Vacuum Concentration (Reduction) Ideas

Stemming from the Vacuum diaphragm pump thread, I have successfully build a Vacuum Concentration rig. Now I need ideas!

So far I've done clarified orange juice (success!) and Jack Daniels whiskey (failure!). I have more detailed posts about each test over at eGullet, but I'd bet the crowd here has a bit more exposure to the technique.

So what liquids do you know of that benefit from low-temp reduction?

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grant

All essential oils.

Wine,

Booze

Fruit juice

Veg juice

Milk

Cream

Rose water

...

I can offer more.

grant

Oh, why was the whisky a failure?

Seth_Ratner_91225

I'm guessing because the flavor compounds were all volatile and evaporated out. The final product was about the same viscosity as water (obviously somewhat thicker, but not to a degree you could actually feel), and tasted like burnt wood. As I understand it, Jack is aged in barrels with the insides burnt into carbon, so the taste makes sense, I guess.

Now, I'm going to try putting it into something, see if it tastes like there's whiskey in it.

I have to add a disclaimer that I don't really like whiskey, so it could all be me. I'll do some experimenting to include tasters that are manlier.

Seth_Ratner_91225

Excellent. I'm guessing the fruit juices benefit the most from the low heat offered by the vacuum, but do any of the others actually yield different results from standard stove top reduction? Milk seems like it should. What I want to avoid is using a process that takes about 400% longer, requires a ton of complicated equipment, and makes my landlord think I'm manufacturing methamphetamine if it doesn't produce a noticeably different product.

Then to follow that up, ideas for ways to put these concentrates to use are appreciated.

Thanks!

Seth_Ratner_91225

Wine and Red Wine Vinegar reduction

I decided to make the CS Red Onion Jam, so I used vacuum concentration to reduce the wine-vinegar mixture from 800g to ~80g. Instead of stopping every 30 minutes to measure the weight, I just let it go until it looked about right. Stopping a liquid mid-reduction makes it difficult to restart the process without massive boil-over. I'm not really sure why, but I didn't want to deal with it this time.

I ended up over reducing to about 60g, which was almost too thick to get out of the flask, but it still worked great. Now, I have no idea if it was any "better" than plain old stovetop reduction, but at least it worked. The pic shows the reduction level with the red line being the starting level.

Racemate_103121

I think it's because ethanol evaporates at a lower temperature so that it and all that it solubilizes vaporize first.

The water soluble compounds will be retained preferentially. The final result will be (almost) entirely water and its solubles. You are doing the reverse of distillation.

It won't taste like whiskey.

If, however, you were to capture the vapor in the initial stages and then

mix that with what you end up with in your apparatus, you might get something closer to what you want.

Cheers