If I soak my almonds, then run them through a centrifugal juicer, will I get almond milk, or will it just send my almonds flying into the pulp bin?

Just wondering if anybody has tried this. I have a breville centrifugal juicer. Seems that when I am doing vegetables, the last bit of the vegetable gets *flung*. The only way I could juice greens was by stuffing them in the core of an apple. (Which I have to say was pretty clever).

-DaveK



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/29/2008 11:25PM by Itzdavey.

Itzdavey Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> If I soak my almonds, then run them through a
> centrifugal juicer, will I get almond milk, or
> will it just send my almonds flying into the pulp
> bin?
Nuts and Seeds weren't meant to be juiced.
They're concentrated enough already. I'd suggest you
add them to Green Smoothies. I haven't tried Almonds,
but do have Pistacios, Pine Nuts, Brazils, Pecans, Walnuts,
and Flax Seeds....alternating them to have one a day.....WY

Running soaked almonds through a centrifugal just might give you some nice results if you run a cup of warm water through with them. Some will get spit out but it will be as a course almond flour which is also pretty useful.

I do this with mature coconut when I want coconut milk/butter/oil/flour.

The cored apple trick I can relate to. Sometimes I'll roll seeds in kale then juice it like that. It gives the spinning disk a chance to grind up the seeds, some portion which will come out as juice and some ejected. I'm into pulp salads so there's no waste..otherwise I guess results will be mixed.

juicing nuts is an awfully wastefull idea.

better to eat the nuts separeate or in a recipe.

get a greenstar if you wanna juice green leafy everything else is quite inefficient in comparison.

jj

Wheatgrass Yogi Wrote:

> Nuts and Seeds weren't meant to be juiced.
> They're concentrated enough already.

The point is that I want to make almond milk. So this comment doesn't really help. I just wanted to know if a centrifugal juicer as a viable means for doing this.

loeve Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Running soaked almonds through a centrifugal just
> might give you some nice results if you run a cup
> of warm water through with them. Some will get
> spit out but it will be as a course almond flour
> which is also pretty useful.

Ok, might give that a try.

> I do this with mature coconut when I want coconut
> milk/butter/oil/flour.
>
> The cored apple trick I can relate to. Sometimes
> I'll roll seeds in kale then juice it like that.
> It gives the spinning disk a chance to grind up
> the seeds, some portion which will come out as
> juice and some ejected. I'm into pulp salads so
> there's no waste..otherwise I guess results will
> be mixed.


You have some specific recipes? right now I use the pulp for my pet worms. But they can only eat so much.

Coconut oil:
Warm the meat of a mature coconut to at least 76 degrees F. (melting point of its oil) and juice. Yield- 1 1/2 cups oil, 6 cups flour, flush out the juicer with 2 cups warm water for some coconut milk.*

Coconut butter:
Warm the meat of a mature coconut to at least 76 degrees F. and juice with one cup warm water, mix the juice with the flour and whatever oil is cached in the basket and bowl.* Yield- about 6 cups butter.

Coconut milk:
Same as above but up the warm water to taste.*

Kale/carrot/coconut juice w/ pulp salad:
1 lb kale
1 lb carrots
1/4 lb coconut meat
Juice all together (not individually) so the nut oil will mix with the carrot and kale juices.* Enjoy the juice and the nutty pulp salad

* This works in my centrifugal pulp ejection style juicer. Oh, and these oils and juices are all perishable.

num! I'll try that.

Do you have any recipes for the pulp from carrots and such?

Just carrots alone not really..these juicers do carrots very well and leave a dry pulp which I prefer with pulped leafy greens (which are still juicy). I like to mix the flavors..sweet potato and coconut is another combo..most often with 1/2 lb. of greens, kale being my favorite....a whole lb. of greens maybe a bit much.

I have same question but slightly different: if I soak the almonds, blend them, and then pour the mixture straight into the centrifuge of the juicer, and set it spinning - do you think would it work in terms of straining the milk from the pulp?

I thought about it as I don't have milk bag, and suspect they may be a pain to clean and definitely a pain to strain. Whereas the centrifuge in my juicer is nice stainless steel mesh which cleans in seconds using nylon brush.

