Rhubarb Juice

When working with fruits in many recipes it is often difficult to extract a decent flavour to use within the recipe. The following recipe uses the fruits natural juices to obtain a deeper intensity of flavour.

• 500g Fruit
• 25-50g Caster Sugar

Method

Dice fruit into small pieces and place in cryovac bag with the sugar and seal on a tight setting. Place in water bath at 62-65c for 45mins, may need longer depending on the moisture content of the food and fibre, remove from water bath and cool in an ice bath for 5 mins. Cut the bag open and strain the contents of the bag in a fine mesh strainer without force, allowing the mixture to drain via gravity, this will produce a clear natural fruit juice that can then be used in any application.

Note:

• Most fruits can be used in this recipe to produce juice, fruit with a higher water content such as berries, citrus fruits, watermelon, etc. work best. Fruit with higher contents of fibre will result in a lower extraction of juice, fruits like quince will not work in this recipe.
• The sugar used in the recipe will depend on the ripeness of the fruit, if the fruit used is at the peak of ripeness than less sugar should be used to avoid an overly sweet finish. However if using fruit that is under ripe than more sugar should be used as it will bring out more flavour in that fruit. A pinch of salt will also aid in brining out more flavour in fruits that aren't at their peak.
• Cryovac or sous vide refers to placing an item under vacuum and sealing that items for cooking. If a commercial machine is unavailable the same result can be achieved with the domestic Foodsaver machine or be placing the fruit and sugar into a zip lock bag and forcing as much air out as possible before sealing the bag.
• A water bath can be created by placing a pot of water on the lowest flame or element setting possible on a stove and using a thermometer to bring the water to the required temperature.