Tasty Nuggetz
Rising Star
First of all, thanks to all of you who came here and wrote this wealth of information. It has definitely helped my friend in his endeavors.
Right now, my friend is running through his first extraction. Just for details sake, this is what he is doing:
Noman's STB tek
70g MHRB (powdered): 107g NaOH: 1600mL DIH2O: 100mL Naphtha (VM&P) per pull
He followed the procedure exactly as laid out in the tek with the exception of adding a little bit more naphtha than needed, because the measuring cup's lowest measurement was 100mL. He did 6 pulls from the solution, capped them, and set them in the freezer overnight (approximately 12 hours). When he saw it the next morning, only a few fluffy looking white crystals were on the bottom of only a couple of the containers. It by no means looked like the 0.5-1.0% that should have been there. Thinking that resulted from too much solvent, he set the open containers outside to evaporate (no fan) for about 6 hours. This brought down the volume some as well as putting already formed spice into solution with only slightly yellow sludge at the bottom (he is in the south, so it is really hot right now). After the evaporation, he capped them and put them back in the freezer.
Now he has read several different posts saying how long the crystallization should take, ranging from overnight to a couple of days. Is there any kind of consensus as to what should be the longest he should let them sit in there, before realizing it just will not have any more spice precipitate? He does have a really cold freezer, so please take that into consideration.
Right now, my friend is running through his first extraction. Just for details sake, this is what he is doing:
Noman's STB tek
70g MHRB (powdered): 107g NaOH: 1600mL DIH2O: 100mL Naphtha (VM&P) per pull
He followed the procedure exactly as laid out in the tek with the exception of adding a little bit more naphtha than needed, because the measuring cup's lowest measurement was 100mL. He did 6 pulls from the solution, capped them, and set them in the freezer overnight (approximately 12 hours). When he saw it the next morning, only a few fluffy looking white crystals were on the bottom of only a couple of the containers. It by no means looked like the 0.5-1.0% that should have been there. Thinking that resulted from too much solvent, he set the open containers outside to evaporate (no fan) for about 6 hours. This brought down the volume some as well as putting already formed spice into solution with only slightly yellow sludge at the bottom (he is in the south, so it is really hot right now). After the evaporation, he capped them and put them back in the freezer.
Now he has read several different posts saying how long the crystallization should take, ranging from overnight to a couple of days. Is there any kind of consensus as to what should be the longest he should let them sit in there, before realizing it just will not have any more spice precipitate? He does have a really cold freezer, so please take that into consideration.