stainless steel stovetop roaster

[bluedivergary]

I hope this has not been covered ad nauseum, but I could not find it in a search. I have had success with my poppery II roaster. But I want to get more "primitive" and "off the grid". My "primitive" is in quotations as I will be contradicting myself here pretty quickly...

SM sells the aluminum popcorn popper with plastic gears. But it also has the wire "paddle" rather than the "paddle shaped paddle". The wire "paddle" is good, but the plastic gears and aluminum... well, maybe not so ideal...

I am looking for a stainless steel popper with metal gears and a wire "paddle". Something I can pass on to my kids' kids. I want to roast over a bbq grill with propane or natural gas, or eventually even over a wood camp fire. MAYBE I'll roast indoors on the stove, but I really doubt my wife will go for it.

Is anything like this available? There seems to be several SS units out there with metal gears, but none with the wire "paddle".

Has anyone seen anything that fits my description???

Thanks in advance.

[bluedivergary]

No one has any ideas on this?
Has no one else tried to find the same thing?

[Howdy Mr]

Seems that roasting over a BBQ is most often done in a ss drum rotisserie style. The same could be used over a camp fire. But it would be messy indoors I would think.

[bluedivergary]

Yeah I've looked at the rotisserie style drums. Those are definitely cool and the way to go on the bbq. But I was hoping to find one thing that could cover both styles (stove top AND bbq).

Thanks for the input.

[Howdy Mr]

Some of the old style roasters would work on a stove top because the stoves had a fire box that would burn any chaff that dropped. I've seen a few on eBay that show them working on the stove top, but I don't know if you'd want to have something like that over a campfire. It seems too small. There are the old pan style roasters too. Here's an interesting option as well. As I keep looking there are several options, but I don't know if they'd work for you. Some are pretty cool though, just because of the novelty of them. Unfortunately these links will only last as long as the auction, though a search of coffee roasters can bring up a lot of different options.

[bluedivergary]

Good Grief!!! I really need to work on my search-fu. Mine is apparently very weak. Thank you again for these links. I'll start looking on the used/antique market.

[Sweet Maria's]

I am not really sure any of the current stovetop options are going to get optimal results. Things have changed and most people want to do more than turn coffee brown. Scorching is the main problem with stovetop options. Someone who works here at the warehouse (Cameron) made a false bottom screen to insert in a stovetop popper to hold the coffee off the bottom. That seems sensible, so it is not direct contact conduction heating, but you heat the air space under the coffee and it is convective. I have tasted good results from stovetop and barbeque roasting, but I have also tasted a lot of scorched coffee that lacked sweetness. It's tough, and I am not sure where we can go from here without getting something custom manufactured! -T

[bluedivergary]

That's interesting. I hadn't thought of the scorching being a common problem once you dedicated yourself to keeping the beans moving. A screen seems very doable. Is there any chance of getting some pictures of Cameron's modification? Many (most) of the bbq drum roasters seem to be made of screen so you are heating over the flame with them. That is fine on outdoor grills/fires, but no way I can take that onto the stovetop...

[dgrebner2]

I've experimented with stove top roasting with very good success for a number of years. I started with an aluminum plastic geared model, moved up to a stainless steel with metal gears model and am now using a direct drive model. Each has presented it's own challenges.

I don't care for the alumnium model very much as the bottom is too thin and deforms easily and the plastic gears are easily stripped when it jams (a fairly recent model is much more suceptible to this than my original one). I sold my original model to a friend and she has continued to use it for better than 5 years. So they can last a long time even with the plastic gears. However, I probably roast 10 times as much coffee in a year than she does so it probably would have bitten the dust by now.

My stainess steel model with metal gears worked reasonable well except that the paddle had a tendency to jam. So, I removed the paddle and replaced it with a stainless steel cable that I purchased at my local hardware store. That created the best stove top roaster I'd ever used. After about 3 years though the mechanism has become "sloppy" due to the bushing where the shaft passes through the lid becoming enlarged due to wear. There doesn't seem to be any easy way (or even hard way within my abilities) to correct it.

There is a direct drive model that I've recently started using. This one is a bit heavier duty model and shows some promise though it is not without its quirks.Direct Drive Model I bought mine at Bed Bath and Beyond. You just need to add a thermometer to it. I found that I had to oil the bushing where the shaft passes through the top or it would become tight as the unit heated up. I also found that you have to make sure the top is well secured or the cranking can loosen it (and it is very hard to resecure while it is hot). All in all I'm pretty satisfied with it though I have much less experience with it than my previous models. I can roast a little under a pound in a single batch.

I usually roast over a Coleman propane burner in my garage. It produces sufficient heat for stove top roasting, I can connect it to a 20 lb propane tank and have a stand by 1 lb cylinder on standby. I have a home made cooler and chaff removal system.

I have roasted indoors on the stove a few times but the smoke is definitely a problem with my over the range microwave oven/hood. Even though it is vented outdoors it misses enough smoke that it is probematic. I have a good friend with a professional model range and hood (in an alcove she built) and she roasts indoors with NO ODOR in her house. So depending on your situation it may or may not work. I strongly prefer gas ranges to electric as you really want the ability to instantly adjust the heat and to the ability to see the flame gives very valuable feedback when you make adjustments to the heat setting.

Happy Roasting to all.

[T-Rex]

This is an old thread, but even though I'm a new roaster with next to no experience, I'd like to add my comments about using the aluminum stovetop whirleypop style popcorn popper for roaster.

I'm using the thin aluminum popper with the plastic gears and the thin wire agitator. I drilled a hole in the top for a dial thermometer. Otherwise I've made no changes to it. I have a gas stove indoors with a very powerful exhaust that works quite well, but I found after one roast that there was still a lingering heavy roast oder and some mess from the chaff, so I decided to move my roasting operation outdoors. I'm now roasting on a propane Expedition 3X Triple Burner Stove that I bought from Costco back in 2004.

This stove works even better than the natural gas stove in my kitchen. It produces a lot more BTU than my kitchen stove, so I can use it at a low setting. Propane burns hotter than natural gas. I set it just above the low setting, not quite halfway to medium. The burner is several inches below the grate, so the flames aren't actually touching the aluminum popper. The popper heats up quickly and the temperature remains stable and then starts climbing slowly after then initial temperature drop when the beans are added. I don't have to move the popper on or off the heat or adjust the flame height during the roast.

I have not had any problems with scorching, and my roasts are pretty even. The plastic gears are holding up so far, but I have only roasted a few batches. I do have my doubts that the gears will hold up in the long run. I'm also concerned that the handle may come off. It is not very securely held on. I am not too worried about it though. These pots are cheap. If I can't fix something that goes wrong, I'll just toss it and buy another one.

I don't think you need to go for the heavier SS pot if you roast on a propane stove like mine, because scorching won't be an issue as long as you crank the whole time. I bought one of those heavy bottomed SS pots to use for popcorn since I'd appropriated the aluminum plastic-geared one for roasting coffee. I like the lighter weight aluminum one better, even for popcorn. Of course, I don't want roasted coffee flavored popcorn, so I'll just keep using the new SS one for popcorn. A big problem with the heavier SS popper that I bought is the gear quality. The gears are made of aluminum. They are soft, and I very much doubt that they'll hold up as long as the plastic gears. Brass would have been a better choice for the gears.

All in all, these stovetop whirleypop style poppers are all very cheaply made from cheap low-quality components. Fortunately, they are also cheap to purchase, especially if you just buy the thin aluminum one with the plastic gears, which seems to work just fine. I think if it works for a year, you get your money's worth.