Money and Labour Saving Tips

[zapatos]

41 minutes ago, iNow said:

My skin is super reactive to them, and I generally to use a bench vise plus some needle pliers to remove the nut meats. SUPER slow process. Hours of work for a small bag or two. Any tips for dehusking and deshelling?

 

To get rid of the outer hull we throw them in the driveway and drive over them for a week or so. We've also put them into a cement mixer with rocks and water. Did a great job of getting rid of the hulls, plus made the inner hulls nice and clean. To get through the inner shell we use a wire cutter. At the pointy tip you clip between the two halves and the shell pretty much splits in half. Then you clip into the fat part of one of the halves and it drops into quarters which exposes the meat which can be pulled out. It's not quite that easy but it's pretty close. 

I find it really easy. Usually all I have to do is bring my wife an occasional cup of coffee as she's working. 😀

[Eise]

18 hours ago, MigL said:

Personally I prefer the stove-top percolating aluminum espresso makers.

Me too. I always make coffee that way. Just not aluminium, but stainless steel ones. Especially, already knowing about aluminium and Alzheimer's plaques, and then learned that aluminium is one of the lightest elements that are not needed in our bodies. I even got further, starting from the coffee grinder:

(But then an antique one, and fastened on a stool.)

And for the cappuccino, this for the skimmed milk:

Yes, I believe in primitive technology, and doing something to 'earn' the coffee. It definitely is not labour saving...  Sorry @mistermack.

Edited May 3, 2023 by Eise

[geordief]

7 hours ago, iNow said:

Definitely. The bitterness comes from the brewing process and is much lower when cold brewed. Warming after doesn’t introduce any bitterness not alread present

What about staleness?Does that kick in just the same as with filtered coffee? You just make as  much as you need at the time?

Edited May 3, 2023 by geordief

[Intoscience]

7 hours ago, StringJunky said:

I've just started doing that and just needed to flip the buttons to preserve symmetry.

Ha, yes I never really give that a thought, well done!

[mistermack]

40 minutes ago, geordief said:

What about staleness?Does that kick in just the same as with filtered coffee? You just make as  much as you need at the time?

I believe that only kicks in for filtered coffee that's kept hot. Like I said at the beginning, I make about 10 cups at a time and keep it in the door of the fridge in a plastic milk bottle. I can't detect any change in taste from the first cup to the last. I just do it because it reduces the fiddling with filter and spent grounds by a factor of ten. I just pour and warm clean filtered coffee. Microwave or saucepan are both as good as each other.

 

1 hour ago, Eise said:

And for the cappuccino, this for the skimmed milk:

Yes, I believe in primitive technology, and doing something to 'earn' the coffee. It definitely is not labour saving...  Sorry @mistermack.

That's what I use for my filter. I just put a square of T Shirt material in it and pour through. Filters absolutely fine.

[Sensei]

2 hours ago, Eise said:

Me too. I always make coffee that way. Just not aluminium, but stainless steel ones. Especially, already knowing about aluminium and Alzheimer's plaques, and then learned that aluminium is one of the lightest elements that are not needed in our bodies. I even got further, starting from the coffee grinder:

..aluminum foil is used to 1) bake cakes and bread 2) keep food warm (restaurant dish delivered to your home) 3) cover a large amount of food bought daily in stores.. 4) drinks in aluminum cans.. etc. etc.

In the grinder, the coffee has only a few seconds of encounter with aluminum. In the roaster, oven, it is one or several hours at high temperature..

Edited May 3, 2023 by Sensei

[mistermack]

27 minutes ago, Sensei said:

..aluminum foil is used to 1) bake cakes and bread 2) keep food warm (restaurant dish delivered to your home) 3) cover a large amount of food bought daily in stores.. 4) drinks in aluminum cans.. etc. etc.

I agree, the risks might be minimal. But why take a minimal risk, when stainless steel is such a nice material? I would say that the riskiest cooking with aluminium ware would be cooking acidic fruits for jam etc. I would definitely use stainless for that. Also, using steel wool to clean aluminium ware is reckoned to cause a release. 

But as a general rule, I just avoid aluminium when there's an alternative. It's probably overkill but it doesn't cost anything. 

[Eise]

27 minutes ago, Sensei said:

In the grinder, the coffee has only a few seconds of encounter with aluminum.

I meant the percolating coffee espresso maker. And that can become quite hot, especially when I do not smell the coffee or hear it running through. 

