Determining Pounds of Produce for Recipes

If I want to mix my produce together for grinding per recipe, how much of each ingredient should I use in each batch?

Great question and I’m glad you asked!  As you may have read in Charlie’s post, “Mixing Produce or Grinding Separately, ” grinding your produce together will actually give you a higher yield.  But that leads to the question of how much of each ingredient should you use in each batch.

The answer is easier than you think because you have already done the hard part, creating a delicious and nutritious juice recipe; now we just need to do a little math.

Here is an example using a carrot and pineapple juice recipe to be made using the Goodnature X-1.

In your 16 ounce bottle you measure in the following:

• 6 ounces of carrots
• 5 ounces of pineapple
• 3 ounces of celery
• 1 ounce of ginger
• 1 ounce of lemon

Step 1: Divide

Divide each item by the total ounces in the bottle, in this case, 16.

• 6/16 = 0.375
• 5/16 = 0.3125
• 3/16 = 0.1875
• 1/16 = 0.0625
• 1/16 = 0.0625

So far those numbers don’t seem helpful but lets look at step 2.

Step 2: Multiply

Multiply each number by 25. Why 25? It’s the total number of pounds your press bag can hold.

• 0.375*25 = 9.37
• 0.3125*25 = 7.81
• 0.1875*25 = 4.68
• 0.0625*25 = 1.5625
• 0.0625*25 = 1.5625

Each number represents the pounds per press cycle but let’s do a final step to make things easy.

Step 3: Round

Don’t sweat the small stuff! This step is optional and you perfectionists out there probably can’t even stand the thought of this. But for me, here are the final numbers I’d use:

• 9.5 pounds of carrots
• 8 pounds of pineapple
• 5 pounds of celery
• 1.5 pounds of ginger
• 1.5 pounds of lemons

That’s a little over 25 pounds but use the right blade, speed, bag and go slow and you will be just fine! (Need help choosing, check this post here)

A final thought.

This method works pretty well, because most produce has a similar yield when grinding together. However, I’ve talked to customers who tell me they can’t use this method because of too much variance in their produce. One day they get X amount of juice from their carrots and then next day they get half. That’s super unfortunate and frankly, a total bummer. I still say give this method a shot and do the best you can, there are many successful companies doing it this way. I guess I’m just a purist, but I believe this is how cold pressed juice should be made. Customers should be OK with a little variance on real, raw, organic juice.

A little variety keeps life fresh, that and cold glass of cold pressed juice; happy juicing!