BMS Paper Company - Jamaica Plain - Part 2

Update (Nov. 1, 2011): I just went to BMS and they have 72 oz bags of Toll House chocolate chips for $12.99. This is a pretty amazing deal, in case you're planning on doing some serious holiday baking. Frozen pie shells are 5 for $7.99 and they have frozen cherries and blueberries too. Check it out!

This is the second post on BMS Paper Company, located in Jamaica Plain near Green St. station (orange line). If you were wondering what about the kinds of things that are available there, here are a few pictures of some items I've purchased in the past year there.

1. A gallon of Frank's hot sauce for only $13.99. While a gallon might seem a little excessive, this gallon of sauce actually meets my needs because I go through a 12 oz bottle in only 2 to 3 weeks. I've kept the 12 oz bottle to use as a dispenser and just fill it up whenever it's empty. If you have a funnel, that makes the refilling process much easier. At CVS, a 12 oz bottle is usually $2.37. A gallon is about 10 of those bottles. Since $13.99/$2.37 = 5.9 (approximately), I'm getting 4 free 12 oz bottles of sauce by getting the gallon.

In case you don't know what to do with all that sauce, here are some suggestions:

• Marinate any kind of meat or fish with it
• Buffalo wing sauce is basically Frank's hot sauce and butter
• Use it as a dipping sauce for vegetables or meat
• Use it to create your own "special sauce" for burgers and other dishes (mine is Frank's hot sauce + soy sauce + cumin --- I guess it's not much of a secret any more...)

Make chili in a frying pan (see my post on that)

2. A gallon of Kosher dill pickle chips for $5.99

Again, this might seem a little excessive. However, if you look at the price of a smaller jar of pickles, this might not seem like a bad idea. With all the liquid in this gallon jar, you could probably reuse it to make some fresh pickles with some dill and spices. I like to store a small portion in the fridge in a glass jar because I like cold pickles on my sandwiches.

There are other uses for pickles (besides putting them in sandwiches):

• Make homemade Big Mac special sauce with minced dill pickles.
• Use the pickles and some juice to make a tasty meatloaf
• Make fried pickles

3. Silicon mat (larger than the ones you get at department stores) for $7.99

Smaller Silpat silicon mat
(11.75 by 8.25 inches)

They actually have two sizes and they are both larger than my baking trays/pans. I have the smaller one and the width of it is the length of my lasagna pan. If you need a smaller size, Macy's has the Silpat mats but you'll be paying about $13 to $20 for those because they're Martha Stewart's brand. Amazon.com also has them for a bit less but you need to add shipping costs. BMS carries the Winware brand in large sizes. I've used it for sponge toffee and French macaron. It works very well for both.

Large silicon mat from BMS Paper Company (less than $10!)

In addition to these items, I have also bought several frozen items that have been great deals and pretty good quality too. The Italian meatballs are very tasty and save a lot of time because all you have to do is pop them in your toaster oven or throw them into a tomato sauce (to serve with pasta) for a quick snack or meal. At $8.99 for 3 lbs, that's enough for several spaghetti and meatball meals. The frozen veggies are good to keep around in case you can't make it to haymarket one week. They have a good selection of corn, mixed veggies, and other varieties for less than $4 a bag.

The only flour that seems to work for me when making bread is from here too. The Hecker's brand is an unbleached flour and makes my bread rise better than other brands do. Five-pound bags are $3.89, which doesn't seem like a great value but it's the only flour that works with my bread machine. Other flours seem to create bread bricks. They also have 2 lb bags of yeast, in case you want to make a lot of bread. The yeast freezes quite well too. I've had the same package for several years and it still works. Store it in a airtight container in the freezer and then take a little out at a time to store in the fridge.

Roasting your own coffee - part 4 - Pumper vs Poppery II

Update (Nov. 20, 2011): I found and bought a second Popcorn Pumper at the Goodwill last month and discovered that not all machines (even within the same model) are created equal. My newest Pumper actually gets hot enough so that first crack takes only 6 minutes, like others have demonstrated on Youtube. My other two air poppers take about 10 minutes. So, if you have an air popper that seems to take forever to reach first crack, try another one, even if it's the same brand!

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This is the fourth post about roasting your own coffee with a popcorn popper. This might seem a little excessive but if you think about the amount of coffee that you'll drink when you're a college student, it seems worthwhile to learn how to make the best cup of coffee that you possibly can without breaking the bank or wasting too much time. If you're going to drink a lot of it, make it good and enjoy it!

The inspiration for this post was the purchase of a second air popper at my local Goodwill store. I saw it on the shelf, plugged it in to test it (it worked), and bought it for $6.99 + tax. It was the Poppery II, which is the preferred model on Sweet Maria's. I had been going to the Goodwill twice a week looking for an air popper because I wanted a backup machine in case my Popcorn Pumper ever stops working.

