How to Roast Coffee in a Frying Pan

Roast your own coffee at home? Not too long ago, most people roasted coffee at home using nothing but a frying pan and an open flame. If you've never had coffee made from fresh roasted coffee beans, you won't believe the difference in flavor. Here's how to roast green coffee beans in a frying pan.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Heavy, flat bottom frying pan with a cover
• 2 metal colanders or wire mesh strainers
• wooden spoon
• green coffee beans
• a well-ventilated area

1. Get everything ready before you start. Put your strainers on a counter or table close to the stove so you can move quickly when the beans start popping. Turn on the hood fan--or open a window if you don't have a fan. Put your frying pan (grandma's old cast iron pan is ideal for this!) over a low flame to start preheating. It should be warm, not scorching hot!

2. Dump about 1 cup of green coffee beans into the warm pan all at once. There should be just enough to cover the bottom of the frying pan.

3. Cover the pan and start shaking it back and forth over the open flame or heat source. If you've ever made Jiffy-pop or popped popcorn on the stove, you'll understand exactly how to do this.

4. Listen for the "first crack". This sounds almost exactly like popcorn starting to pop. It takes a while to reach this point, but things will start happening pretty fast from here on out. Use your nose and your ears to judge when the coffee reaches the different stages. Keep shaking that pan! The beans must be kept in constant motion to keep from burning.

5. Keep your ears tuned for the "second crack". The sounds of popping will get faster and then change pitch so that it sounds more like Rice Krispies snap-crackle-popping than popcorn. Your green coffee beans should be just about perfectly roasted to an even, dark roast when it hits second crack, though you'll need to experiment for yourself to find the perfect roast for your own taste.

6. Dump the roasted coffee beans into one of the wire colanders, put the pan down and grab the other colander. Start pouring the beans from one colander to the other and continue until they are cool enough to touch. The object is to cool the beans down as quickly as possible so that they don't overcook and burn. This method of cooling the beans also allows helps separate the chaff from the roasted coffee beans.

7. When the beans are completely cooled, store in an opaque, covered container until ready to use. Home roasted coffee beans reach peak flavor between 4 and 48 hours after roasting.

Tips & Warnings

• Try mixing two or more types of green coffee beans to create your own coffee roast blends.
• Work in a well-ventilated area. Roasting coffee beans in a frying pan is smoky business.

Resources

• Buy green coffee beans at Sweet Maria's
• Dean's Beans sells green coffee beans

[AnastasiaB]

on 1/16/2009 This is great! My husband LOVES fresh coffee - I'll have to try this one day to see what he thinks. 5 stars and a recommend.

[techsavvy]

on 1/11/2009 wow, that's so cool!

[insidestory]

on 1/11/2009 I want to roast coffee beans too. Thank you for sharing.

[paint-it]

on 1/8/2009 I never knew it was this easy!

[chameleon]

on 1/6/2009 Oh, you can, and it's easier to monitor the roasting stage of the beans in a hot air popper. However - everything I've read specifies that you need to use a particular type of hot air popper, which I haven't been able to find (they don't make them anymore).. I think you'll find articles about it at www.sweetmarias.com