Infusions
The art of infusing
flavors plays a pivotal role in modern days culinary explorations, Infused
flavors have become a commodity, Be it an Ice cream Parlor or a straight
forward Pizza, Some of the exuberant concoctions in the field of beverage making
have always been lost in translation, It took years for me to actually realize
that our ever pleasing thirst quencher Coco cola is one of the classic infused
beverage which need exploration.
Alcohol is no different, Alcohol is a great
solvent and will extract soluble essences from almost any solid ingredient you
put in it and will absorb all the aromas. The problem is that cold infusions
can take up to several weeks or months. This technique is widely used to make
Limon cello by infusing alcohol with lemon peel.
Infusing liquids with other flavorful
ingredients is a great technique to enhance flavors, create unique flavor
profiles, build up the complexity of a dish or drink, change texture and
surprise your diners. You can infuse flavors into alcohol, oils, water, and
cream using flavorful ingredients like herbs, spices, seeds, fruits and others.
There are several techniques to
infuse a liquid with another ingredient but all of them simply consist of
placing the solid ingredient in the liquid and leaving it there until the aroma
of the ingredient gets absorbed by the liquid. The techniques vary in that the
infusion is done cold, hot, under pressure, in a vacuum or at low temperature.
The amount of time required to infuse the liquid depends on the technique, the
type of liquid and solid ingredient used.
Hot infusion works
well with oil, dairy (such as milk or cream) and sugar syrup. Because molecules
move faster at higher temperatures, hot infusions can be accomplished in
minutes. The main problem of this technique is that the high temperature may
modify or destroy some of the delicate fresh aroma compounds of the solid
ingredient.
This technique does
not work with alcohol because as it is quite volatile, heating in an open
container will cause the alcohol to evaporate and the resulting liquid will
have no kick.
A new technique
recently applied by some chefs and bartenders is the rapid infusion with the
ISI Whip.
The most interesting
feature about this technique is that, It proves that drastic cooling of an
ingredient too will infuse flavors, Heat was the general factor in infusions
but here the opposite just works better, This technique is not only simple,
inexpensive and fast but it also captures the delicate fresh aroma compounds of
the solid ingredient as it doesn’t require heat.
Just put the solid
flavorful ingredient in the ISI Whip, fill with the liquid to be infused,
charge it with N2O, swirl, and wait for a minute or so, vent the gas out of the
whippier and strain the infused liquid, And that’s what I Consider a Eureka
Moment.
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