Buy Cook N Home NC-00256 11-Quart Stainless-Steel Juicer Steamer

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List Price: $129.99
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I cannot speak to the quality of this juicer, as the one I own is quite old. What I want to do is give you an idea of how versatile and easy to use a steam juicer is. Stainless steel is a definite plus, as you will be working with acid juices that will react with aluminum. This is a tall piece of equipment, probably too tall for a stovetop that has a microwave or other upper oven over it, so be sure to measure your headroom, including allowing space to remove the lid safely. I have no experience using one on a ceramic cooktop, so cannot advise about that.

For making your own bottled juice to store, this is by far the easiest and fastest and best method.

You can use the pulp left behind to make fruit leather, and somewhat inferior jam (it will be denser than when using fresh fruit, but still not bad). Or you can put it into your compost, and make the wasps very happy drunks.

Keep reading for directions for using your juicer as a steam canner too. No need for a separate canner.

I am probably one of the first non-Scandinavian Americans to own and use a steam juicer (which my son now has on loan). It literally created thousands of quarts of juice for my large family. We especially loved sour cherry juice and concord grape juice. Each quart of juice is so concentrated, you can easily make 1/2 gallon of drinkable juice. It's pretty sour, so will take some getting used to, or sweetening. We processed white grapes as well, but don't expect the crystal clear pretty amber juice you get from the store. It tastes good, but looks like somewhat used dishwater. Some years I did apples, which produced mild juice, and not very many quarts from a bushel, again kinda dishwater looking. When you can pick your own fruit, you can get a surprising number of quarts from a bushel--12-13 for apples; 18 or so from cherries, and even as much as 25 quarts from really juicy plums and grapes. My juicer held about 1/3 bushel per batch. You MUST make certain your water basin does not boil dry, or you will ruin your pan. That's the hardest part. Otherwise, simply have your jars and lids sterilized, wash your fruit (no need to stem or pit or peel), place fruit in the basket, clamp hose off, and bring water to a boil. You don't have to keep it at a rolling boil, just make certain steam is rising into the basket. Soon the juice will begin to drip down into the doughnut-shaped catch basin. Watch to make certain it doesn't get too full, or it will spill over into the bottom pot where the water is boiling, so you can't just go away and leave it. You need to tap off bottles regularly. When you do, just wipe the lip of the jar, and screw the lid down tight. Soon you will hear a satisfying pop, as it seals. Juice is best used same year you make it.

I guess my funniest experience was early on, when I decided to do steam V-8 juice. Steamed tomato juice is yellow, not red, and clear, not pulpy. When I added all the other ingredients listed on the V-8 can, including the beets, I got beautiful, clear, ruby-red juice. It tasted pretty good, but it definitely wasn't V-8. I decided to serve it to guests for a lunch with a seafood salad, thinking it would be a very nice accompaniment, and it was so beautiful. The stunned faces all around me after the first sips let me know I did not have a hit. They clearly had been expecting fruit punch, from what their eyes told them, NOT vegetable juice. We got out the ice water pretty quickly. Never made that again.

I found that a surgical clamp, with scissor-type handles--was a much easier and better clamping device than the one that comes with the juicer. Absolutely no leaking, and you have a selection of degrees of clamping. This also allows you to hold onto the hot tube, like a little pair of tongs, to move it around easily for filling the jar, and prevent burns. The juice is boiling hot, so this is a plus for your safety.

The steam juicer can also double as a steam canner. To convert it, remove the basket (the top part with the holes in it). Set lid rings from regular mouth canning jars touching in a ring on the bottom of the catch basin (mine was too narrow at the bottom to accommodate the width of the jars). You can then set your jars on the rings, with each jar base crossing over two lid rings for stability. There was room for 5 quarts in my juicer, without their touching. Bring the steam up to a full head, and then just time as you would for water bath. Wait 5 minutes at the end of timing for the steam to settle before removing the lid and taking out the jars. I canned literally thousands of bottles of fruit in this manner, and never had any more problems with jars not sealing than when I was using a water bath canner. Steam canning is so much cooler and easier than water bath, and jars don't break nearly as often either. I never had a pressure canner, so can't compare, and thus never did vegetables or meats. Again, watch to make certain you always have plenty of water in the bottom pan before beginning any batch. You can clamp off the spigot to keep the steam in the basin, and prevent burns. Drain any water between batches.

I'm in my 70s now, somewhat disabled, but I still miss that lovely, delicious juice, and the days of picking the fruit together.

UPDATE 6 SEPT 2013: I got my juicer back from my son, and bottled some pickles on my ceramic cooktop just fine. Even though my cooktop is one of those that adjusts automatically, rather than maintaining a setting, which means it cuts out and comes back on like an oven, it still kept a good head of steam, and the bottles were all sealed before I removed them from the juicer.

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This juicer works great! I first used it on cherries and it made wonderful tasting juice. I filled the fruit basket full of cherries and got 4 quarts of juice. Now I am juicing apricots and the juice is also great. I am excited to try other fruits as well.

The juicer seems to be built well and I think it will last for a long time. This juicer also came with an extra hose. The only bad comment I have is about the instruction manual, it is only one page and does not have good instructions. For the most part instructions are not needed but it would be nice to know about how much juice can be extracted from each fruit.

I would absolutely recommend this product.

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The juicer is very pretty and impressive when it is opened. Cleaning is nearly a breeze however if you have used a steamer as much as our family has you know that the steam must stay in the steamer to work effectively and not escape out of the lid. Seems as we used it the lid became looser and the steam came out of the juicer and did not do an efficient job of extracting the juice from the berries. Sure steamed the bottom of our microwave and now it is cleaner. If the lid fit tighter or I believe weighed more the steam would be less likely to escape. Funny, we have been looking at a stainless for several years to replace the old baked enamel one that the bottom has become so thin from many years of use. The old one may have been heck to clean but in 35 years of heavy use we never had this problem. Guess now we will have to figure out a way to add a little weight to the top to seal it off better. Shucks! Little tidbit. If you have always worried that you may run out of water while you are juicing and didn't know it, well just add a marble to the water and when the water section gets dry the marble will rattle letting you know you are out of water. Happy juicing!!

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Great product good price it is just as good as the much more expensive ones I own. I highly reccomend this product.

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I freakin LOVE this juicer!! It worked perfectly as advertised. I put in about 4 1/2 pounds of blackberries and got almost 6 cups of juice!! It made some very delicious jam! Not only that, but I didn't have some tiny mesh screen to try to clean as I would with a traditional juicer. Just chucked the berry pulp into the composter! Easypeasy! The ONLY minor, tiny little thing I had to watch for was that the handles didn't seem to stay very cool. But that could also be because I was using a gas stove. As long as I used potholders, it was no big deal. It's not even worth taking off a star for! I can't wait for the peaches and apples to be ready. The jam was awesome, and I still have 3 cups of juice I'm going to make syrup with. I love fruit syrups on my waffles. This is the start of a beautiful relationship!