ldanielrosa - 3-11-2014 at 11:48
I have apple trees is a quarantine zone. I have plenty of latitude to process the fruit, but I can't do anything that would let the parasites out of
the area. That said, I make plenty of hard cider every time I have enough apples to harvest. The apples are usually too ugly to make dehydrated
slices from, though.
This year, I'm exploring the possibility of making my own pectin. I usually have pomace on the magnitude of a ton or so.
I took a sample (unweighed) of the pomace and dehydrated it, then ran it through the blender to granulate it. Now it is safe to transport.
Then I extracted pectin with a 1.6% citric acid solution and many minutes of steeping on the stove. I ran one batch with 0.4% also, but that didn't
seem to give as good yield.
The only test I used was to pour a sample of the pectin solution into isoporpanol and pick up the booger with a fork. I ran each batch until the last
iteration failed this test.
Then I ran the combined 4.2 liters of pectin solution through my dehydrator again. It dried to a brown tacky film, and I have about 430 grams.
Is there any simple method to remove the digestible sugars without denaturing it? Would it help to neutralize the citric acid? I want something more
granular, less sticky.
I think I'm using the wrong research tools to find the articles I need. I'd also like to determine the range of esterification and convert some of it
to amidated pectin.
I also used some of the granulated pomace (apple flour) to make muffins. I like having shelf-stable apple granules, but I'm concerned with the
amygdalin content from the seeds. will this be destroyed by cooking? Is there a test to determine the content?
macckone - 3-11-2014 at 16:38
You probably want some chemistry texts from the late 1800s or early 1900s. They will probably have a good explanation of the pectin extraction and
purification process. You may also want to look at patents from the same era. Some 'survivalist' literature probably also has what you are looking
for.
The following link has high purity pectin but not sure if it is food safe: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1253213/
The following article suggests the use of dialysis:
libgen.org/scimag/index.php?s=10.1002%2Fjctb.5000660404
Otherwise I believe that commercially they use the alcohol method but do it more than once. With each stage improving the product until it is white
or off white.