Roasting Coffe Beans

[Wishbone]

   I was wondering if anyone had ever roasted thier own coffee beans in a Dutch Oven or cast iron skillit. About 8 or 9 years ago there was a fellow on a yahoo dutch oven site talking about doing it for him self. The sites gone now. Wishbone-ks

[Delmonico]

I did some in a cast iron chicken fryer in the home oven one time, they were light beans I wanted dark for an essspprreessooo experimint.   I just set the oven at 350 and stirred them every few minutes.  I did boil some hot water in the skillet first to get rid of some of the oils. 

Civil War folks and earlier period do it all the time over a fire, just don't scorch them and roast them as even as possible. 

BTW the essssppreessooo experimint was some what of a sucess, used Celebes beans, but can only get them light roasted.  I don't think my nephew and my brother-in-law got to sleep at all that night, heard about it from my sister-in-law.

Celebes beans have the highest caffeine content of any coffee bean.  Celebes is an island in the East Indies.

It is a pain in the butt though, thank you to the Arbuckles Brothers and the other coffee roasters of the post-Cival War era.

[Wishbone]

As I remember it seemed like a lot of work roasting your own beans. Where do you buy that Arbuckle Coffee at?   Wishbone

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[Delmonico]

I carry it at work, most Old West shops do. I can't remember the price but it's around $14-15 dollars a pound.   One thing, it was not the only roasted coffee sold, many larger grocery stores had them new fangled-coffee roasters.  It just didn't keep as well as Arbuckles.

[Dr. Bob]

Wishbone,

I have roasted coffee beans over a camp fire in a sheet iron skillet.  Put your glove on and shake and stir the beens as they brown.  By holding the skillet you can better regulate the heat on the beans.  The sheet iron skillets are a lot lighter than cast iron and easire to use. 

[Mogorilla]

I did this using an old fashioned popcorn popper, the kind with the turn crank on top.  Not sure when they came about, but it is an easy way to keep the beans going and retains heat less than the cast iron.