Home brew orgeat - Tiki Drinks and Food

TG The Gnomon Member MD-DC-VA Joined: May 01, 2007 Posts: 1293	TG The Gnomon Posted posted on Wed, Oct 10, 2007 6:57 AM On 2007-10-09 23:34, Sgirl wrote: I think it's worth it to blanch your own almonds. I tried not doing it once and the almond milk was much less flavorful. It only takes me about 10 min to skin a cup of almonds. It's actually pretty relaxing/meditative, esp with good music on. Oh, the other good thing about the high speed blender is you can use less almonds and more water (3 cups water to 1 cup almonds) so over the long term it could actually save money if you make gallons and gallons of almond milk. And there is no soaking time needed. Whir it up, strain/milk it and you're done, at least with the almond milk portion. We'll see how much time it adds to wait for separation... So you grind your almonds up in the water, not before adding the water. Clearly fresh almonds that you blanch yourself are going to have better flavor than anything that has had a chance to dry out at all. The protective husks hold all of that in. Next best are whole blanched almonds. Next after that are blanched slivered almonds, because they have more exposed surfaces to dry out before you can use them. Pre-ground blanched almonds are probably worthless for making orgeat. Because store-bought almond milk contains enough preservatives for it to be kept unrefrigerated until opened, it can sit for a l-o-n-g time on the shelf. When that happens there is a sedimentary residue that builds up on the bottom of the carton. It's kind of a slimy looking muck. But its just ultra fine almond particles that were left suspended in the milk when it was packaged. I think you're experiencing a similar thing. That's your trade-off for making almost instant milk—the long wait for the ultra fine particles to settle. Maybe you can eliminate a lot of those by pouring the otherwise finished batch through an extra large coffee filter. The filter paper might be able to capture the remaining micro nuggetrines. With the equipment I'm using now, my finest particles to make it through my cheesecloth stage just clog up the filter paper. Maybe yours is pre-filtered enough so that it won't. Anyway, that stuff is the main culprit in clouding up a drink. The manufacturers of store-bought almond milk evidently don't take it to that level. Otherwise, theirs wouldn't accumulate so much almond sludge at the bottom.

On 2007-10-09 23:34, Sgirl wrote:
I think it's worth it to blanch your own almonds. I tried not doing it once and the almond milk was much less flavorful. It only takes me about 10 min to skin a cup of almonds. It's actually pretty relaxing/meditative, esp with good music on. Oh, the other good thing about the high speed blender is you can use less almonds and more water (3 cups water to 1 cup almonds) so over the long term it could actually save money if you make gallons and gallons of almond milk. And there is no soaking time needed. Whir it up, strain/milk it and you're done, at least with the almond milk portion. We'll see how much time it adds to wait for separation...

So you grind your almonds up in the water, not before adding the water.

Clearly fresh almonds that you blanch yourself are going to have better flavor than anything that has had a chance to dry out at all. The protective husks hold all of that in. Next best are whole blanched almonds. Next after that are blanched slivered almonds, because they have more exposed surfaces to dry out before you can use them. Pre-ground blanched almonds are probably worthless for making orgeat.

Because store-bought almond milk contains enough preservatives for it to be kept unrefrigerated until opened, it can sit for a l-o-n-g time on the shelf. When that happens there is a sedimentary residue that builds up on the bottom of the carton. It's kind of a slimy looking muck. But its just ultra fine almond particles that were left suspended in the milk when it was packaged. I think you're experiencing a similar thing. That's your trade-off for making almost instant milk—the long wait for the ultra fine particles to settle.

Maybe you can eliminate a lot of those by pouring the otherwise finished batch through an extra large coffee filter. The filter paper might be able to capture the remaining micro nuggetrines. With the equipment I'm using now, my finest particles to make it through my cheesecloth stage just clog up the filter paper. Maybe yours is pre-filtered enough so that it won't. Anyway, that stuff is the main culprit in clouding up a drink. The manufacturers of store-bought almond milk evidently don't take it to that level. Otherwise, theirs wouldn't accumulate so much almond sludge at the bottom.

Post #337561 by The Gnomon on Wed, Oct 10, 2007 6:57 AM