right around $100 mark and if you get it on sale even better. We haven't had even one bad cup out of this. It's small and you have lots of choices when the coffee is done brewing. You can drink it straight, put milk in, or water it down and call it a regular cup ("Americano").

http://www.jr.com/bodum-6-cup-stove-top-espresso/pe/BOD_1061716/

Happy New Year and may every cup be the best.

Wefings · Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2009 9:29 am Post subject:

I e mailed Pat my latest project and some pics of the lab . Not the black labrador , but the food lab . Ill put some pics in the gallery . Then someone can remind me how to embed them in a post .
Marc

Pat Anderson · Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2009 10:05 am Post subject:

New Year's Day I got out the old #32 grinder (have to motorize that puppy), double ground a pork shoulder, mixed in cure (Morton Tenderquick), salt, sugar, spices (allspice, majoram and black pepper) and loads of garlic, stuffed it in hog casings and smoked it in my SMI 20 lb smoker (have a new Bradley Original coming, the SMI is just too tempramental). This was a little 5 lb batch, got 5 beautiful rings of "Grandpa Jumbo's Polish," a recipe by a guy in New York (search for "wittdogd" on YouTube for his sausage making videos - they are great).

I have smoked clams, oysters, mussels, pork chops and cheese quite a while ago on my Little Chief at Birch Bay. The main problem with smoking fish is - you have to have fish! We ate our Neah Bay salmon for dinner instead of smoking it. Have smoked salmon that either was given to me or (ugh) that we bought at the grocery store, yes.

Charcuterie - there is a GREAT book out there that Marc pointed me towards - it is called (surprise) Charcuterie - The Craft of Salting, Smoking and Curing by Ruhlman and Polcyn. Run don't walk to get this book if you are interested in charcuterie. I can tell you from trying Marc's (own first steps are curing in the fridge right now) that Mario's dad has nothing on Marc.

(P.S. Roger - you have a PM from me to pick up on wine grapes).

Pat Anderson · Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2009 10:23 am Post subject: Re: Easy and fantastic!

Sweet - we have a Mukka Express capuccino maker, same principle, guess we need one of these too! Have you tried roasting your own coffee? If not, check out this site - it is amazing. Read up on using a hot air popcorn popper as a coffee roaster, works great!

Grumpy · Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2009 10:41 am Post subject:

Pat,
Save your money. Just run the Mukka without the milk Idea

Merv

Pat Anderson · Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2009 11:01 am Post subject:

Merv, I thought of that...never gave it a try. So what do you do with the foam control dealie-bob? Leave it off?

Grumpy · Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2009 11:17 am Post subject:

Pat,
Have to admit I haven't tried it. Give it a go both ways and see what happens. As far as I can see all it does is change the pressure setting so you get steam in one case and hot water in the other.
If I can find ours I will try. It's currently somewhere hiding in the whole room full of "stuff" that we unloaded from the boat.
(Loved your pic of the "falls")

Merv

Wefings · Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2009 5:07 pm Post subject:

Pics are in gallery of the latest project . Pork Tenderloins ,cured with Rosemary and Juniperberry . With Burgundy and Marsala wine . They will hang around for a while .
The lab
Marc[/url]

Pat Anderson · Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2009 6:42 pm Post subject:

Pat Anderson · Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2009 10:38 pm Post subject:

Honest, this IS all related to "a Perfect Cup o' Joe"!!!!