Vacuum distilation

[Anonymous Modernist 15817]

In my research which is admittedly limited I came across vacuum distilling setups. I am curious as to wieer there is a reason they were not included in the book as a lower cost option to equipment like the rotary evaporator. It seems that you could modify it slightly and use a water bath with an immersion circulator to have greater control of the tempeture and cover a larger surface area of the flask. I am very interested in any thoughts on adapting this technique.

[Judy Wilson]

Hi Madison,

We do cover this in Modernist Cuisine, though not in Modernist Cuisine at Home. We've also posted about it on our blog. You can find a blog post about making your own vacuum-concentrating setup here: http://modernistcuisine.com/2011/11/vacuum-concentrating-part-2/

Hope that helps!

Judy

[Anonymous Modernist 310]

Unfortunately in vacuum conentration is the opposite of vacuum distillation. It's much more difficult to keep the volatile part!

[Judy Wilson]

That's true, but I thought the post was a good starting point--the least I could do!

[Anonymous Modernist 15817]

I appreciate your response it was actually the vacuum concentration part of the book that started my inquiry. At first I was unsure as to where one would pull a vacuum in the system which led me to about some simpler vacuum distilling setups, which seem like a less controlled and efficient version of rotovaping. I am interested in both concentrating flavors and separating them so that they can. Be added to sodas and such.