We tried our steam juicer for the first time last night.
HOLY CRAP.
Yep, it’s that good. I’ve rarely seen a piece of equipment so magical as this one and I can’t wait to use it more. I’ve gone from being curious about steam juicing to being in full-on love with it. I’m head-over-heels.
We converted 5.5 pounds of rhubarb to 3.8 pounds (just over 7 cups) of juice. That’s almost 70% extraction! Not impressed? Consider this:
- Much of the rhubarb was past prime and near limp. It had already lost water content.
- I did a side-by-side comparison of boiling (and straining) rhubarb. I boiled 3.5 pounds of fresh rhubarb (with much higher water content) in 3.5 cups of water. When I removed the solids I was left with 5 cups of rhubarb-infused water (it I extracted less than 2 cups of rhubarb juice from 3.5 pounds; about 31% efficient).
- The final results of the steam-juiced rhubarb were vastly superior in the following ways:
- It wasn’t diluted with water. I’m sure the steam/ condensation results in a small dillusion of the liquid but the steam-juiced rhubarb was so bitter it turned your mouth inside-out. The boiled version was drinkable (almost like unsweetened lemonade)
- It was crystal clear; even after 24 hours of settling. The process doesn’t mix the rhubarb with the final product/ juice and there’s nothing to strain – thus there’s no sediment like there is in the boiled version (even after multiple strainings).
- There’s 50% less solids left (even though I started with almost 40% more rhubarb). Both can be dehydrated.
- It was remarkably efficient. It took about twice-as-long as the boiled version but lack of straining and the following clean-up saved a lot of that time back.
- It was nearly effortless. No need to stir or worry about sticking to the pot.
- It handled a lot of rhubarb -and would have done a lot more. I could have chopped the rhubarb smaller (I broke it with my hands to places it inside the steamer) or added a lot more after 20 minutes (it reduced by 50% very quickly) to process even more.
Now to decide what to do with it