I've been experimenting with a "new" technique to defat the initial pulls. It's not new, but I haven't read about it being used at this point in the extraction.
I'm doing my first pulls with an NPS that should grab everything - xylene. Instead of aiming for crystals on the first pulls, I'm going straight to an acid (vinegar) wash. The vinegar is then based again, and I do my pulls as normal with naptha. It seems to work pretty good at separating the fat, as it collects a milky white layer in between the xylene and vinegar. This is different from how I previously did my ABA extractions - normally, I'd recrystalize, and then repeat the procedure. Why did I do it? I guess the crystallization step seemed like an additional unnecessary step.
My question is about the fat. I understand why the fat initially migrates to the xylene, but why does it come crashing out when the xylene is exposed to vinegar? I suspect that it "crashes" because it has DMT stuck in this layer. Is this correct? I really don't want to throw this layer away just yet, and I wanted to see what others think might be in this layer.