The Tropical Fruit Forum
Citrus => Citrus General Discussion => Topic started by: spaugh on May 05, 2022, 12:26:22 AM
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Anyone make concentrate citrus juice to freeze? Ive got way too many mandarins and want to juice and save it. Not sure the best way to remove the water from it?
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Not concentrate, just froze Tahiti lime juice in small 300 ml plastic drink bottles. Also some in ice cube trays but that ended up a bit messy.
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with a vacuum pump you can boil the mandarin juice at 100F with out damaging the fresh flavor but you will have to freeze the concentrate to save it.
(https://i.postimg.cc/v1b0GFJ2/d-illustration-science-fiction-scene-showing-glowing-glass-container-inside-complex-futuristic-machi.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/v1b0GFJ2)
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I have a hvac vacuum pump. And also a vacuum packer to package it and a chest freezer to store it.
But what to boil it in? Maybe rig up a 5gal bucket with a fitting?
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Pressure cooker. A 5 gallon bucket would be crushed long before the required vacuum would be reached. Atmosphere is 14 psi at 1200 feet elevation. Your pump will need to bring that down to 1 PSI
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If you freeze water with substances dissolved in it, and let it sit, the ice crystals slowly push the substances into small areas that remain liquid. Eventually there will be regions of ice that are solely water, and slushy regions full of - whatever.
That's how cold distillation works: you take a fermented liquid, let it freeze, then pick out the ice. There are limits to how concentrated it can be, which is why people also use heat-driven distillation, but it's a traditional method in very cold regions of the world where cold is free in winter.
It's part of why making homemade ice pops with juice is challenging - the water tends to separate from sweet juicy syrup that forms.
In warm regions/periods, cold isn't cheap - but if you're going to make a frozen concentrate, why not make ice at the same time, instead of expending all that energy to produce steam you're not going to use?
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Good idea. So basically dont bother concentrating it? I just dont have space for tons of frozen juice but maybe you are right. Just juice a few gallons and freze them up as it. It just seems like a big waste not to do something with all the fruit.
On the other hand, I need to be careful not to become diabetic with all this sugar.
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I am growing New Zealand lemonade fruits to get around the diabetic Issues.. Kumquats will work to.
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I understand that commercial orange juice producers basically boil and vacuum their juice for storage and have to re-add flavors when ready to sell.
I wonder is this because that is the only way it can be preserved? Or would freezing preserve the flavor but maybe is too costly?
I recall Millet said he would freeze excess lime juice in ice cube trays. I assume it is viable for sweet citrus also but never tried it.
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We also freeze lime juice in ice trays and then vaccum pack trays into a pack and thats good for 1 night of margaritas. One or 2 cubes makes a drink.
With orange juice, they concentrate it so its easier to ship and freeze etc. Other wise it weighs too much and takes up too much freezer space. But freezing it whole would taste fine, the issue is just the volume and mass.
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Hmm... that makes me wonder if frozen concentrate is actually fresher than carton juice that has been boiled, vacuumed, flavor-packed. Like they say about fish and veggies flash-frozen vs refrigerated.
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When possible eat the fruit and not the juice.
Juicing fruit takes away the fiber that slows down absorption of sugars, and thus slows the sugar spike. Fiber also has nutrients.
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I heard that limes could be pressed for juice, then stored with the pressed fruit in barrels for a long time back in the days of Sailing ships. This needed to be onboard to combat scurvy.
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When possible eat the fruit and not the juice.
Juicing fruit takes away the fiber that slows down absorption of sugars, and thus slows the sugar spike. Fiber also has nutrients.
A decision by the Australian and New Zealand Ministerial Forum on Food Regulation has seen orange juice go from a five-star designation under the Health Star Rating System to as low as two.
https://www.ada.org.au/News-Media/News-and-Release/Latest-News/Orange-juice-rating-change-18022021