North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Stephen Sadler" <Docshiva@Docshiva.org>]

I have a steam juicer.  It's a convenient way to juice small fruits for
drinking or preserving.  It seems to me the juice is less diluted than it
would be by boiling the fruit in water.  I think the concentration of juice
has more effect on the flavor; but maybe you keep more flavor elements
because the fruit stays covered during the process.  

The fruit has to be clean.  I've tried to steam juice grapes with the stems
sprayed clean but not removed, and pomegranates broken into pieces.  I got a
kind of grassy/woody taste; it's worth the time to stem the grapes, and seed
the pomegranates.  

~ Stephen

-----Original Message-----
From: nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Mark and Piper
Sent: Sunday, December 10, 2006 10:09 PM
To: North American Fruit Explorers
Subject: [NAFEX] jam making - steam extracted juice

I was looking through a catalog today and saw a steam extractor for fruit
processing. I make jam currently by boining fruit and sugar on the stove.
What I have been making seems to lose alot of fruit essence due to steam
boiling off. I was wondering if a steam extractor for fruit juice would
retain much of the flavor I now boil away in my kitchen. I would be
interested in hearing from someone that has experience making jam with steam
extracted juice and with the traditional boil method on the stovetop.
-Mark Lee, Seattle