Chris Hennes

Gorgeous: what cure recipe did you use for the bacon? Do you salt the tomatoes a la minute, or pre-salt them to draw out moisture?

There are two things that affect how the oil to rises to the surface of a coffee bean: roast level and age. If you roast up past FC+ and into the extremely dark roasts (those that I suspect everyone here agree are over-roasted for your purposes) your beans will be oily coming straight out of the roaster. On the other hand, if you roast to, say, Full City, it may take a few weeks before any oils rise up to the surface. But give them a few months in the cupboard and you'll find they're coated with oil. The higher you roasted, the sooner the oil will rise to the surface, but if the beans are old enough then the amount of sheen isn't an indicator of roast level, it just means they're old.

I agree with Rona: if you're willing to set up EventBrite that was the easiest method of the ones I've been to, but if you're handy with a spreadsheet you can make straight PayPal or even cash at the door work.

The sheen in the Eight O'Clock is probably more due to age than to roast level: based on their color I'd guess they didn't have an oily surface when they came out of the roaster. If you discount the sheen and just look at the color of the beans you can see that your roast is substantially lighter than theirs: maybe in the neighborhood of City- or City.

At a glance I'd say your roast is still substantially lower than FC+, though of course that may be the camera and/or lighting. I think after roasting some you will be very surprised by just how dark you can go before you actually hit the burnt stage. Your beans don't show a hint of oil at the surface, so you're not to a French Roast yet, and even that isn't yet actually burnt. You might consider putting some commercially-roasted beans next to yours and posting a photo so we can see the comparison there.

OK, here's my entry: homemade bacon (Modernist Cuisine recipe), homemade mayo (lemon juice-based, lots of dijon though), store-bought everything else. Butter lettuce, Purple Cherokee tomato, standard white bread.

Good timing, BLTs are on tonight's dinner menu: I agree with the choice of purple cherokee, definitely one of my favorite tomatoes. I'm not a fan of thick-sliced bacon on a sandwich though. I'll be using a homemade bacon from Modernist Cuisine (it's in the oven now). I hadn't decided whether to make homemade mayo or not, but since you're throwing it down here maybe I'll go that route...

I ran across this piece by Adam Lindsley via Serious Eats this morning: What do you think? Is Neapolitan the ne plus ultra of pizza, or can it be beat by other styles that can elevate the pizza to still higher levels?

I think it's been in-and-out of stock there for a couple months. Some days it's available, and other days it's the dreaded "We have no idea if we will ever have this product again" message.

Actually, it looks like the Tempio Maggiore in Florence.

In my experience puffs last only a few hours (at most) after being filled. After that they start to get soggy.

I'm doing the heat-gun roast method, outside, although that method produces a lot of chaff blowing around and not much (if any) smoke.

I typically sort of wing my cheese sauces: what you need is a liquid that complements your cheese (beer, white wine, etc.). Bring a cup of it to a simmer in a saucepan and add about 1/4 tsp of sodium citrate. Then start adding your shredded cheese, whisking as you go, until it reaches the consistency you want. It reheats in the microwave just fine, and should keep at least a week, if not longer.

What about a cheese sauce? If you make it with some sodium citrate it's basically bulletproof for reheating. ETA: Wait, maybe I'm confused: are you looking for a sauce made with vegetables, or a sauce to put ON vegetables?

Do you have a tentative itinerary worked out so people can see the locations of the various places we are going?

Our very own Katie Loeb has a new book out: Shake, Stir, Pour-Fresh Homegrown Cocktails: Make Syrups, Mixers, Infused Spirits, and Bitters with Farm-Fresh Ingredients-50 Original Recipes. My copy's on the way.

I'm not sure it quite counts, as I would consider it accessible due to the ready availability of Chinese ingredients in my area (and she does have some suggestions for substitutions), but Fuchsia Dunlop's Land of Plenty seems to present a non-dumbed down look at Sichuan cuisine.

eG-friendly link: Shake, Stir, Pour-Fresh Homegrown Cocktails: Make Syrups, Mixers, Infused Spirits, and Bitters with Farm-Fresh Ingredients-50 Original Recipes I'm looking forward to getting my copy signed in August!

Are you doing them retrograde? Does that help with the reheating issue?

I ended up using yesterday's tomato harvest to make a fresh tomato sauce: literally just tomatoes and salt. Served it on fresh pasta with a quick grind of black pepper, a pat of butter, a few basil leaves, and a shaving of parmesan.

One push of the smoothie button to process it?

What sort of oats are you using in that smoothie?

OK, so let me give a great modernist cooking tip: sodium citrate is fantastic stuff. I can't remember the last time I made a cheese sauce without it. (oh, and welcome to eG Forums, thoughtforfood... as you can see, we... um... have some opinions, and like to share them!)

Since a number of us are roasting our own (and here, and here), I thought it made sense to start comparing notes on what was working and what wasn't for the offerings at Sweet Maria's. To start it off, right now I'm drinking Brazil Fazenda Santa Mariana roasted to Full City, brewed drip follow the SM instructions. It is fantastic: it's got a great funkiness that I think is what the packaging is talking about when it describes the coffee as "malty". What are the rest of you experimenting with right now?

The weather is absolutely perfect here, but I think I may simply eat outside, and cook in: I have some ripe tomatoes calling out for fresh pasta and basil.