Break an Egg: the rapid evolution of a technique

Ideas are like eggs. You need to break a few to get results. Our new logo is amazing to see how quickly our idea of compression clarification has been adopted, adapted, and even renamed. Since our initial posting, it seems that once the boulder was pushed off the hill, it became quite easy to understand what we were doing and how we were doing it. The folks at Cooking Issues and many commenters on both blogs noted that perhaps the vacuum sealer is not needed. In fact, as Dave’s detailed post demonstrates, a simple whisk is all that is needed to break the gel apart.

In our process, we actually set the gel, sliced it, wrapped it in cheesecloth, and then vacuum sealed it. I felt the pressure of the bag on the gel would be uniform and exude the liquid gently held by the agar. This first test worked, just not very well. I cut the bag open and was able to squeeze the gel in the cheesecloth to extract even more clear nectar. In our second attempt and the one we pictured, we gently broke the cider gel apart and placed it in the cheesecloth and vacuum sealed it to exude the liquid. This resulted in an even extrusion of the liquid, and with a few more runs of the machine, we were able to get most of the liquid out of the gel. Once again, we cut the bag open and squeezed to get the most yield from this agar sponge.

The question about whether or not the vacuum sealer is essential is still an interesting one. I believe the use of the vacuum sealer in the process more uniformly breaks the gel apart, and by using the bag as the initial squeezing device, we get pressure from all sides. It also contains the ingredients so that several clarifications may be compressed in succession with less mess and overall clean-up of dishes. Still, Dave’s tests and results show that the sealer is not necessary. It does provide convenience and functionality to the procedure.

What is even more exciting is Dave’s need to work with alcohol in his pursuit of perfect drinks. His adaptation of the clarification to infused alcohol is brilliant and something which every bartender today should now be testing and refining.