Lloyd said:
NW - Upon digging thru my wine making stuff purchased 15 years ago, I continue to amaze myself!
I have the exact unit you have, but when we tried it back then, it did not work well for us.
It would not produce very much juice.
I have no idea what we did wrong, but I definately will be giving it another chance!!
It is the stainless version, in perfect condition except the hose and clip are missing.
They should be easy to replace.
Here is a couple of pics of the original magazine article that got us interested in it, and the cover of the instruction book.
The original receipt says we paid $106.40 in 1992.
First I want to appologize for trying to turn this thread into a "steam juice extraction" thread.
But I just got to say, I tried the unit again.
I replaced the missing hose with racking hose, and put a clamp on it.
Then I used a racking hose shut off clamp to control the flow.
It worked well.
The story:
We'vehad these two HUGE rhubarb plants that we've all but ignored for many, many years.
I don't know when I planted them, but I bet it was 20+ years ago.
We've grabbed a few stalks here and there, but
never a real picking.
I had been eyeing it for the last few years, busting off the massive seed heads, and watching it get more and more crowded.
When I approached it this spring, it was a snarled up mess of stalks, and just totally out of control.
So I started pulling ..... and pulling ...... and pulling.
When I was done, the plant looks like a herd of cows had run over it.
I left plenty of small stalks, and underdeveloped leaves, but WOW, did I do a number on those two plants!
So I get inside and wash them up,chop them into 1/2" pieces, and freeze them in 1 gallon freezer bags.
I thru out a few of the un-red, over-sized stalks while chopping.
1 gallon chopped rhubarb = 4 pounds = 12 cups.
I had 7 gallon bags = 28 pounds = 84 cups.
I left them froze for 4+ days, then got them out,fired up the steamer/juicer, and gave it my best shot.
I did not add sugar during the process, but I did pour some of the juice back thru the rhubarb.
All in all I was very pleased.
The rhubarb went in frozen after I banged the bags on the counter to loosen them up a bit.
The unit never dropped water level in the 4 hours of time it took to staem it all.
The unit never really got hot to touch, except at the bottom where the water is boiling.
The racking hose got warm, but not hot.
All in all I was very impressed with the unit!!
I have no idea why it would not work well for use when we bought it back in 1992.
I got two 5-quart ice cream buckets FULL of lovely juice!
I refroze it for later use, and I read that there is an acid layer that can be removed if you freeze the juice for two days.
It's been froze for 2 days, and I can't see any layer as described .... oh well.
But I got the juice!
Now ..... what wine receipe do I use with the juice? Suggestions?
Edited by: Lloyd