Just thought I'd post here and ask before I experiment and waste my almonds!

>Banana ice-cream rocks!<

I just figured: a lot of people strain their juices using the bags, but the centrifuge in the juicer is designed for this. And a lot of people strain their almond milk using the bags, so can't centrifuge work for this also?

>Banana ice-cream rocks!<

This seems awfully complicated and messy as well as potentially wasteful if the pulp is jammed up in the parts of a juicer. Really, nut milk is not difficult to do in a blender, even a not so fantastic blender. And you don't have to buy an expensive nut milk bag, a simple paint straining bag from the hardware store (washed well) is exactly the same thing for a fraction of the price. That way you get your almond milk and the pulp is easily used for pate etc.

coco Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> This seems awfully complicated and messy as well
> as potentially wasteful if the pulp is jammed up
> in the parts of a juicer.

There would not be any parts for the pulp to jam though - the idea is to pour the blended almonds straight into the centrigugal bowl. The pulp then stays there, it doesn't go anywhere.

The centrifuge will spin, the milk will sieve through the sides of the bowl, the dry pulp will be left to scoop up and use for the pate. That's the idea anyway!


Why does it sound awfully messy? I thought it's the other way around, milk is pouring out of the juicer just the way the juice does, pulp remains in the centrifugal bowl just the way the juice pulp does. Everything is clean including your hands. No squirts or stains anywhere. Centrigugal bowl is stainless steel, hygienic, lasts forever and quick to clean using a nylon brush.

Instead of the nut milk bag, pressing it with your hands and having milk squirt through your fingers possibly on your clothes and around - I witnessed a friend make the juice that way once (she bought vitamix but didn't buy a juicer) - and I thought yikes! I don't wanna drink that juice! Well the above idea is to avoid that

>Banana ice-cream rocks!<



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/17/2012 01:01PM by chat.

This is the centrifugal bowl. This is also pretty much the only part of the juicer, apart from the lid on top and a plastic pusher for fruits/veggies. The sides of the bowl are sieves, and the bottom of the bowl is grating surface (which will not be used since I will pour the mixture already blended)



>Banana ice-cream rocks!<

All you can do is try it out and see. A juicer has many parts to clean though, this doesn't sound as easy as using a blender to me. And I don't spend a lot of time squeezing the juice, I actually use a stainless steel mesh strainer and a spoon, if there are particles of nut/seed left then I strain it through a bag, there is no squeezing at all in that case.

Actually I will be using a blender - as I explained above, the juicer is used only to strain the blended mixture of almonds and water.

So if you are using a nut milk bag, you have to clean it afterwards. If you are using a stainless steel mesh strainer and a spoon, you have to clean them afterwards. If you are using a juicer, you have to clean it afterwards.

Is the latter method really that awfully complicated and messy compared to the former ones? Not sure, perhaps it depends on the juicer? In my case I have to clean a centrifugal bowl, which takes no time using a nylon brush. Then I have to rinse the lid and juice collecting bowl, about 10 seconds. That's all the "many parts" there are. I doubt they would take much longer to clean than a separate mesh strainer and a spoon. I haven't tried nut milk bag but it seems to me cleaning out tiny fabric mesh ought to prove more difficult.

It just seems to me the juicer's advantages over the other two methods are 1)straining the milk better (it's powerful centrifugal motor afterwards), 2)zero effort involved during straining, it's the machine who does it, I can do something else, and 3)no mess during straining itself, which cannot be guaranteed with the other two methods (definitely not with the bag!)


That's the theory, almonds are soaking as we speak so the practice will follow! I just thought someone must have tried this before, seems a promising way to proceed at least in theory hence I asked.

>Banana ice-cream rocks!<



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/17/2012 03:38PM by chat.

I've found turning a nut milk bag inside out and rinsing it under the tap infinitely quicker and easier than dismantling and cleaning all the parts of a juicer but as I said, you'll have to try it for yourself and see. The blender is beyond easy to deal with as well, put some water and a drop of dish soap in, run it for a second, rinse it out and that's it, no taking anything apart. The metal sieve I use only takes a quick rinse too, no parts to take apart or reassemble. I wouldn't use a juicer for this personally but to each their own.

