Nerd Alert
New gear!
Remember, Kojicon starts next week! Find all the info here. It’s going to be an incredible lineup—and your ticket gets you access to all five previous years of lessons and demonstrations. We can’t wait to see you!
I wanted to check in quickly about this nifty new toy I got. Historically I have strained my various ferments through jelly bags hung over a bowl. It works, but it takes time and often a lot of liquid can remain bound up in the solids—especially if they’re spongy or fibrous. So I bought this press, which is also going to be great for making cider in the fall.
I got mine here (this is the search page for “juice press;” mine is the 3-liter one). They have a good range of sizes running from pretty small to 5 gallons or so. This post is not sponsored in any way; I paid full freight for this with my very own money, and did so at this site to avoid giving the evil behemoth any more of it.
So far my only quibbles are the following:
The spout is quite close to the counter, which makes sense but it means I have to prop it up on some big books to get a decent-sized bowl under it. At very least they should have included a length of tubing.
The two bags it comes with are a pretty coarse mesh; including a finer one would make more sense. As it is, I have my jelly bags so no problem, but if you’re not similarly equipped you’ll have to buy a fine-mesh bag or two.
Other than that, it’s sturdily built and easy to clean. Moving forward, I’ll get a better liquid yield from my shoyu/garum-type ferments, and drier solids—which will dehydrate faster. I’ve been dehydrating more of the solids lately for shelf-stability and ease of use in baking, pastas, and other doughy situations as well as all sorts of furikake applications.
I've often looked at this and similar presses. We have a great big apple press, but that's only practical for apple harvest time. Otherwise, I suspend whatever I'm trying to strain from the pot rack in a tied flour sack towel. I find that works pretty well. After you've put this press through its paces with some moromi, please let me know what you think. I have a moromi going where I grew the koji (A. sojae) on pressure-steamed soybeans coated with ground dried soybeans. (It grew really well.) I was going from my own notes to make shoyu, and I believe I made 2 mistakes: 1) The toasted, cracked wheat is usually what is added to absorb some of the moisture of the soybeans. 2) I added toasted wheat, but I forgot to grind it first. To fix this, I ground about 1/2 of the moromi in the blender. The problem with this is that it will be very difficult to strain; I imagine I will have to let the solids settle after straining and pour off the liquid? I have this thing going in my biggest crock (about 4 gal) at room temperature, and I stir it daily. As long as the aroma isn't offensive, I'll keep it upstairs.
I got mine for $15 from a restaurant going out of biz...and find it yields AT LEAST 20% more liquid from koji ferments, garums, juices, and tinctures...I use fine mesh bags purchased for other ferments...fabulous! Pays for itself with a few presses.