Help with juicing

[slanoue]

Hi, everyone. I got a juicer for Christmas. It did not come with a very good instruction manual and NO recipe book. I have never used one of these before. So far I made orange juice and apple juice.

I am wondering if this is normal. Both came out very pulpy, not very easy to drink. The OJ was sour; the oranges were not that fresh so maybe that's why. The apple juice was ok. It took a whole lot of fruit to make a little bit of juice. Is that normal? The OJ did not taste as good as when I have made fresh-squeezed by hand, but I do plan to try again with fresher oranges. I bought bagged fruit, so maybe I have to get the individual ones for it to taste good. Is there a particular type of apple to use? The bag was Braeburn. It tasted like apples...but, like I said, pulpy and not all that great. I guess I expected it to taste more like fresh apple cider or more like the store bought juice (only better). It seems like the juicer will only take a few pieces at once and it makes a lot of mess for just a little bit of juice.

I will probably try to find a good juicing book with recipes...

Any thoughts, ideas, answers?

Thanks!!

Suzanne Lanoue
me@suzann.com
http://suzann.com

 

[GB]

Well my first thoughts are that the flavor of the juice is directly connected to the quality of the fruit. If the juice did not taste that great then the fruit was probably not that good to start with.

I think it probably depends on the particular juicer you got, but I do not think the juice should be pulpy. Most units (as far as I know) are supposed to separate the pulp from the juice. Maybe you are missing a part or it is not set up correctly?

 

[Gretchen]

The juice probably shouldn't be pulpy but it will definitely be thicker than "juice". It will not be like cider. The fruit needs to be extremely flavorful and it does take a LOT to make a glass. I hope you are washing the fruit extremely well. I imagine the orange juice would need some sweetening because of the tartness of the rind.
As is said above, the "pulp" should be separated, but there is a lot more than juice that goes through a juicer.
Try some veggies-carrots, celery, cukes.

 

[slanoue]

Yeah, I figured that about the quality of the fruit...

I have the Black & Decker JE1500 Juice Extractor
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0001LB9R6/
I notice that the reviews there on Amazon pretty much tell it like it is...it says that it does leave some pulp in.

Well I will keep trying. So, no one has any suggestsions as to what kind of apple to use that would taste the best? Does anyone here actually use a juicer?

To the person who said I was using the rind of the orange...um, no I didn't use the rind...I cut that off. I did keep the skin on the apples but not the oranges. And yes, I washed the apples well because I read somewhere that it says they put some waxy stuff on them so that they look shinier.

Thanks!

Suzanne Lanoue
me@suzann.com
http://suzann.com

 

[GB]

Any type of apple will work. Use whatever kind you like most. You can also use a combination of different types.

I have never owned a juicer, but did work in a shop that made juice fresh every day. We had an industrial juicer though so it was much different than a home unit. It was many many years ago, but I remember juicing oranges, apples, carrots, celery, ginger, and many other things. We made many combos too. If memory serves, the orange, carrot, ginger combo was the most popular.

 

[Andy M.]

You should try different combinations of fruits to get the flavors you like. For apples, you can go with delicious for sweetness and granny smith for tartness, etc. There are ;ots of different apples with different tastes to choose from. Not so many with oranges.

 

[Piccolina]

Melons can yield a lot of juice and if they are ripe they lend a beautiful sweetness to homemade juice. Pinapples and ripe mangos are also soooo good when juiced, combine the two or stretch them even further with things like apples and tangerines. I like veggies in my drinks too, carrots are nice and sweet (and ecconomical), they go great with most fruit juice combos. Cuccumber is another that is vaguely sweet and gives off a lot of liquid.

If your manual specifies that it's okay you could also try adding things like fresh mint and grated ginger root to your juice for interesting flavour hits.