What Is A Juice Extractor

If you love to eat fruits and vegetables, there is another way to consume them. You can extract every last juice in them and drink the yummy highly nutritious extract.

Vegetable and fruit juice is a refreshing soft drink whose growth in popularity has skyrocketed over the past two decades. 

All you need is a good juice extractor to process the juice. Almost all fruits and vegetables can be extracted by a juice extractor.

Common fruits include apple, orange, lemon, pineapple, pear, grape, watermelon, strawberry, and so on. Common veggies include spinach, broccoli, carrots, cucumber, tomatoes, kale, and so on.

In this guide, we will learn what is a juice extractor and how to use one.

What Is A Juice Extractor?

A juice extractor is a kitchen appliance used to extract juice from whole fruits and vegetables. The machine processes fruits and vegetables into juice, which is nutritive and convenient. The best juice extractor makes it easier for you to enjoy a tasty concoction of vegetable and fruit extracts at home.  

Pros And Cons Of A Juice Extractor

Pros:

• Creates vitamin-rich healthy juices in just a few minutes
• It is hard to go wrong with a good juicer when instructions are perfectly followed
• They are generally easy to clean and most of them are dishwasher safe
• Extracts smooth juice without any bits of pulp
• Most of these machines have been made easy to assemble and disassemble

Cons:

• The pulp can sometimes clog up the juicer
• The motor can sometimes become strained especially if is overworked

How Does A Juice Extractor Work?

Juice extractors work to extract juice by grinding or chopping vegetables and fruits after you push these raw materials down a chute.

The idea is to extract the liquid component from the solid component of the raw material to have the juice with all the nutrients and the yumminess intact. 

The flesh, skin, and pith, collectively known as the pulp, come out as the waste product in the process. While the pulp is discarded by the juice extractor into a container, a smooth pulp-free drink is collected into a separate container.  

Some juice extractors have strainers, which can divert some of the pulp into the juice. Considering that the pulp can contain healthy fiber, vitamins, and minerals, a little of it in the juice may not be a bad idea after all.

The various types of juice extractors and how they work have been discussed below separately.

How To Use A Juice Extractor

Step 1: Familiarize Yourself With Your New Juice Extractor

Before you begin to use the machine, take time to understand how it works and familiarize yourself with its parts and components. Check to see where the different features are and get used to them for easy access.

This also involves reading the instruction manual in length. You will understand what to use it for and what not to use it for.

Step 2: Gather Other Equipment And Ingredients

Now that you are ready to use your new juicer, gather every equipment you will need to use alongside it, as well as the fruits and vegetables you want to use.

Besides the juice extractor, you will need a cutting board and a sharp knife to cut the raw materials into small pieces. You will also need a collection container or two if the juicer does not have inbuilt collection containers.

Step 3: Prepare The Ingredients: 

Once you have everything in place, rinse and chop the ingredients into smaller pieces to prepare them for juice extraction. The rinsing ensures that dirt and lingering pesticides are removed.

Whatever needs peeling should be peeled before cutting into sensible pieces or chunks. This is the time to remove any stems, seeds, or pits that could clog the juicing mechanism.

Step 4: Set up the juice extractor and start juicing

Plugin the juicer and feed the chute with all the ingredients that you have cut into sensible pieces. Place the collection container beneath the exit chute. Once you have put the ingredients to full capacity, replace the lid and power on the juicer.

Keep checking the process as it happens and pay close attention. Once all the juice has been extracted, turn off the machine, serve yourself and enjoy the juice.

What Are The Uses Of Juice Extractor?

Juice extractors are versatile machines that offer a wide range of uses. Below are some of their uses:

A) Fruit And Vegetable Juices:

This is the primary purpose for which juice extractors are created. Some types give more juice yield than others. With the right juice extractor and ingredients, you can make nutritious juice with the original taste kept intact.

B) Baby Food:

Juice extractors can be used to make baby foods at home. Choose nutritious vegetables and fruits that are healthy for your baby and create a tasty concoction. You will have provided your baby with fresh food. Baby food made like this would be easy for your baby to consume.

C) Nut Butter:

You can use your juice extractor to make hazelnut, peanut, almond, and cashew butter. You will have to attach a homogenizing piece to the juicing machine or use the blank screen to make nut butter the right way. Feed roasted nuts into the chute and push them through.

Types Of Juice Extractors

The main types of juice extractors include centrifugal, masticating, and cold press juicers. Check their explanation in detail.

1. Centrifugal:

Centrifugal juicers are the most common and are the most available at kitchen stores and the big box retailers. They are more popular probably because people love them more than other types for one reason or the other.

Maybe because it is the most affordable type. To extract the juice using any of these machines, you simply feed in the fruits or vegetables or both, first. The juice extractor will then shred and spin very fast.

During this process, the pulp and bits of the vegetables and fruits inside are caught by a filter or strainer while the juice comes out. Most centrifugal juicers are very loud, which is one of its few disadvantages.

Also, they can heat up pretty fast, which can interfere with the nutritional value of the juice extract.

2. Masticating:

This second juice extractor type uses an auger that grinds or crushes vegetables and fruits put in it.

After the crushing or grinding, what is left of the fruit and vegetable is pressed against a strainer or filter. Unlike the centrifugal, masticating juicers run slower. 

Consequently, they do not heat up. That is why juice extracted with the use of masticating juicers have all the nutrients intact.

Also, the pulp created by a masticating juicer is usually drier than a pulp made by a centrifugal juicer. That means masticating juicers give a higher yield.

3. Cold Press Juice Extractor: 

These are the best juicer types you can find in the market. They use hydraulic or pneumatic press technology. Most juice bars use this type because it makes super high-quality juice. Its juicing process has two stages.

The first stage involves chopping the produce, with a stainless-steel rotating blade, into the consistency of chunky salsa. 

Then in the second stage, the chunky produce is pressed under thousands of pounds of pressure to extract juice from it. Any resulting pulp in this stage is filtered with the press bag to give a super smooth drink.

Frequently Asked Questions - FAQs

Q: Are juice extractors healthy?

A: Yes. They are healthy and are thoroughly tested to determine that.

Q: How do you connect a juice extractor?

A: Connect the machine to the power source using a cord provided. Turn on the power switch before you press on the button on the machine.

Q: What can I use a juice extractor for?

A: Squeezing the juice out of fruits and vegetables, and making nut butter.

Q: How to use a juice extractor for oranges?

A: Peel the orange, remove the seeds and feed the remnant into the chute for juice extraction.

Conclusion

The raw materials must be non-rigid just like the ones mentioned above. This guide shines a light on everything you need to know about juice extractors and how to use them to make the best juice at home.

For home use, there are two types of juice extractors and they work differently. One is a centrifugal juicer type and the other is masticating juicer type. These two types look almost the same. The third type, which is cold press is mostly used for commercial juice extraction.