28 minutes ago, Sensei said:

1) bake cakes and bread 2) keep food warm (restaurant dish delivered to your home) 3) cover a large amount of food bought daily in stores.. 4) drinks in aluminum cans

1. Nope, I do not use alu foil for that
2. I nearly never order food at home, and then mostly it is pizza
3. Not in Switzerland, at least not what I use to buy
4. My drinks are mostly in PET or glass bottles. And AFAIK, there is a small layer of some plastic in aluminium cans.

But still, I am not a fanatic. Just a bit careful, when it is easy to do. 

Like Mistermack says:

1 minute ago, mistermack said:

But why take a minimal risk, when stainless steel is such a nice material?

 

[Sensei]

57 minutes ago, Eise said:

And that can become quite hot, especially when I do not smell the coffee or hear it running through. 

The optimal brewing temperature for coffee is 88-94 C. If it is unnaturally too hot, maybe it is damaged?

https://www.google.com/search?q=percolator+coffee+espresso+maker+brewing+temperature

"This temperature is controlled by the thermostat of the espresso machine and should be 190 to 196 degrees Fahrenheit. The temperature of the brew in your cup will be between 160 and 165 degrees Fahrenheit."

This is two to three times lower than the temperature at which breads or cakes are baked in the oven in the bakery. And it takes 90 to 180 seconds for each cup, instead of 3600-7200+ seconds for roasting/baking..

 

Maybe someone should do experiments on how much aluminum is deposited in food over some period of time, at some (different) temperatures? 3D graph with quantity, time and temperature on each axis.

57 minutes ago, Eise said:

Nope, I do not use alu foil for that

You don't buy bread from stores/bakery and just bake your own? Every day?

Anyway, I listed what a "typical average person in this world" has.

57 minutes ago, Eise said:

I nearly never order food at home, and then mostly it is pizza

I do it every day if I have enough to pay for it. This saves me time. And no matter which restaurant is used, it comes in typical Styrofoam boxes and the meat is in aluminum foil. This prevents the meal from cooling down.

Edited May 3, 2023 by Sensei

[Eise]

4 minutes ago, Sensei said:

The optimal brewing temperature for coffee is 88-94 C. If it is unnaturally too hot, maybe it is damaged?

Not at all. It is such an apparatus:

(But then much bigger (I think it is a '12 espresso cups' size), and of stainless steel...)

So if you do not notice that the water boiled through, i.e. there is no water anymore in the lower compartment, it can be as hot as possible on your stove.

As a side node, pressure is not high enough to count as real espresso (no 'crema'), but it is good enough.

10 minutes ago, Sensei said:

You don't buy bread from stores/bakery and just bake your own? Every day?

No; I just buy my bread. If it comes in contact with (hot?) aluminium, well, too bad.

[TheVat]

22 hours ago, geordief said:

read that you had to remove the membrane from the shell  and so I gave up on that

No need?

I don't think so.  Membrane doesn't affect flavor and will add a tiny bit of collagen (a good thing) to your coffee.  

On the road this week, so am slow to reply here.  Many useful ideas, though I am not driving over walnuts for a week then working them over with a jackhammer and a sawzall or whatever the next steps were.  

Another money saver: make your rice go a little farther, and and add protein, with saved nail clippings.  

[zapatos]

[MigL]

That's gotta be a lifetime's worth of nail clippings.
Some people collect the most odd things.

And I do use a SS stovetop espresso maker , but I have a few small 1-2 cup traditional aluminum ones. 
Those are the ones I remember from my youth in the 60s and 70s, Eise; like the Motta model in your photo.
The link between Alzheimer's and Aluminum has never been factually estabilished, and while the prevalence of Aluminum cooking utensils has decreased dramatically over the last 40 years, the incidence of Alzheimer's has increased considerably during that time
( expected to almost double in 20 years ).

[iNow]

On 5/3/2023 at 5:05 AM, geordief said:

What about staleness?Does that kick in just the same as with filtered coffee? You just make as  much as you need at the time?

I have not noticed any issues with staleness when cold brewing. I’d brew enough for the week and then finish it within 3 days bc it tasted so badass… but hmm… could it be maybe that’s why it never got stale? 

Edited May 5, 2023 by iNow

[CharonY]

On 5/3/2023 at 4:05 AM, geordief said:

What about staleness?Does that kick in just the same as with filtered coffee? You just make as  much as you need at the time?

I think there are a few misconceptions when it comes to coffee. Fundamentally each extraction method extracts the various components of coffee with different efficiency, depending on contact time, temperature, but also the grind size and so on.

