I beat the hell out of that thing (with a proper Fruit Fucker, that is) and all I got out of it was this: two inches of unspeakably delicious (if horrifyingly pulpy) OJ, a slice of orange I saved to snack on (also unspeakably delicious), and two orange halves that look like something out of an eating contest in a George Romero film.
What am I doing wrong?
Moved from General Questions to Cafe Society.
Gfactor
General Questions Moderator
Nothing. One juice orange (i.e., one specially developed for juicing) yields about 90 grams (3.2 oz) of juice. Looks like you used an eating orange (probably a navel orange), which yields slightly less.
Indeed it was a navel. At a different angle, you could’ve seen it on the label.
Two more questions then, eh?
Which oranges are specifically developed for juicing? Can you get them at a grocery store? Do they say “Juice Me” or some such thing?
What can I do to reduce the pulp a little? I don’t want to strain it, because I like some pulp–maybe 40-60% of the pulp I got out of this one would be good.
ETA: Ok, four questions.
They are labeled “Juice oranges” or “Juicing oranges.” I’ve seen them in grocery stores from time to time every place I’ve ever lived (New York, southern & central Virginia, Michigan) and can’t imagine they are unknown in California! They have kind of a thin skin and are more of a light orange color.
BTW, you have just learned why orange juice has about the same caloric content as Coke (by volume). It takes like 4-8 oranges to make an 8 oz cup of juice. Old-fashioned “orange juice glasses” were only about 4 oz.
Non-navel oranges sold in the U.S. are usually juice oranges. It’s easy to tell the difference: navel oranges have a navel-like thing at the blossom end, while juice oranges don’t. The “navel” is actually an underdeveloped twin fruit - a smaller orange inside the orange. The orange at the top of the picture on this page shows the navel clearly.
Juice oranges have a higher proportion of juice to pulp, so switching to juice oranges might be sufficient to reduce the amount of pulp to the point where you like it. If you want to eliminate only some of the pulp, you can strain part of the juice and mix the strained and unstrained portions.
Juice oranges are usually more tart than navel oranges. Most people prefer a tangier juice than they can get from navels. It also takes a lot less work to get a quantity of juice out of a juice orange than to get the same amount out of a navel.
Another reason to avoid navel oranges for juicing is that the juice tends to turn bitter about thirty minutes after squeezing. According to On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee, a chemical reaction produces a bitter terpene called limonin. Juice oranges have been bred to minimize this tendency.
I’m from Southern California too and my mom always used to use Valencia oranges to make juice. Usually two oranges made a small glass of juice.
I don’t know what you used to juice your orange but our orange juicer thing has a grate in it that catches the big pieces of pulp.
This thread makes me want to go home right now to the land of delicious oranges, as opposed to here, where every orange I buy is just bland and stringy.
