making the soup - filtering clarification

June 19, 2009

i don't really trust paper towels to not have chemicals, and at the moment

have no money whatsoever to go shoppng around for any really good ones. i

do have some brown basket style coffee filter papers ... would they do in

place of towels for first filtration in strainers, or would they clog up too

fast?

i have brown melitta style cone filters. for the 2nd stage filtering, when

the recipe says:

" Next, strain again through 4 or more layers of coffee filters. It will

take awhile, but the extra straining is the key to avoiding most of the

common side effects reported by those who do not take this extra step. "

does that mean one filter per strainer, stacked 4 strainers like when doing

the 1st stage with towels, or does it mean to stack 4 or more filter papers

on top of each other directly in one strainer?

i use the cone filter papers in lab glass funnels when making CS, and use 6

layers in one funnel. i have two funnels to speed things up a bit. would

this be a good 2nd stage arrangement?

June 22, 2009

I will take a shot at answering you and others can add or correct based on their experiences. The paper towels are to filter out the larger material in the soup. The fine filtering is done by the coffee filter which has hole sizes in the 5 to 15 micron range. It does not matter if the coffee filters are basket or cone - they will both have the same pore size. Without the paper towels you will find your coffee filters clogging rapidly and frequently. Personally, I have no problem with using run of the mill paper towels as long as they have good porosity. But that is an individual choice. Since the paper towels are just a pre-filter to remove the larger material, you can substitute other porous materials for the paper towels as long as they are clean, will handle the temperature of the soup and have a reasonable porosity roughly similar to paper towels. Polyester felt is commonly used as a filter medium, especially where higher temperatures are used. It is good to 300 degrees F. Cotton is also good. You can use a cut up clean white shirt or multiple layers of cheese cloth. I would have cleaned and rinsed the materials very well and dried without fabric softener. Do not use polypropylene or nylon as their melting temperature is too low for hot soup.

I use colanders from the dollar store. First, I use one colander to filter off the largest material. Next, I use one colander for each filter layer, stacked one on top of another. As a top filter clogs, I remove the top filter, replace the filter material and add it back at the bottom of the stacked filters. I do this first with the paper towels and then again with the coffee filters.

For your CS you should not use filters at all. The silver ions can pick up chemicals from the filter. Even from coffee filters. Ionic silver is highly active unlike the oleander soup. If you have particles in your CS, just wait till the particles settle to the bottom and decant off the CS and discard the particles.

- Steve

oleander soup oleander soup On Behalf Of bob LarsonFriday, June 19, 2009 1:08 PMoleander soup Subject: making the soup - filtering clarification

i don't really trust paper towels to not have chemicals, and at the momenthave no money whatsoever to go shoppng around for any really good ones. ido have some brown basket style coffee filter papers ... would they do inplace of towels for first filtration in strainers, or would they clog up toofast?i have brown melitta style cone filters. for the 2nd stage filtering, whenthe recipe says:"Next, strain again through 4 or more layers of coffee filters. It willtake awhile, but the extra straining is the key to avoiding most of thecommon side effects reported by those who do not take this extra step. "does that mean one filter per strainer, stacked 4 strainers like when doingthe 1st stage with towels, or does it mean to stack 4 or more filter paperson top of each other directly in one strainer?i use the cone filter papers in lab glass funnels when making CS, and use 6layers in one funnel. i have two funnels to speed things up a bit. wouldthis be a good 2nd stage arrangement?

June 22, 2009

thanks Steve.

been working nights and sleeping in fragments, so i'm frazzled a bit. pondering on all this, i kind of figured it out as i went. soup is done now.

i have enough stainless steel colanders around to do it. they don't have as many holes as the plastic, but they aren't plastic which i like.

i opted for chlorine-free white paper towels instead of brown because when towels are made of post-consumer recycled paper i want them sterile and i don't trust the brown for that -although for no good reason as they probably are fine- i'm more concerned about dioxins from bleached papers than chlorine, but i hope that's a long resolved problem, and that at least whole foods has eliminated it.

the coffee filter shapes are only important in that the cones won't lay flat in a colander unless torn open and multi-layered, so i used my funnels with 6 layers stacked, changing the top 3 at a time, putting the new on the bottom. and did multiple filterings until they didn't clog so fast. i have a box of brown melitta brand filters, but used the white from costco because the mellitas have a real high flow rate, and even appear to be perfed. actually i should have used them up doing this as i never use them for coffee and they're taking up space.