However, a critical factor are the beans themselves. Many of the aromatic compounds are volatile, so pre-ground coffee can lose a lot of them. Some of the bitterness can come from the overroasted beans, and while one can mitigate them by the coffee preparation method, it is a bit like scraping off burnt bits from bread.

If you cannot taste the difference between freshly brewed coffee and older reheated coffee, chances are that you have started with stale, potentially overroasted coffee as what you taste might are likely cholorgenic acid lactones and their breakdown products during prolonged roasting. 

Unfortunately, this process also destroys many of the more volatile components and coffee can lose some of their more complex flavour profiles. They belong to a wide range of different chemical compound of which only a few dozen have been identified to my knowledge. Strongly roasted beans are the typical method for pre-ground coffee as the taste becomes more standardized and many folks associated the bitterness with "strength" of the coffee. 

Cold brewing extracts polar components very well (which is why it also has a high caffeine content and also rich in caffeoylquinic acid ), but is somewhat inefficient for some of the more hydrophobic compounds. Still, it can retain some of the more malty, caramel or nutty flavours, but certain floral (as I found to be common in Ethiopian coffee) seem to be more muted. 

In general, complex flavours (i.e. wider range of flavour molecule) seem to get more effectively extracted with longer contact time. Espresso results in fairly efficient extraction (due to combination of pressure and heat) but significantly changes the ratio of compounds relative to immersion.

OK I shut up now.

[zapatos]

11 minutes ago, CharonY said:

If you cannot taste the difference between freshly brewed coffee and older reheated coffee, chances are that you have started with stale, potentially overroasted coffee as what you taste might are likely cholorgenic acid lactones and their breakdown products during prolonged roasting. 

 

Sorry if I missed it, but what is it that you are saying changes the flavor of coffee which occurs between coffee that is fresh brewed, and that which is cooled down then reheated? Although I now drink primarily espresso, in the past after brewing a fresh pot of coffee I would immediately turn off the coffee maker and drink  subsequent cups after reheating in the microwave. I never noticed a difference in flavor. I always ground the beans prior to making the coffee and generally bought better beans.

[CharonY]

Sorry, I think I started with one thought and then veered off in a different direction. So the stuff that is mostly stable includes (IIRC) things like chlorogenic and ferulic acids, which tends to stick around. However other components including acetaldehydes, pentadiones actually increase, resulting in what some consider a rancid aroma. You can test that by measuring the pH over time. This is less pronounced if you start off with burned coffee beans in the first place (which often has less of fruity notes) but in certain (e.g. Colombian coffee) with citrus notes it becomes quite prominent after a little while.

I think it is less about re-heating, but rather how long it oxidizes (and at which temperature). So warming up a fresh coffee should have little impact (unless heated excessively) but let it stand for a day or  more more would (at least with decent beans). One can prolong the time by reducing oxygen and putting it in the fridge.

Edit: actually I think I have read something taste profile changes after re-heating but I forgot if folks actually looked at the metabolites. I'll have to check.

Edit2: I recall that there were taste tastes of coffee holding time on hot plates and I think the how long and how much heat it gets affected flavour rather rapidly. So likely it also depends on how you reheat it (and how hot). But again, that is rather murky memory territory now.

[zapatos]

29 minutes ago, CharonY said:

Sorry, I think I started with one thought and then veered off in a different direction. So the stuff that is mostly stable includes (IIRC) things like chlorogenic and ferulic acids, which tends to stick around. However other components including acetaldehydes, pentadiones actually increase, resulting in what some consider a rancid aroma. You can test that by measuring the pH over time. This is less pronounced if you start off with burned coffee beans in the first place (which often has less of fruity notes) but in certain (e.g. Colombian coffee) with citrus notes it becomes quite prominent after a little while.

I think it is less about re-heating, but rather how long it oxidizes (and at which temperature). So warming up a fresh coffee should have little impact (unless heated excessively) but let it stand for a day or  more more would (at least with decent beans). One can prolong the time by reducing oxygen and putting it in the fridge.

Edit: actually I think I have read something taste profile changes after re-heating but I forgot if folks actually looked at the metabolites. I'll have to check.

Edit2: I recall that there were taste tastes of coffee holding time on hot plates and I think the how long and how much heat it gets affected flavour rather rapidly. So likely it also depends on how you reheat it (and how hot). But again, that is rather murky memory territory now.

Okay, thanks. The reason I would turn off then reheat cups was because I really hated coffee that was on the burner for a while. It got a really nasty flavor after a relatively short time.

[CharonY]

I think it is because the plates tend to get too hot. When held at moderate Temps the change is slower (though oxidation continues).

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