Macerating
Encyclopedia
In food
preparation, maceration is softening or breaking into pieces using a liquid.
Raw, dried or preserved fruit
or vegetables are soaked in a liquid
to soften the food or absorb the flavor of the liquid into the food. In the case of fresh fruit, they are often just sprinkled with sugar
, then left to sit and release their own juice
s. This process makes the food more flavorful and easier to chew and digest.
Maceration is often confused with marination
, which is the process of soaking foods in a seasoned, often acidic, liquid before cooking.
Sometimes a cooking oil is used as the liquid for maceration – especially olive or some other vegetable oil.
Maceration, of byproducts from food processing
plants sometimes involves the use of a chopper pump
to create a "blended" slurry of food waste and other organic byproducts. The macerated substance, which can be described as a protein-rich slurry, is often used for animal feed, fertilizer, and for co-digestion feedstock in biogas
plants.
Food
Food is any substance consumed to provide nutritional support for the body. It is usually of plant or animal origin, and contains essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals...
preparation, maceration is softening or breaking into pieces using a liquid.
Raw, dried or preserved fruit
Fruit
In broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state,...
or vegetables are soaked in a liquid
Liquid
Liquid is one of the three classical states of matter . Like a gas, a liquid is able to flow and take the shape of a container. Some liquids resist compression, while others can be compressed. Unlike a gas, a liquid does not disperse to fill every space of a container, and maintains a fairly...
to soften the food or absorb the flavor of the liquid into the food. In the case of fresh fruit, they are often just sprinkled with sugar
Sugar
Sugar is a class of edible crystalline carbohydrates, mainly sucrose, lactose, and fructose, characterized by a sweet flavor.Sucrose in its refined form primarily comes from sugar cane and sugar beet...
, then left to sit and release their own juice
Juice
Juice is the liquid that is naturally contained in fruit or vegetable tissue.Juice is prepared by mechanically squeezing or macerating fruit or vegetable flesh without the application of heat or solvents. For example, orange juice is the liquid extract of the fruit of the orange tree...
s. This process makes the food more flavorful and easier to chew and digest.
Maceration is often confused with marination
Marination
Marination is the process of soaking foods in a seasoned, often acidic, liquid before cooking. The origins of the word allude to the use of brine in the pickling process, which led to the technique of adding flavor by immersion in liquid...
, which is the process of soaking foods in a seasoned, often acidic, liquid before cooking.
Sometimes a cooking oil is used as the liquid for maceration – especially olive or some other vegetable oil.
Maceration, of byproducts from food processing
Food processing
Food processing is the set of methods and techniques used to transform raw ingredients into food or to transform food into other forms for consumption by humans or animals either in the home or by the food processing industry...
plants sometimes involves the use of a chopper pump
Chopper pumps
A chopper pump is a centrifugal pump, which is equipped with a cutting system to facilitate chopping/maceration of solids that are present in the pumped liquid. The main advantage of this type of pump is that it prevents clogging of the pump itself and of the adjacent piping, as all the solids and...
to create a "blended" slurry of food waste and other organic byproducts. The macerated substance, which can be described as a protein-rich slurry, is often used for animal feed, fertilizer, and for co-digestion feedstock in biogas
Biogas
Biogas typically refers to a gas produced by the biological breakdown of organic matter in the absence of oxygen. Organic waste such as dead plant and animal material, animal dung, and kitchen waste can be converted into a gaseous fuel called biogas...
plants.