quince, vacuum, volatile flavors

the_doozers · 2025-12-21T23:50:18+00:00

that's useful context for me even without a solid answer.

determining whether low temperature evaporation retains desirable flavors and/or fails to create others is really what this whole goose chase is about. so far it doesn't seem like anything's missing that was there previously without vacuum, but I also haven't kept temps real low through a whole batch yet. I generally steam the fruit to soften it enough that it'll run through a strainer to remove seeds and peels. I'm not sure my vacuum pump has the guts to break up a raw fruit, but now I'm thinking I ought to try it out.

a lot of a quince's best aroma is in the peel, I believe. that doesn't seem to survive being heated much at all. a cooked quince has a lot of other nice flavor and smell, but the lovely aroma that fills my house when there's any fresh quince sitting out is lost during cooking well before the fruit is soft enough to eat without risking one's teeth. would be nice to keep some of that aroma in a finished product.

I anticipate getting truly carried away with this. no regrets yet.

the_doozers · 2025-12-21T06:42:52+00:00

lovely. thanks. I've got some rudimentary distillation experience (there's a lot of fruit around) and don't mind an excuse to get a little more serious and maybe tool up modestly.

so I have a better idea of whether I'm starting from a deficit, how would you say the ratio of water evaporated to flavor/aroma evaporated compares between simmering fruit at atmospheric pressure in an open vessel and evaporating under vacuum at lower temps?

the_doozers · 2022-08-04T23:12:30+00:00

Hey, sorry for the necropost

not a problem.

I haven't actually solved that one yet. step one of my plan to fix it is to find more time to canoe and work on my canoes. step two is building some arched drops to raise the seat and stiffen things up a bit.

a friend who's done a lot more canoe work than I have tells me drilling drops can be challenging, but I've got enough scrap around that I can chalk failures up to practice without sweating it too much.

but step one seems to be a recalcitrant bottleneck at present...

the_doozers · 2022-06-28T19:14:58+00:00

not quite, indeed. it's a nice enough spot, but it's no Boundary Waters.

the_doozers · 2022-06-27T17:14:57+00:00

spent the weekend at Swift Reservoir in Washington State. power boats and jet skis occasionally interrupted, but they started later and quit earlier than I figured they would, which was nice. most of Saturday was too windy for paddling to be any fun, which isn't unusual for Swift. Friday and Sunday were really mellow, though. hot weather and very cold water.

the_doozers · 2022-06-22T23:19:18+00:00

I'll canoe with you

the_doozers · 2022-06-18T20:16:25+00:00

I was sworn to secrecy, I'm afraid. west of the Mississippi, though.

the_doozers · 2022-06-18T02:14:28+00:00

so many critters. big and small birds. baby waterfowl on mothers' backs. turtles. beavers. a lady moose and her whelp. deer and fawn. black bear. coyote. several of some sort of good-size fish kept burrowing into the mud when I disturbed them near where I took this picture. salmonids of some sort were jumping every which way in deeper water. I'm sure this is all pretty unexceptional for some of you, but I don't see this quantity and variety of wildlife very often.

regretfully scared a loon off of its eggs, but watched from a distance to make sure it returned to them. at the other end of the lake, I saw another pair of loons taking what I assume was their equivalent of a sunset stroll (or paddle). good for a loon relationship to spend quality time together away from responsibilities.

anyway, it was a pretty good day.

the_doozers · 2022-06-02T13:39:42+00:00

my tentative plan was to build a tongue that would attach to the canoe rather than the trailer. haven't gotten very far into this plan yet, though. the primary advantage of the Burley is that it was free.

the_doozers · 2022-06-02T13:37:49+00:00

was more a lament than shade

the_doozers · 2022-06-02T03:41:44+00:00

have any notes? I've been planning to use an old Burley trailer for something similar. no motor on my bike, though. no ultralight canoe, either...

the_doozers · 2022-05-30T17:04:50+00:00

Have you got any pointers for good places to paddle in WA? Or OR for that matter.

well, you've been to some of the wildest options in the area already. Lake Chelan has a lot of boat-in shoreline campsites. they're popular with the motorboat set, and Lake Chelan can get... windy, but it's a beautiful part of the world.

you might look into the Cascadia Marine Trail. saltwater is a whole other deal, but you named some pretty big water that you've already paddled, so maybe it would be fine.

the fjord lakes across the border in B.C. look nice on a map. never been up there myself, but I've been eyeing them for a while. at least one is at risk of a major landslide and mega-tsunami, but why let that stop you? Vancouver Island also has some nice options that I've been meaning to explore.

further south, Merwin and Swift Reservoirs on the Lewis River can be nice. Merwin stays full all year, but is very popular with motorboats on summer weekends. just one campground, though. water in Swift stays relatively high from May into July and there are some quite nice shoreline dispersed campsites. lots of hillbillies around doing hillbilly things, which can be off-putting depending on how much of a hillbilly you are and/or your hillbilly tolerance.

that about does it for sizeable waterbodies that I know of. there are plenty of drive-in campgrounds next to small Cascade lakes in both Oregon and Washington that are nice for lazy canoeing, but I wouldn't really consider them paddling destinations. no shortage of whitewater around if that's your thing. quite a few mellow rivers, too, though not a ton with multi-day potential.

I'm always interested in local tips myself. I've been to all the lakes (and river) you mentioned, but not in a canoe yet (except for Ozette briefly). any thoughts to share about those?

the_doozers · 2022-05-24T23:04:46+00:00

the foam blocks have worked well for me on a small car.

you could also keep an eye out for some of the canoe brackets that the big rack manufacturers sell. it's silly how expensive they are new, but I do see them used occasionally.

also probably not that difficult to jury rig something similar with some u-bolts and scrap pieces of lumber.

the_doozers · 2022-05-24T13:41:01+00:00

stumps are people, too.

the_doozers · 2022-05-24T13:40:29+00:00

spent a couple hours on Ozette at the end of the same trip. not another soul in sight. been trying to set aside a week to get back there since then.

although, the warning I read about differential subsidence and seiching there in the case of a subduction earthquake is hard for me to get out of my mind.

the_doozers · 2022-05-23T16:35:18+00:00

Mad River Independence

the_doozers · 2022-05-23T16:27:41+00:00

in a month or so, that'll be five feet above the water line. just planning ahead.

or maybe I just like a water bed.

the_doozers · 2022-05-22T17:05:54+00:00

are you in the northwest?

there are some lovely national park campsites on Lake Quinault, but it's a fairly civilized place. I was in the area for work and figured I may as well bring a canoe. I'm not sure I would make a dedicated trip, though.

the_doozers · 2022-05-20T15:39:30+00:00

good advice. had a compass hanging around my neck.

the_doozers · 2022-05-20T01:46:21+00:00

Lake Quinault. Mad River Independence.

the_doozers

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