So I just got a Spinzall a few weeks ago and just set it up. For those of you who aren’t familiar, it is a specifically designed Home/Bar/Restaurant use centrifuge. Created by Dave Arnold, owner of the former Booker and Dax Modernist Bar, Booker and Dax Lab, and author of “Liquid Intelligence.”
Instead of costing the $5,000-$20,000 of a lab centrifuge, the Spinzall costs $799.99, a huge difference in price. They also are much, much safer to use, don’t require weighing liquids into special containers, and accuracy of 0.1 gm., are kitchen counter sized instead of 2’x2’x2’, and weighs under 20 lbs. instead of 150-200 lbs. They can be batch run with around 1 pint, or set up for continuous run, with built in hoses and pumps. The first centrifuge to do so.
The spizall is very simple to use, in regular batch mode you just set a timer dial. For continuous use there are additional dials for the pump time, and pump speed. Then there are the on/off switch and the unlock lid switch. Plus a manual unlock over ride underneath the unit. That’s it.
The unit comes with a instruction book with some starter recipes, and instructions on how to extrapolate the recipes to other uses. Including how to use enzymes. You can also get other items to use with the Spinzall like a starter kit of various enzymes to use in clarification of juices, etc.
Since I have a lab centrifuge I have quite a few centrifuge based recipes that I can use the Spinzall for. Mostly making clarified juices, syrups, and other cocktail ingredients, plus various fruit and vegetable purees from the solids from the centrifuge.
Now most folks will wonder what they might use a centrifuge in the average kitchen. Well, most folks won’t, but quite a few will. I haven’t explored all the possible uses, but one easy and rewarding recipe is making butter. Some of the best butter you have ever had.
I tried it as the second use of the Spinzall. The first was to remove bitter pulp from a ginger/turmeric/ginseng juice and syrup that I make and use as a homeopathic remedy for inflammation from arthritis, and to help with disabling neuropathy. (Also the juice tastes fantastic. I mix an oz or two into a tall glass of water and drink 2-3 times a day. It works for me.)
Set up was easy, the unit is extremely well designed and easy to use. I cleaned the working parts in warm soapy water. Put back togethr, about as easy as a food processor, and poured in one pint of cold heavy whipping cream. Just regular homogenized and pasteurized, not the ultra stuff. I got it for TJ’s for $2.99 a pint. I turned on the unit and set for 20 minutes.
Twenty minutes later it had stopped and I opened it up. Poured out the buttermilk carefully, and then removed the butter which came off easily as three sheets apx. 2"x4"x.5". They added up to around .5 lbs. (I didn’t weigh until I had used it for several things, bread, biscuits, panettone, etc. then weighed and it was apx. 6.5 oz. afterwards. I’ll weigh next time and post here.) The butter was a creamy white, a very nice texture, sweet aroma, and a very sweet, buttery flavor. Light, elegant, no off taste or hints of rancidity that you can get at times in commercial butter. And a much higher quality than premium butters like Plugra, Presidente, Kerry Gold, Kate’s, etc. for less cost. and much, much better than cheap commercial butter like store brands and Land O’Lakes.
I made the butter unsalted for the first try. You can also add salt to the cream ahead of time, or to the butter afterwards if you want. Also if you want to make a cultured butter you can add a bit of cultured commercial buttermilk to the cream and let sit to ferment, then make into butter. Full instructions are in the included recipe book. I will try that when I get around to it.
If anyone else has a Spinzall, or is getting one, please post any uses or recipes here. I’ll do so as well. It’s such a unique machine that I expect specific Spinzall recipes books from Dave Arnold, and others, within the next year to hit the market. I expect that some centrifuge based recipes from Liquid Intelligence, and Modernist Cuisine can be easily used in the Spinzall.
Here is the site and there are videos posted. (which I haven’t watched yet.)
https://www.modernistpantry.com/spinzall.html
