ChefSteps is a team of chefs, writers, and food lovers who develop recipes, techniques, and guides to help people cook better at home.

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One of the major differences between professional and domestic kitchens is the pros’ ability to make silky-smooth purées. Such smoothness is the result of separating large particles from small ones: the smaller the particles, the smoother the purée. Classically, chefs rely on a gamut of filters (sieves, strainers, etc.) to separate particles by size. Another entirely different approach is to separate particles by density. Meet the centrifuge. Though rare even in professional kitchens, centrifuges apply extreme g-force that causes heavier particles (solids) to sink and lighter particles (liquids) to float. This recipe employs a centrifuge to separate pure strawberry juice from strawberry solids like seeds and pulp. The resulting strawberry liquid, viscous with pectin and intense in flavor, is a key ingredient in recipes like our <a href="fruit-minestrone">Fruit Minestrone</a>. Don’t have a centrifuge? Don’t worry. You can rely on osmosis and the age-old practice of lightly sugaring the berries, letting them sit, and watching clear juice slowly seep from the berries’ cell walls. However, that process is slow, has low yields, and requires adding sugar—yet another reason we prefer the clean, convenient, and time-saving centrifuge for most matters of particle separation.