Yannick Alleno’s Celery Root Extraction Sauce

robert.c.brown15

I’m a big Alleno fan and have been wanting to do this for awhile. He makes sauces from vegetables and meat by cooking them sous vide and then cryoconcentrating them with a centrifuge to extract the pure flavor of the product. I don’t have a centrifuge so I made it work without.

Started with 1kg of Celery Root and 600g of water and seeled it with my FoodSaver. Then I cooked it for 12hrs at 83C. After that it comes out and cools for 2 hours before straining through a #200 sieve. That liquid goes in an ice cream maker until it freezes and becomes a grainy ice mixture. I put that mixture in a chilled bowl strainer over a pot and put it all in the fridge. As it thawed, the celery root extract thawed quicker than the water, leaving the water in the strainer and the extract below in the pot. After over 24 hours I put the ice in the strainer in one freezer bag to re-freeze and thaw again and the extract in another bag to re-freeze and thaw again.

The taste is incredibly pure celery root with a bit of a minerally flavor. It lasts a LONG time on the palate and has some thickness to it.

Actual time I had to spend doing anything was very little. Still a lot of time for not a ton of yield, but absolutely worth it to me.

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FrankM_3301

Nice! You are basically making clarified celery root. Would it help to blend after cooking, set with agar, then freeze. This way you use Dave Arnold's agar clarification method (freeze - thaw). It might improve your yield.

robert.c.brown15

I actually did consider that. May give that a go next time. Wanted to do it as true to Alleno as I could given what I had. Also wasn’t sure if using agar would mess with the texture of the final product.

FrankM_3301

I use agar clarification often. You will not get any agar in the clarified liquid, as long as you don't go crazy squeezing the cheesecloth (or massaging the sack, as Dave describes it). With freeze-thaw, I just put the frozen product in a strainer lined with muslin....and wait. Since you are not concerned about time, it shouldn't be an issue. I'll sometimes get a product started on the counter, then move to the fridge over night. Since I don't have a centrifuge, I've found that this is the clarification method that results in the best yield. You've got me intrigued to try celery root. What are you going to do with the liquid? By the way, some Pectinex helps as well.

robert.c.brown15

After I thaw it one more time to concentrate it, I’ll use it as a sauce with some dish. Honestly haven’t given that a ton of thought since that is the easier part. He will take the extract and warm it in a pan and add a little butter to it as well. That all depends how you’ll use it though. Maybe I’ll mount the extract with some truffle butter. That probably won’t suck.

I’ll definitely give the agar clarification a go. Glad to here you’ve had success. If you do the celery root let me know how it goes! Alleno does it with so many things but he hasn’t really put out many recipes. White mushrooms he does at 83C for 12 hours I believe. He does peas for 4 hours, but not sure the temperature. I’m reading and watching what I can to put together any recipes I can.

robert.c.brown15

Since you have experience with the freeze-thaw method with Agar could you describe your process for me? One thing I noticed is that Dave Arnold calls for bringing the liquid to a boil. That is something I want to avoid when creating these extracts. After the SV cook and I strain the liquid, that is when I assume I add the agar before freezing it. Do I need to bring the liquid above 83C to be able to incorporate the agar into it?

FrankM_3301

I think this board gets funky when too many replies are strung together. I can't recall exactly what I wrote, but it was along the lines of this:

Don't play with the frozen product too much, otherwise you risk agar contamination of your clarified liquid. If you want a faster process, you don't need to freeze. Gel, break into curds with a whisk, then allow to drain. In either case, you will need something more tightly woven than cheap supermarket cheese cloth.

robert.c.brown15

Weird.

Ok, well then I'll just keep it as a frozen block and let it thaw. I do want to freeze it. I have good cheese cloth I bought off Amazon that has worked well in the past for me. You recommend muslin? Need to find an inbetween of being fine enough to catch particles, but also not absorbing too much of the yield.

FrankM_3301

The solids will stay together fairly well if you are going to freeze. I like muslin, but if you have good cheesecloth, it should work just fine.

robert.c.brown15

Yeah I checked. It is very fine cheesecloth made for nut milks, etc. Thanks so much for your help with this! Looking forward to doing it again.

whenric

Frank, I love agar clarification, but don't you think the difference here is that agar doesn't concentrate, while freeze clarification does? My agar-clarified lime juice is clear, but not concentrated.

FrankM_3301

I think we are talking about clarification after concentration, which probably takes place during the cooking...no? Help me understand freeze clarification as a flavor concentration process.

whenric

So, the idea is that ice crystals form out of pure water, and the resulting liquid is more concentrated with salt, sugar etc. As the temps get colder, the liquid phase gets more and more concentrated. Apparently, it is virtually impossible to not have some ‘hyper-concentrated’ liquid phase in most if not all home based freezers, hence why meat will still rancidify over time in a freezer. Some people like Mark Ladner at del posto have hyper freezers that do accomplish this, but it is rare and very expensive.

When you thaw the product slowly, the most concentrated stuff melts first, and progresses on from there. You are eventually left with (mostly) pure ice crystals left behind, and concentrated stuff below.

If you repeat this several times, the product gets very concentrated.

whenric

See this article for more historical perspective of this being done with cider. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/people-and-culture/food/the-plate/2015/10/19/applejack-for-when-hard-cider-just-isnt-strong-enough/

FrankM_3301

This is about freeze distillation, or removing water to increase alcohol content. Regarding your first response, I'm not sure I buy the theory that the more concentrated "stuff" thaws first. I think concentrations of salt and sugar lowers the melting point. I would guess the less concentrated, more watery part of the product would melt first. I'm far from a chemist or physicist, so if you (or anyone else) can help me understand the science, I would appreciate it.

whenric

Posting this higher up so that it doesn't get buried. Try it yourself! I have, and it definitely does work. Buy a juice (grape, apple, whatever). Freeze it solid in a quart container. Let it thaw in a sieve. Pull off the juice 1 hour after it starts melting, then at other intervals. Compare the different juices. I guarantee that you'll see the concentrating effect.

This post has a good visual guide.

https://www.abarabove.com/juice-concentrate/

robert.c.brown15

Does adding agar and then freezing and thawing it not also do the freeze concentration? I haven’t read all of your links yet.

robert.c.brown15

I concentrated the first extraction one more time over the past day. Went from a yield of a little over a cup to a little over a quarter cup. Flavor got very intense. Definitely will mount with a little butter when it comes time to use. The first extraction of over a cup was flavorful enough to use for sauces or other cool things.

robert.c.brown15

Wes it did that thing where I can’t see your reply but got a notification that you replied. Could you post again? You were saying something about concentration and agar.

whenric

sure. basically, agar will clarify beautifully, but not concentrate. If you want flavor concentration, just do frozen or gelatin freeze-thaw

robert.c.brown15

Thanks. So basically the agar will give me a clear yield compared to the yellowish yield I’m currently getting. That is still pretty neat.

For gelatin, I hae powdered unflavored gelatin?

whenric

Clear (as in not cloudy), but will still have color. Yes to question 2

Pascal_Amsterdam_989578

Two years later I enter this conversation and I hope you are all ok. Cryoconcentration is totally new to me, but I get the gist of it. Let me jump to the end question: are there any recipes how to use the fluid gained & how long can I keep it?