Vacuum filteration system for the kitchen

[Junkbot]

Has anyone made a vacuum or pressure filtration system to use in their kitchen? Or found some way to filter fine particles out of solution in a timely manner? I remember back in my lab days, we used setups like these to quickly filter precipitates out of solution.

When I was making tomatoe vodka, trying to filter it through coffee strainers was a mess as the filters would constantly get plugged up, and the whole process would take forever. I figure using a vacuum/pressure system would speed up the whole process, as well as enable one to filter out much smaller particles than with just gravity.

One idea I had was to reappropriate an Aeropress... it would take a while since it's fairly small, but it would filter out very fine particles much more efficiently than trying to use coffee filters.

[Kerry Beal]

There is some discussion around here about using a buschner funnel I recall. Not sure where it is though.

[Junkbot]

Ah, Buchner. Doing a search now. Thanks!

[gfweb]

A funnel, some filter paper, a flask, a hand pump.

http://www.amazon.co...=buchner funnel

You could get an electric pump, but for just fooling around this might be great.

Edited October 23, 2012 by gfweb (log)

[HowardLi]

Borrow a centrifuge.

[Kerry Beal]

That raises the question - will a centrifuge provide the same result? Is a supernatant the same as a filtrate or do they contain particles of a different size and therefore different flavour components?

[dcarch]

Centrifuge is the way to go.

A vacuum system will give you max 14 + lbs / inch sq. pressure, no matter how powerful your pump is.

A compressed air system can give you much more, 100 lbs/in sq is easy.

Let gravity do it's thing for a few days in the refrigerator then filter, if you insist on filtering.

dcarch

[Baselerd]

Yeah, using that hand pump might be more work than you think.

[Junkbot]

I think I'm going to go with an Espro press. I'm not looking to make pea butter, just get most of the fines out of homemade liquors/bitters. The press would be one of the fastest methods as well. I can then finish off the dregs with an Aeropress.

[EnriqueB]

I think I'm going to go with an Espro press. I'm not looking to make pea butter, just get most of the fines out of homemade liquors/bitters. The press would be one of the fastest methods as well. I can then finish off the dregs with an Aeropress.

In MCaH they recommend a french press for adding aromatics to stocks at the last minute, this espro press would be really great for that!!

[gfweb]

That raises the question - will a centrifuge provide the same result? Is a supernatant the same as a filtrate or do they contain particles of a different size and therefore different flavour components?

That depends on how fast the centrifuge is and whether the filter medium will adsorb small molecules (as opposed to filtering them by size). In general for a hematology lab centrifuge of the sort usually discussed on eG I'd bet that filtrate = supernatant.

[gfweb]

Or maybe get a filter bag.

[nickrey]

I've seen Buchner filters mentioned on recent forums (sorry, can't remember which one; it wasn't this one) and thought I'd give it a try.

I connected it up to my food saver (which had been retired when I bought a chamber sealer) using the vacuum canister attachment duct taped on a piece of tubing.

The original funnel is 60ml with a built in fritted disk so I tried coffee through that:

The drip coffee water was cold. I used around sufficient coffee for a single shot basket. 50ml went through the filter in around 20 seconds. It tasted very good.

Next came tomato water.

Even after putting it through a fine and a very fine sieve, it would not go through the original funnel fritted disk.

So I got some sous vide foam tape and wrapped it around the bottom of a funnel and tried a few different filters. In the end scrunched up cheesecloth at the bottom of the funnel mouth worked. This is the setup. The clear liquid in the flask is tomato water.

Now to play with some other things.