Well, in my case "all the parts of the juicer" is only 3! And blender is used in either approach, there is no difference here. Will be making the milk tonight, will see how it goes. If all goes well, straining the milk in a juicer would be definitely more hygienic approach than a bag, whatever the cleaning.

>Banana ice-cream rocks!<

Chat,

Let us know how it works. So basically you are processing in a blender and using a juicer to separate instead of a nut milk bag. Have I got it right?

Claude



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/18/2012 03:05PM by Pertwee.

Pertwee Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Chat,
>
> Let us know how it works. So basically you are
> processing in a blender and using a juicer to
> separate instead of a nut milk bag. Have I got it
> right?
>
> Claude


Yes, that's right! The idea came when I was about to press the "buy" button for a nut milk bag. I felt somewhat reluctant because not all the reviews were positive: some people complained that the bag does not last long (rips at the seams), others doubted that it was nylon instead of cotton, plus I had my above worries that making the milk using the bag may prove off-putting.

And then I read in a recent thread on this forum that Jgunn bought a nut milk maker, and was very happy with it precisely because it involves zero mess and effort to strain:

Jgunn Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> i bought a soybella
> [www.discountjuicers.com] best
> hundred bucks i spent on a small appliance .. i
> use about a small handfull of nuts/seeds at the
> most, it doesnt heat the milk , and its done in
> about 1 minutes, easy to clean
>
> it has a self contained stainless steel mesh
> strainer in it, so no straining thru messy bags
> which i dont like the taste of or cleaning of

[www.rawfoodsupport.com]

And some other people on that thread commented that they too were getting fed up straining milk in the bag. So I thought perhaps I should buy the appliance too, and then - well, I already spent way more than a hundred bucks on a juicer, blender, food processor..... And then I thought: juicer! Perhaps I can make it do the job, after the almonds have been blended by the blender, since the juicer equally has a stainless steel mesh strainer in it.

Will definitely write back tonight how it went, I'm kind of sure that there shouldn't be a problem but I'm interested in how dry the pulp will be.

>Banana ice-cream rocks!<



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/18/2012 03:28PM by chat.

Excellent suggestion. I have a centrifugal (and a Vitamix) and will give it a try.

Claude

What can I say apart from IT WORKED!!

This is the milk:


And this is the pulp, in the centrifuge and then emptied on the plate. As you can see it is paper dry!




This is the pulp in a jar, it's in the fridge now until tonight when I'll be cooking something with it



I realised too late that i should have taken the pictures "in the process"! I will next time. But I really think it worked perfectly! Not ideal it's true - the ideal would be to use a device like Jgunn's which both blends and strains the milk. But I'm glad I didn't buy the nut milk bag, and that in order to make the milk I don't have to squirt it out of anything. This idea was very off-putting for me, but with the juicer I enjoyed the process hence I will be making the milk again for sure.

>Banana ice-cream rocks!<



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/19/2012 11:22AM by chat.

Made the second batch of almond milk today, again using the juicer to strain the milk from the pulp. This time I added the milk as the juicer was spinning, and it worked just as well as adding it before turning the juicer on (as i did previous time).

The only precaution I took was doing it gradually to avoid splashes, the centrifuge is really fast when spinning and pouring the milk in enthusiastically can result in tiny milk splashes flying out of the feeding tube.

>Banana ice-cream rocks!<

chat Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> This is the centrifugal bowl. This is also pretty
> much the only part of the juicer, apart from the
> lid on top and a plastic pusher for
> fruits/veggies. The sides of the bowl are sieves,
> and the bottom of the bowl is grating surface
> (which will not be used since I will pour the
> mixture already blended)
>
> [csimg.pricesavvy.co.uk]
> 525/T/340x340/C/FFFFFF/url/magimix-17631-juice-ext
> ractor.jpg

I have been expermenting with this same concept, only with raw sprouted oat milk. First I blend the sprouted oats with water, then pour it through my Breville juicer. However, my Breville spits lots of the liquid into the pulp bin. It seems like the juicer with a basket like you have pictured here should work pretty good as long as the mesh of the basket is fine enough. What juicer do you have pictured that you were using for the almond milk?

Melody



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/13/2014 03:33AM by health2share.