ottawa foodies

Hey Everyone,

Not sure if we have thread on this or not, but I love making infused liquors. I was wondering who else engages in this? I have a batch on the go right now of homemade coffee liqueur, which was 1 cup of Havana Club Anejo Rum, and half a cup ground coffee. I will be tossing some vanilla beans in next. I also make a damned good apple pie bourbon, which I infused pie apples, (So like spartans) in bourbon for a solid month, strain, eat the apples, regret eating the apples, add cinanmon bark for 2-3 days, strain, then add vanilla.

I made my own vanilla flavoring by infusion. Got the vanilla beans at Costco.

I've made maple syrup and liquid smoke infusion. It's pretty good.

Also frozen blueberries and cloves. Interesting.

Agave nectar. Interesting as well.

Rizak's charred oak sticks make a very good infusion too.

Star anise . . .

Chillis . . . hot but the burning is all up front.

It doesn't burn on the way down or have and burning aftertaste.

The recipes are really endless . . . I downloaded a few eBooks on infustions, and I bought one that listed infusion recipes going back to the middle ages.

That apple pie bourbon has my ears perked and my eyes straying to my liquor cabinet.

I've considered tossing some grapefruit and orange rind into some bourbon before. Like a one-pour old fashioned. I never quite got around to doing it though....

soaking whiskey in apples is supposed to make it smoother . . . .

gizmodo.com

I make strawberry infused tequila in the summer.

Francis: I do actually use those tablets. I find they work best with white rum. Also, apples do make it smoother. So much that my friends have termed my apple pie bourbon the most dangerous booze in the world, because you cannot believe it's 40%

Collision: It's a crowd pleaser

has any tried ISI whipper infusion. pretty impressive, you can infuse stuff in minutes compared to weeks.

gizmodo.com

Yeah, it works really well with herbs and anything soft, like berries or even peaches. Harder fruits like apples won't work well, and certainly not vanilla beans or smoked wood. I had to know. Lightly smoked (or even just heavily charred) peppers would be amazing, but I haven't tried it yet.

You can get tons of crab apples along the riverside bike path in the late summer, and in Jacques Cartier Park near the King Edward St. bridge. The trees are laden. But perhaps any apple would work.

I got vanilla beans from costco and cut time into pieces with a scissors, instead of slicing lengthwise. It seems to be working . . .

Sorry, I meant that it doesn't work well in the pressurized method for a CO2 charger/whipper.

Does throwing a few slices of lemon in a glass of vodka before drinking it count as infusing?

... technically, yes. You should look at increasing the time in the future.

...you mean delay drinking it?

Whatever for?

Try sticking lemon zest in a bottle of vodka for a week, then straining.

A week... but... but... I'm thirsty... and it's here NOW!?!

I find the easiest way to zest a lemon is to squeeze it, quarter it then press it flat on a cutting board, inside facing up, and scrape off the insides and white with a paring knife. It only takes a few seconds and wastes nothing. Blend that into vodka with a stick blender and see if you can accelerate the infusing ?

Zest is where most of the essential oil which are oil soluble are.