Since I now have these two different brands of air poppers, I thought it might be useful and interesting to do a comparison of the two machines. The chambers look similar in that they have the same air vents on the side. However, the Pumper has a little bump on the bottom of the chamber. In the picture below, you can see that the Poppery has a higher point where the sliver part meets the black top part. However, it has a groove in the silver part of the chamber that shows you where the approximate maximum fill point is. In the Pumper, the maximum fill point is approximately where the sliver part meets the black part. In either machine, you really need to watch how fast the beans rotate at the start of the roast. If they're moving too quickly, add more beans. Otherwise, you'll never get to first crack and will have to finish them off in the toaster oven.

Poppery II (left) and Popcorn Pumper (right) 

Closer look: Pumper has a bump on the bottom of the chamber

The Covers
The other main difference between the two machines is that the Poppery II has a clear lid, which enables you to watch the coffee roasting process from beginning to end without having to remove it. Some Poppery II models have a yellowish lid but they won't be as dark as the one on the Pumper. The Pumper also has that removable butter melting cup on top but every time you open it, the temperature inside the chamber drops. This could be important in cooler temperatures, when you don't want the ambient temperature to affect the temperature inside the chamber. Also, there are vents on the Poppery cover but I'm not sure what their function is. Writer of other blogs have warned that the cover will melt after a few roasts but I'm hoping this doesn't happen with mine. If it looks like it's going to warp soon, I'll save it for winter roasting.

Other Differences:

• Wattage of the Poppery II is 1200 W, the Pumper is 1250 W
• Poppery II is a little shorter than the Pumper
• Poppery II is a little quieter than the Pumper (this means that you might be able to hear the cracks better with the Poppery II)
• The bottom of the Pumper chamber has a little bump in the center while the bottom of the Poppery II chamber is just flat. Perhaps this explains why the beans move a little more efficiently in the Pumper.

Poppery II (left), Pumper (right)

The reason I wanted to compare the machines was because other people on youtube have managed to create dark roasts in half the time it took me with my Popcorn Pumper. Even though the wattage of the Poppery II is slightly lower, I thought the design of the Poppery II might make it faster to roast a batch of coffee. The first few batches in the Poppery II didn't seem to work because the beans took forever to get to first crack, if at all. I had to finish them off in the toaster oven. While this worked fine because most of the chaff came off when the beans were spinning around, I still wanted to be able to do a complete roast in the Poppery II. I also remember having a similar problem with the Popcorn Pumper when I first got it. Perhaps the machines need to be "conditioned" before they are able to do a complete roast.

After roasting a about 3 or 4 batches, I was finally able to do a complete roast and hear the first crack. It also helps to add more coffee beans than you think is enough. The beans should look like they are percolating and not moving much at the start. Here's a video of me comparing the two machines and a more recent roast in the Poppery II:

I roasted the beans for over 13 minutes and wasn't able to see any oils at that point. Sometimes the oils take a few days to come out of the beans. I've been able to see a bit of oil when I use the Popcorn Pumper. Perhaps it just takes a few more batches for the Poppery II to be broken in fully. The slightly lower wattage of the Poppery II might also prevent me from getting the beans up to a high enough temperature. Time will tell.

Resting the coffee

Some people on the web will say that the coffee tastes the best 4 to 24 hours after the roast. However, I've found that the coffee actually has more flavor a few days after the roast. It really depends on the bean. There's a de-gassing process that needs to happen. So, if your coffee tastes a little flat at first, let the beans rest a day or so and try again. At some point, you'll get a feel for how long it takes for the beans to reach their full flavor.

The humble toaster oven - broiling tuna steaks

If you go to a restaurant, having fresh tuna is often expensive and looks like it takes some skill to prepare. At home, if you have a toaster oven, it's possible to make a delicious tuna steak without much effort. The tuna steaks at the supermarket are quite expensive so if possible, check out the store below the cheese/deli store at Haymarket on Friday or Saturday to see if they have any tuna available. They usually sell it for about $4/lb, which is significantly less than the supermarket price.

Here is a video of the whole process:

Even though my "secret sauce" is Frank's hot sauce, soy sauce, cumin, and black pepper, you can always use whatever type of sauce you like to marinate the tuna. The advantage of using the toaster oven instead of a frying pan is that you can set the timer and go away while it's cooking. You can also control the type of "crust" you want by varying the temperature of the toaster oven. I set it at 350 F and that resulted in a very soft crust. If you would like a firmer outside part, you need to turn the temperature up and reduce the cooking time.

I also put basil leaves under the steak to add some extra flavor. The leaves needed to be under the tuna because they would have burned on top of the steak. Another way to use herbs is to add them after you finish cooking.