Jon McGraw (JonMcGraw@seafreeze.com)
Fri, 7 Jan 2000 10:53:22 -0800
Anne,
Just some thoughts from years ago experience in Alaska: We used a defoamer
made by Dow chemical, but only on occasion as I too was leery of additives.
I cannot remember its composition.
No additive measures we used included placement of a catch screen in the
brine flow and frequent cleaning of that screen to minimize contaminates
(e.g. blood curd). There should be a deflection device near the impellers to
prevent cavitation of the brine (that's where most of your foam comes from),
and deflectors in corners to smooth out brine flow. A good plant engineer
would know how and where to place these devices. Periodic draining and
refill of the brine tank is a must (only experience will tell you how
frequently YOUR tank needs this.) Salt is cheap and an added benefit of
recharging tank is a reduction in bluing. Metal ion buildup in the brine
(especially if galvanized metal used for tank or baskets) tends to catalyze
the bluing reaction. If bluing is less of a threat then you can reduce the
cook time and improve both quality and recovery. Also, check the technical
spec sheet of the salt you are using and compare to alternatives. The
dirtier the salt the more foam you will get.
Regards
Jonathan McGraw
jonmcgraw@seafreeze.com <mailto:jonmcgraw@seafreeze.com>
-----Original Message-----
From: Anne [mailto:anne@BORNSTEIN.COM]
Sent: Friday, January 07, 2000 8:08 AM
To: seafood@ucdavis.edu
Subject: Brine freezing
Good Morning ,
I am looking for advice on using a defoamer in a brine freeer
for crab. Is there a way to prevent the foaming as I really would not like
to use any additives if at all possible?
Thanks.
Anne Espedal
Bornstein Seafoods
Astoria,Oregon
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0b3 on Fri Jan 07 2000 - 10:56:21 PST