Terry's recipe instructions seemed to say to let the soup cool to room temp before filtering, at least in one place that i read them. i didn't do that, but while filtering, since i did so many filter passes, it cooled fast. then after boiling again to condense when i filtered i noticed that something seems to congeal into solids and leave various sized specks on the paper. i kept doing more filter passes, changing the papers completely instead of top 3 a couple times, trying to get it to stop doing that but it didn't ... then after adding alcohol for preservative some major goo-balls formed up, kind of gelatinous slime. i watched them form, grow, and float to the top of the bottle really quick. so i did a couple filter passes which seemed to get rid of them. i used 190 proof 95% grain alcohol instead of vodka, as i wanted to use less volume and see no point it the extra water in vodka, or in whatever else is in vodka. i dislike vodka ... i believe it does have some kind of flavoring in it despite the claims i've heard otherwise, unless it's expensive stuff actually made from traditional recipes and really made from potatoes. i opted for alcohol instead of ACV because i think it'll be a more effective preservative. Bragg's ACV is still alive, and whole foods is pasteurized and says to refrigerate after opening so i'm suspicious of using either of those... even distilled is probably not as effective as alcohol. since i have hepC i quit drinking except very rarely a taste, & generally prefer to avoid alcohol ingestion. and so decided to go with only 95ml alcohol per liter bottle of soup, which gives me enough alcohol for 8 liters of soup. don't know what i was thinking, as i only have enough oleander for 4 liters, so i can add more alcohol if it's really necessary to have it over 9.5% i think i'll be using it up within 1.5 years. i can refrigerate it if i have to but would rather not give up the frig space. think that'll work?

i can't seem to decant CS by pouring well except to get a bit off the top of a full bottle. the finer silver stirs right up into solution with the least agitation which bothers me. i guess i could siphon it. or get lab grade papers and a vacuum flask/filter rig... that would be cool for trapping to under a micron. i don't like the idea of the silver ions grabbing stuff out of the paper either. so i just use the same papers until they get too clogged for my patience level, hoping that whatever bad that happens gets done the first few passes of use. they dry out covered in a cupboard and get really ugly but not dusty & i would think nothing microbial can possibly grow on them.

thanks,

bobL

oleander soup oleander soup On Behalf Of Norton, SteveMonday, June 22, 2009 3:56 PMoleander soup v @RE: making the soup - filtering clarification

I will take a shot at answering you and others can add or correct based on their experiences. The paper towels are to filter out the larger material in the soup. The fine filtering is done by the coffee filter which has hole sizes in the 5 to 15 micron range. It does not matter if the coffee filters are basket or cone - they will both have the same pore size. Without the paper towels you will find your coffee filters clogging rapidly and frequently. Personally, I have no problem with using run of the mill paper towels as long as they have good porosity. But that is an individual choice. Since the paper towels are just a pre-filter to remove the larger material, you can substitute other porous materials for the paper towels as long as they are clean, will handle the temperature of the soup and have a reasonable porosity roughly similar to paper towels. Polyester felt is commonly used as a filter medium, especially where higher temperatures are used. It is good to 300 degrees F. Cotton is also good. You can use a cut up clean white shirt or multiple layers of cheese cloth. I would have cleaned and rinsed the materials very well and dried without fabric softener. Do not use polypropylene or nylon as their melting temperature is too low for hot soup.

I use colanders from the dollar store. First, I use one colander to filter off the largest material. Next, I use one colander for each filter layer, stacked one on top of another. As a top filter clogs, I remove the top filter, replace the filter material and add it back at the bottom of the stacked filters. I do this first with the paper towels and then again with the coffee filters.

For your CS you should not use filters at all. The silver ions can pick up chemicals from the filter. Even from coffee filters. Ionic silver is highly active unlike the oleander soup. If you have particles in your CS, just wait till the particles settle to the bottom and decant off the CS and discard the particles.

- Steve

oleander soup oleander soup On Behalf Of bob LarsonFriday, June 19, 2009 1:08 PMoleander soup Subject: making the soup - filtering clarification

i don't really trust paper towels to not have chemicals, and at the momenthave no money whatsoever to go shoppng around for any really good ones. ido have some brown basket style coffee filter papers ... would they do inplace of towels for first filtration in strainers, or would they clog up toofast?i have brown melitta style cone filters. for the 2nd stage filtering, whenthe recipe says:"Next, strain again through 4 or more layers of coffee filters. It willtake awhile, but the extra straining is the key to avoiding most of thecommon side effects reported by those who do not take this extra step. "does that mean one filter per strainer, stacked 4 strainers like when doingthe 1st stage with towels, or does it mean to stack 4 or more filter paperson top of each other directly in one strainer?i use the cone filter papers in lab glass funnels when making CS, and use 6layers in one funnel. i have two funnels to speed things up a bit. wouldthis be a good 2nd stage arrangement?