It may look like I'm making moonshine, but alas, I am not. Instead I made Black Currant juice with my steam juicer. In North America steam juicers are almost unheard of, but my mother always had one to make juice. I don't know where she got her's, but perhaps brought it over from Germany.Mine is most likely from the 1970's that I won from eBay a few years ago.
Steam juicers have 3 separate containers that fit together - the bottom one holds water; the middle one has an inverted funnel shape with a hole in the middle for the steam to go through and the juice collects around it and pours out of a spigot (connected to a hose) on the side; and the top container is a strainer where you put the fruit and berries. During the steaming action the fruit becomes soft and the juice drips through the strainer holes and collects in the middle container. When enough juice has collected it pours out of the spigot and down the hose which has a clamp. I have a stainless bowl in the photo just so the juice doesn't run onto the floor if the clamp is not on tight enough. I put the hose into the my bottle and release the clamp letting the juice fill the container.
The juice that ensues is concentrated and we put a little into a glass of water, add a teaspoon or two of sugar and stir it up. There is no set amount as to how much concentrate to add - we just add until it tastes good.
The steamer works well with rhubarb (as mentioned in my sister's
blog), apples, tomatoes, black currants and other berries.
