Category: Tutorials

technology related posts tutorials

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In March of 2018, the ebb Kickstarter campaign raised $18K to develop and manufacture the ebb Coffee Filter, a cloth based coffee filter made specifically for pourover coffee brewing.

I received my ebb Coffee Filter several months later, on September 28th, 2018. This is probably the first Kickstarter I have backed that has delivered on expectations on time and in the same year that the campaign was launched. Thank you, ebb!!

The version of the filter I received was designed for use with Chemex coffee brewers. The campaign created versions for other types of pour-overs but Chemex is the type I use.

The filter arrived on Friday in a small envelope. The filter package itself was also compact holding the cloth filter, a postcard with ebb Brew Guide for Chemex and instructions for use, and a CLOTHESFORCOFFEE coupon for discounts. Brew guides for other brew methods can be found on the Brew Methods website.

The material feels soft but sturdy. I expect it will stand up to multiple brews and wash cycles. Before I could use the filter, the instructions recommend boiling the filter in water for five minutes. I assume this is to remove any impurities from the manufacturing process. Once complete, I put the filter to dry, ready to make coffee the next day.

For the Chemex I have two recipes; one for use with a traditional Chemex paper filter and one for use with an Able Kone filter. The paper filter produces a clean cup with very little particulate matter. However, even though they are biodegradable and clean up is easy, I was not happy tossing these paper filters into the garbage.

I purchased an Able Kone filter — another Kickstarter — a few years ago. The Able Kone filter is a reusable metal filter but it does not produce as clean a cup as the paper filters; there is a little silt at the bottom of the cup and suspended in the coffee. I’m not certain but I assume the ebb cloth filter will produce a cleaner cup than both the paper filter and mesh filter.

ebb Coffee Filter—FujiFilm X-T2 + XF16-55mmF2.8 R LM WR @ 36.5 mm, f/2.8

I use the Press coffee app when making my daily brew. Over time, and with experimentation, I have created recipes for making coffee via Chemex, French Press and AeroPress. I have included a link to my initial brew recipe for the cloth filter. It’s the same as my paper filter recipe but with the grind adjusted to 21 instead of 16. I expect I’ll tweak this to find the right balance between grind and brew time.

UPDATE: My brew recipe for the Ebb filter for use with the Press coffee app.

ebb Coffee Filter—FujiFilm X-T2 + XF16-55mmF2.8 R LM WR @ 51.6 mm, f/2.8

I always brew with the freshest beans I can find. I have been a member of a number of online coffee delivery clubs in the past but in the last few years, I have settled on obtaining fresh beans from a local brewer. I enjoyed trying different single original coffees from around the world but I wanted to support my local brewer whom I know personally.

ebb Coffee Filter—FujiFilm X-T2 + XF16-55mmF2.8 R LM WR @ 55 mm, f/2.8

I started with 45g of fresh ground beans. I use a scale to weigh the coffee and I use a Baratza Encore coffee grinder which I bought a few years ago. In a kettle, I heat water to between 91ºC (195ºF) and 96ºC (205ºF).

ebb Coffee Filter—FujiFilm X-T2 + XF16-55mmF2.8 R LM WR @ 55 mm, f/2.8

Before putting the ground coffee into the filter, I poured some of the hot water through the filter to wet the filter and warm the Chemex.

ebb Coffee Filter—FujiFilm X-T2 + XF16-55mmF2.8 R LM WR @ 55 mm, f/2.8

After putting the coffee into the filter, I reset my scale, I start the Press app timer and start pouring water; about twice the weight of the ground coffee. After 45 seconds, I continue pouring water in slow circular motion, making sure to saturate the grounds.

ebb Coffee Filter—FujiFilm X-T2 + XF16-55mmF2.8 R LM WR @ 55 mm, f/2.8

Ideally, the water should stop flowing through the grounds when the timer is complete.

ebb Coffee Filter—FujiFilm X-T2 + XF16-55mmF2.8 R LM WR @ 41.4 mm, f/2.8

I dumped the grounds into the trash and washed out my filter. It was stained by the coffee grounds and I expect this to darken with use.

The coffee was delicious with no hint of sediment. A clean cup.

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Jeffrey Friedl is a software developer and photographer based in Japan. For years he has been scratching his own itch and creating plugins for Adobe Lightroom that make using and exporting images from Lightroom easier. He makes these plugins available for a nominal fee -- whatever you want to pay. I've used many of his plugins for years.

