Cooking Science Section?

[Freethread]

How a about a discussion section relating to cooking science specifically? In particular, I want to ask which spices are water soluble and which are oil soluble.

On the side, I also would like to see a section discussing smoke. I have been home roasting my coffee for a little over ten years, and I want to ask if anyone has has been using coffee smoke (from the roasting, not from burning the beans, so just the oils burning) to smoke meat, and what were the results.
Cheers,
--Stu

[David Parrish]

Stu these are excellent topics. Here's my thought. Start these off as topics in the General Discussion channel. Let's see how much traction they get. If they get a lot of attention, we'll put the in their own channel or sub-channel.

[Papa Bob]

That really sounds interesting, Have seen many rubs with ground coffee why not the intoxicating aroma of coffee roasting.

[Huskee]

I wonder how one would go about smoking meat from roasting coffee beans.. What would you suggest, roast beans somehow over your charcoal in a regular smoker? I'm not quite understanding how this could be done.

[Jon Solberg]

I'm with you AHL. You can drum roast coffee on a gas grill but the smoke time would be short and the temp high I'm thinking.

What are your thoughts on this FreeThread?

[Freethread]

Sorry AHL & Jon; I was away for a week with no internet access.

My plan is to start the charcoal smoker as usual, and make sure it is up to temp. Then, I would add the meat. At that point I would fire up my electric coffee roaster and pump the smoke into the bottom of the smoker. My coffee roaster has a chaff collector with a 3" pipe connection. I would attach a 3" flexible aluminum pipe to it and put the other end right against one of the air intakes for the smoker.

With my current beans, the roasting takes about 17 minutes, of which 5-7 or so minutes are smoky (with a nice blue smoke). After that there is a cool-down of about another 15 minutes. So roasting three batches will yield me about 15-20 minutes of smoke, in spikes, over an elapsed time period of 70 minutes.

If the taste is good, I shorten the time between when I get smoke from the beans by dumping them into another device for cooling instead of waiting for the cycle to end.

I will post a pic in a few days.

[David Parrish]

Sorry AHL & Jon; I was away for a week with no internet access.

My plan is to start the charcoal smoker as usual, and make sure it is up to temp. Then, I would add the meat. At that point I would fire up my electric coffee roaster and pump the smoke into the bottom of the smoker. My coffee roaster has a chaff collector with a 3" pipe connection. I would attach a 3" flexible aluminum pipe to it and put the other end right against one of the air intakes for the smoker.

With my current beans, the roasting takes about 17 minutes, of which 5-7 or so minutes are smoky (with a nice blue smoke). After that there is a cool-down of about another 15 minutes. So roasting three batches will yield me about 15-20 minutes of smoke, in spikes, over an elapsed time period of 70 minutes.

If the taste is good, I shorten the time between when I get smoke from the beans by dumping them into another device for cooling instead of waiting for the cycle to end.

I will post a pic in a few days.

Appreciated! I definitely want to see this in action.

[Huskee]

Freethread I think you just might be a pioneer in this method. I've never come close to hearing of it!

On that note....I wonder if burning dried used grounds would make a pleasing smoke. I know they make charcoal out of it, but you have me wondering.....

[Jon Solberg]

Im not feelin that... but hey I'll try it. I'll try anything.

I love coffee, boiled coffee, gas station coffee, pressed coffee, dripped coffee, ...

[Jon Solberg]

Very cool idea Freet. You running a gene cafe? I see where that could work. Timing is right.

[Freethread]

Hi Jon,
Yes, it is a Gene Cafe. Pictured below with the flexible hose I mentioned. Though it doesn't show under the light, it was pouring out smoke when I took the photo. I will try it again tomorrow or the next day with the roaster and something like ribs that I won't have to smoke overnight. I'll add photos when that is in progress.

AHL,
Being a pioneer is not what I was hoping for... I lack the experience to know what to do after I taste the first batch. How will I adjust the rub, the amount of smoke, should I add a different smoke, should I try with a different meat? I'll start with pork ribs, and a rub similar to Meathead's Memphis Dust, then vary the amount of smoke for now.

As for burning roasted beans, I wonder if that would taste any different smoke from just roasting beans. It would be so much simpler just to do that, not to mention being accessible to everyone.

Thanks for comments. They are motivating me into action. I smoked a whole pork shoulder last week at a cottage, and had the coffee roaster with me. I regret not having tried it then, though experimenting with a bunch of hungry people might not be ethical.

[boftx]

I experiment on people all the time. How else will I know if it's okay for my dogs?

[David Parrish]

Yep, experiment away! I do it to the poker crowd and my neighbors all the time. They don't complain!

[Papa Bob]

Maybe try with some chicken, a shorter cooking time and less time in the smoke. Thighs or Legs they seem to be able to take smoke a little better with out overwhelming it

[Freethread]

I wish. I blame it on my son, but it was 100% my fault in reality. Also the son in question is my youngest, at 14 months old. Just makes me feel better to tell people it was his fault.

[Freethread]

OK, back in business. One panel was melted, and two others sustained heat damage. When I was removing the chamber, I dislodged the main drive cog. I re-mounted the cog, and removed the damaged bits, and it works fine. I found a distributor, and will try to replace them, but can roast in the meantime. Whew!
The heat damage was due to me running it without the chamber in place (that is where my son came in). The cog was because when I put the chamber in, it got stuck on a piece that had melted and was blocking its path.

[Papa Bob]

good , I am really interested in your results