Recession Cookery

So the economy is tanking, money is tight, the future is a concern...before doing something rash like switching to generic "bacon", there are plenty of ways to save money on your food bill. Saucyman is here to show cooks how to enjoy better food while spending less money on it. This takes more time/effort/organiztion but it makes for better food and money in your pocket.

Previously, Saucyman has done the math on the cost of coffee, but today we start our periodic series on saving money by cooking at home with a post on how to brew better coffee.

For years I went out for coffee. I enjoyed the ritual of grabbing a cup on the way into work - 16oz, black, cardboard to-go cup, bring it to my desk and ease into my work day as I sipped away. On days off, sitting in the neighborhood cafe reading the communal paper took up an hour of each of my weekend mornings for dozens of years.

Now it is a very rare day that I don't brew my coffee at home. Maybe it was the dog, then later dogs that hampered my coffee getting habit - Fred, in particular, doesn't being tied up outside. More than Fred's whinny nature, poor service grates on me. Normally, I hate waiting in line under any circumstance but when 4 employees can't take care of 3 people queued up because one is oblivious to customers and is back-stocking the coolers, two are debating which ipod playlist to play for the cafe ambiance and the one dude actually near the coffee machine is more interested in talking to a young woman about his fixed gear bicycle. And while she might not be interested in the specifics of the equipment (bike) she definitely likes the packaging (skinny boy jeans with the cuffs rolled up, ironic t-shirt that covers some but not all of the body ink) - All four working in harmony to turn a 90 second transaction into a 12 minute ordeal - it is enough to keep me from walking in the door.

While I never frequented specialty coffee roasters/brewers for the service (maybe the scene - just a little), I happily paid for the expertise and equipment. After the quality of the beans the biggest factor that determines the quality of the cup is the temperature of the water the coffee brews at.

Roasted coffee beans have about 1000 different chemicals that influence the flavor of the brew. Many of these chemicals are in the form of oils. (The prized Arabica bean is about 16% the maligned Robusta beans are about 10%.) If the water is too hot, the resulting coffee will taste scorched, if steeped at too low of a temperature and the beans will seem more weak and insipid than a character from a Tennessee Williams play. But just right and your coffee is transcendent, memorable, a desire rather than a necessity.

The big professional machines produce hotter water and are designed to properly steep the beans - not to mention the coffee grinders are more powerful and precise producing uniformly ground beans. The average home drip coffee makers rarely get above 185 degrees. (On most machines the heating element warms both the the hot plate and the water line. An elegant design that results in heating the glass carafe too hot and not getting the brewing water hot enough for making coffee.) Wear and tear, build up of mineral deposits on the heating element and planned obsolescence all mean your personal Mister or Missus Coffee will never, ever brew coffee at 195-205 F needed to extract all the flavors form coffee beans.

So, what if you want the fully brewed flavor that comes with professional equipment without the long wait and expensive that are synonymous with high end coffee. Fortunately, the solution doesn't require an expensive drip coffee maker - a Melitta filter cone used in conjunction with your kettle can produce a damn good cup of coffee.

Grind coffee to a medium fine grind, a little finer than what you would ;d use for a drip coffee maker, place 2 tablespoons of ground coffee per 80z of water in filter.

Heat water. The best way to measure temperature is with a thermometer. Boiling is 212 and usually a 30 to 60 second period removed from a boil will bring the water temperature to an ideal range. Place filter over your cup or carafe. Splash hot water over the grounds - similar to tea, this blooms/tempers the beans for the brewing process. Pour water over grounds 2 oz. or so at a time until your cup almost runneth over.

Even premium beans - at $14 a pound will yield 32 to 40 cups of coffee. That same amount of coffee would cost $60 at retail. And at the risk of sounding like the Sham-wow guy that is a savings of $46 every 2 to 3 weeks.