Anonymous Modernist 578

It sounds like you've essentially set up a dialysis system, something used in labs all the time to remove unwanted (small) molecules from a substance of interest (see overview of principles here: http://www.piercenet.com/browse.cfm?fldID=5753AFD9-5056-8A76-4E13-5F9E9B4324DA). Basically, high concentrations of (small) soluble molecules (inside the sphere) will move across a semi-permeable barrier (the sphere membrane) to the low concentration (the water bath) until equilibrium is reached. I don't know the average pore size in the sphere membrane so it's hard to know exactly what is leaving, but in general small molecules (salts, sugars, alcohols etc.) will move pretty freely and be difficult to contain. The easiest ways to minimize flavor loss in this instance then, it seems to me, would be to do two things: 1) Minimize (as much as reasonable) the volume of the holding bath; and 2) incorporate some (or all) of the ingredients inside the sphere into the holding bath. If you can keep the volume down, the cost might not be prohibitively high. Hope that helps. Edited to add a better link.