Need to export images to Tumblr or Twitter or Facebook? Need to control what metadata is/isn't included during any export? Need to inject Creative-Commons license data into exported images? Jeffrey has written plugins to do each of those things. And some of the export plugins can be combined with other export plug-ins. Which is what prompted this blog post.

Some time ago I [started using the Automattic’s WordPress.com export plugin to export directly from Adobe Lightroom to my Jetpack-powered WordPress.org website. This plugin-in saves me time.

One of Jeffrey’s plugins is the Metadata Wrangler Export Plugin. This “export filter” plugin for Lightroom allows me to strip or modify selected metadata components from images as they are exported.

I just learnt a trick for adding EXIF data to the caption of the images I post to this website and also to Instagram by combining the two plugins.

I use the Metadata Wrangler Export Plugin as a post-process action to overwrite the caption metadata field with image data from my Lightroom catalogue before it is exported to WordPress.

Here’s the information inserted into the caption.

{Title?<p>{Title}</p>—}{Caption?<p>{Caption}</p>—}

<p>{CameraName?{CameraName}} {Lens?+ {Lens}} {FocalLengthMM?@ {FocalLengthMM}}, {Aperture?{Aperture}} {ShutterSpeed? at {ShutterSpeed}}, {ISO? ISO {ISO}}</p>

{RightsUsageTerms?<p>{RightsUsageTerms}</p>}

These preset template tokens inserts the image capture information such as camera make and model, and image EXIF data.

On my WordPress website, images with a caption display will display capture information.

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A Secret to the Best Bacon Ever (Kitchn)

I think we can agree that crispy, smoky bacon is one of life's greatest pleasures. However, standing over a hot stove dodging sputtering bacon grease is not. Here is how we can have the best of both worlds: a hands-free, hassle-free method for cooking perfect bacon, all in the oven.

I've cooked my bacon this way for several years. It's easy and simple. I like simple breakfasts.

I like thick cut bacon but my family (except for my vegetarian wife) prefers the thinner slices. The bacon expert in the house, my daughter Kiran, says the thin slices cook more crisp. I'm still practicing and developing my technique for cooking super crispy bacon while preventing burning. But I think she's correct; the thicker cuts will produce chewier bacon while the thinner cuts will produce crisper bacon. When I choose bacon, I look for a nice blend of meat and fat, with a little more meat than fat.

Every year we take part in my wife's family's version of the white elephant game. My wife doesn't believing in wasting money so we always try to buy something that still has practical use. Better yet, something we would use ourselves. My wife and I are good bargain shoppers on Amazon.com and find it easy to find something within the defined dollar limit. One year we found two items we liked, an electric breakfast sandwich maker and an electric waffle maker. Both met the dollar limit. We bought both. We kept the waffle maker and won back the sandwich maker.

One Thomas' English Muffin fits perfectly within the sandwich maker. I learned how to make egg, cheese and sausage sandwiches in three minutes with minimal clean up. Just separate the English muffin layers and layer on the fixings: egg, cheese, sausage. At first, I put the whole egg directy into the top layer. But in the last few months I've experimented with whisking a a tablespoon of heavy cream into the egg. It produces a light fluffy (and less chewy) egg layer for the sandwich.

Oven Baked Bacon

  • Servings: 1
  • Difficulty: easy
  • Print

A hands-free, easy method for cooking perfect bacon in the oven.


  • Nutrition facts: 390 calories, 29g carbohydrates, 19g protein, 19g
  • Credit: Khürt Williams

Ingredients

  • 2 slices Trader Joe's Uncured Apple Smoked Bacon
  • 1 Thomas' Cinnamon Raison English Muffin
  • 1 Wegmans Organic Large Brown Egg
  • 1 tablespoon heavy cream

Directions

  1. Pre-heat oven to 400ºF (~ 204ºC).
  2. While the oven is heating up, arrange bacon slices side by side on an oven baking rack and place in baking pan.
  3. Put pan in oven when oven temperature reaches 400ºF. Cook in oven for 20 minutes.
  4. Pre-heat electric sandwich maker.
  5. While the sandwich maker is heating up, whisk the egg and heavy cream for 15 seconds.
  6. Pour egg into top half of sandwich maker. Cook for 3 minutes, 30 seconds.
  7. Separate halves of English muffin and toast.
  8. Remove cooked egg from sandwich maker and place atop English muffin.
  9. Remove cooked bacon from oven and set to cool.
  10. Make coffee.