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.