Cooking with Coffee

Annabelle Breakey

Coffee brown sugar bacon

Find the coffee in this picture. Hint: It's not just in the cup.

Everyone loves waking up to the smell of coffee and the smell of bacon, and the flavors are pretty awesome together too. Add some molasses-y brown sugar, and you’ll reach bacon nirvana.

View recipe: Coffee brown sugar bacon

More: Five Western coffee roasters we adore

Annabelle Breakey

Coffee-braised spoon lamb

Spoon lamb gets its name from the texture of the meat when it’s finished cooking: so tender, you can cut it with a spoon.

This long, slow cooking technique benefits leg of lamb, typically a tough cut, and the acidity of the coffee offsets the richness of the meat. The sauce made from the drippings begs for polenta or potatoes.

View recipe: Coffee-braised spoon lamb

Annabelle Breakey

Keoke coffee and mocha almond fudge

This cozy coffee drink makes a nice substitute for dessert after a big meal. But if you must indulge, there are few treats in this world better than a smooth, chocolaty decadent morsel of fudge.

View the recipes:
• Keoke coffee
• Mocha almond fudge

Annabelle Breakey

Coffee and almond milk granita

This is a frozen dessert version of an almond latte ― creamy and nutty. Be sure to allow 8 hours for the toasted nuts to infuse the milk and 4 hours for freezing.

View recipe: Coffee and almond milk granita

Annabelle Breakey

Coffee mushroom cream sauce

Steep coffee beans in cream to make the base for an absolutely delicious sauce to go with roast chicken and egg noodles.

View recipe: Coffee mushroom cream sauce

Alex Farnum

Make a good cup of joe

Buying Coffee loses freshness shortly after roasting, so get your beans in small quantities from a store that regularly roasts its own or gets frequent deliveries.

Storing  Keep beans in an airtight container at room temperature up to 2 weeks.

Grinding  Because grinding beans releases the oils that hold aroma and flavor, grind fresh daily. Never freeze coffee after it’s been ground; it’ll lose flavor fast. Use the grind your coffee equipment is designed to handle.

Brewing  Use the right amount of coffee. A good guideline to start with is 2 tbsp. freshly ground coffee to 6 oz. water. For electric coffeemakers, start with cold water; for most other methods, bring water to a boil, then let it sit about 30 seconds (water that’s boiling hot extracts bitter flavors). And brew fresh every time.

Alex Farnum

How the West won coffee

1825 Coffee plants are brought to Oahu from Brazil. Today, Hawaii is the only U.S. state that grows it commercially, with Kona coffee being the best known.

1849 James A. Folger gets a carpentry job at age 15 at the Pioneer Steam Coffee and Spice Mills in San Francisco, helping build California’s first mill for ground roasted coffee. He carries its samples to the gold fields, eventually buys the company, and renames it J.A. Folger & Co.―which becomes a top national brand.

1966 Alfred Peet opens Peet’s Coffee in Berkeley, popularizing a dark-roast style. He later trains Starbucks’s founders and supplies the Seattle company with Peet’s fresh-roasted beans. Starbucks, of course, goes on to become America’s largest coffeehouse chain, with more than 11,000 stores at last count.

Coffee brown sugar bacon

Coffee-braised spoon lamb

Keoke coffee and mocha almond fudge

Coffee and almond milk granita

Coffee mushroom cream sauce

Make a good cup of joe

How the West won coffee