Too Much Pulp in your Juice?

When you make a juice do you find that it has too much pulp? Some people like pulp in their juice. You see Homestyle Orange juice for sale, but its not common for other types of juices. For some reason people like the orange juice to have pulp.

If you are making a fresh juice at home you are going to have to deal with the pulp yourself. Pulp is not bad for you. It is fiber, after all. And fiber is good for you. But lots of people, myself included, don’t like for there to be too much fiber in a juice. If you are going to make a smoothie, then that’s fine. But when I drink a vegetable juice I want it to be clean with little to no pulp.

So how do you deal with this?

The first thing is to take a look at what type of juicer you are using. If you are using an old fashioned centrifugal juicer—that’s the one with the cutting wheel—then you are going to get more pulp than if you were using an auger juicer.

My old juicer, the first one I used, was a centrifugal juicer. It had a mesh screen that prevented most of the pulp from getting into the juice. It worked pretty good. It was better than I had expected it to be. The big problem I had with that machine was that I had to scrub the screen every time I cleaned the machine. That added about 5 minutes extra to the clean up routine.

There were some fruits and vegetables that always seemed to create more pulp than others. One thing I found difficult to juice without getting lots of pulp was Watermelon. It wasn’t worth it. The mesh screen on the old centrifugal juicer didn’t do the job. I ended up not juicing the watermelon except for the green outer layer. The red meat of the melon was just too troublesome. I ended up just eating the red part of the melon and juicing the light green inside skin.

Pressed Juice means Less Pulp

My suggestion for everyone who is going to get into juicing is to get an auger juicer. There are lots of reasons for this, but for the time being lets focus on pulp.

When you press and squeeze the juice out of vegetables and fruits you are going to get a lot less pulp.  It’s the difference between squeezing and shredding. The pressure used when you squeeze the fruit and veggies with the auger juicer causes the liquid to come out. This also prevents a lot of the fiber from being released into the juice.

Does That Mean There Is No Pulp?

No. You will still get some pulp. Especially if you juice certain foods. For example I recommend people juice Granny Smith apples over other apples. One reason is because they give you almost no pulp. You get a clean, not too sweet, lightly sour, apple juice. If you use an apple that is good for eating, like Rome or Empire, you will get a juice that has a lot of pulp.

If you like pulp, then go ahead and use any apples. But for people who want a clean juice, I would stick with Granny Smith apples.

The Omega Auger Juicer I have also comes with a screen to use. You put the screen over the juicing container. When the juice comes out of the machine it is then filtered through the mesh screen.

I normally don’t have to use it. I find that I don’t have much, if any, pulp and I’m juicing the following things regularly:

• Spinach
• Kale
• Apples
• Lemon
• Limes
• Celery
• Parsley
• Watermelon
• Pineapple

You can use the screen to cut down on froth. I personally don’t mind froth in my juices, but if you do, you can use the screen.

The screen fits over the small hopper that you collect the juice in. It is easy to clean, you just rise it off under running water.

Extra Screens for Filtering Out Pulp

You can always use an extra screen for filtering out pulp. What I used to do was use a small stainless steel mesh screen. I placed it over the container I was using to collect the juice. This worked fine.

Another idea is to screen the juice after it has already filled up the glass. This is actually a better idea because it lets you control the rate at which you pour the juice through the screener. You can also clean off the mesh screener during the process.

I would say that the only people who need to do extra screening out of pulp are those who are going to be using an old centrifugal juicer. If you get one of the newer auger style juicers, then you won’t have this problem.

I didn’t like having to clean the juicer screen on the old centrifugal juicer. It required you to use a small brush and clean it under the sink. It took a while because there was lots of little bits of pulp.

There are accessories that you can order and use. Some of them are screens designed to fit over Pyrex containers and are shaped in a way to funnel liquid. They are designed to work better than regular strainers and screens that are for things like pasta.

I have heard about some people using the nut milk bags, but that is really not necessary. That is more for making nut milk. I wouldn’t use it for juicing. It would not work well.

If you want a screener that is small and will work well, then I recommend this stainless steel screener from RSVP.