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CHAPTER 1
PART 1 The Basics
Homemade Liqueurs & Tasteful Spirits
Flavoring alcohol is straightforward. Most liqueurs use neutral grain alcohol, such as vodka, as a base, although I use a variety of bases, including rum, tequila, whiskey, vermouth, and wine. The process of infusing such nonvolatile substances as iodine into alcohol in the preparation of medications is known as tincturing. Even though liqueurs are no longer considered medicinal, I find it clarifying to use this somewhat archaic term to describe the process of flavoring spirits.
To make a tincture, the flavoring ingredients are broken or cut into small pieces to expose more surface area to the alcohol, and sometimes sugar syrup is added with them. I have found that adding sugar in the initial stages of tincturing slows down the transfer of flavorful components into the alcohol. So when using a flavorful sugar such as brown sugar, agave, jaggery, or honey, which has aromatic elements that need to infuse into the liquor base, I add the sweetener in the first step, but when using unflavored sugar syrup made from granulated white sugar, I add the sugar after the initial tincturing is complete.
When the flavoring ingredients are combined with the alcohol, the chemical power of alcohol takes over. Alcohol bonds with both water-soluble and fat-soluble molecules, which gives it awesome power to attract and hold on to any flavor molecules. Those flavors perceived on the tongue (salty, sweet, sour, bitter, and umami) are soluble in water, while all other flavors (herbal, fruity, spicy, floral, garlicky, and so on) are fat soluble and perceived through the nose. When you are flavoring a recipe, your cooking medium largely determines what flavors emerge. Boil garlic in water and the results are largely sweet. Sauté the same amount of garlic in oil and the sugars are unnoticeable, but the garlicky pungency can be overwhelming. But soak a flavorful ingredient in alcohol and the solubility of its flavorful components doesn't matter: Everything ends up in the booze.
Different ingredients take more or less time to infuse their flavors into an alcohol base. The timing depends on several factors:
* The proof (alcohol percentage) of the base spirit
* The concentration of flavorful components in the blend
* The volatility of the flavorful components
Proof. The concept of proof developed in the eighteenth century, when British sailors were paid partly in rum. To ensure that the rum had not been watered down, it was "proved" to be undiluted by dousing gunpowder with the liquor, then testing to see if the gunpowder would ignite. If it wouldn't, the alcohol content was considered too low, or underproof. A proven solution was defined as 100 degrees proof, because it was assumed that it did not contain any water.
It was later found that rum-doused gunpowder would ignite as long as the rum had more than 57 percent alcohol by volume. Expressed as a ratio, 57 percent is roughly 7:4. So 70 proof liquor had about 40 percent alcohol by volume. Later this was rounded to a ratio of 8:4, or 2:1.
As you can see, proof is only an approximate measure of a liquor's alcohol content. It is not permitted as a legal measure of the amount of alcohol produced through distillation. Although a liquor label may state the proof of its contents, it must also state the alcohol content as a percentage of volume (ABV).
The higher the proof of the alcohol base, the faster it captures flavoring components from added ingredients. Most whiskeys and rums are 80 proof. Gins can be 80 or 86 proof, and several vodkas reach 140 proof. Everclear is the highest-proof commercial spirit, topping out at 190 proof.
Concentration. Drier ingredients, like dehydrated fruits and dried spices and herbs, have more concentrated flavoring elements because their water content has been reduced. Their fresh counterparts contain up to 60 percent less flavor molecules by weight and therefore need much more time to fully flavor an alcohol base.
Concentrated ingredients like dried cherries might take a couple of days to infuse, while fresh cherries would require a week or more in alcohol to release the same amount of flavor. That said, using finely shredded fresh fruits and vegetables produces a lighter, more natural-tasting liqueur than one made solely from dehydrated produce.
Volatility. Some flavoring compounds disperse more easily than others, which is why certain ingredients smell more intense than others. A cracked cinnamon stick or a split vanilla bean will release its flavor into a bottle of brandy in about 24 hours. Pungent aromatic ingredients like horseradish or black pepper can flavor a fifth of vodka in just a few hours.
Tincturing to Taste
Every recipe in this book gives a range of tincturing time. Take a taste at the earliest end and let it go longer if the tincture is not as flavorful as you like. It is best to not let the tincturing go longer than the recommended time; longer isn't always better.
The first flavors to be released into the base are the most volatile, lightest, and freshest- tasting ones. After a while, heavier tannic and bitter flavors will start to emerge. Usually these flavors are undesirable, so the mixture should be drained before they develop.
When the desired flavor is reached, the solid ingredients are strained from the liquid. Try to avoid the tendency to press on the ingredients in an attempt to extract the ultimate amount of liquid. True, you can get a better yield by applying some force, but you can also force small solid particles into the alcohol, which will cause cloudiness in the finished liqueur.
Once the solid ingredients have been separated, they can be discarded (although dried fruit that has been marinating in alcohol makes a delicious garnish for ice cream). Sugar syrup is added to the flavored liquor as a last step in its transformation into liqueur. The amount is largely up to personal taste, but generally 33 to 50 percent of the volume of alcohol will yield the best results.
The more sugar syrup added to the alcohol base, the silkier the mouthfeel of the finished liqueur will be. This viscosity slows down the flow of the liqueur across your palate, which allows the liqueur to linger in your mouth longer, thereby giving your taste buds and olfactory receptors more time to pick up flavor, which is why sweeter liquids taste more intense than thinner ones. (It is also why "watery" can describe both the flavor and the consistency of a food or beverage.)
Sugar syrup is easy to make and keeps for several weeks in the refrigerator. I prepare several types to have on hand for flavoring and coloring liqueurs, including Brown Simple Syrup, Caramelized Simple Syrup, and four types of creamy sugar syrups for cream liqueurs: Creamy Simple Syrup, Brown Cow Simple Syrup, Tangy-Creamy Simple Syrup, and Coconut Cream Simple Syrup (see recipes starting on page 24 ->).
Once completed, most liqueurs will keep their flavor and color for about a year if stored in a tightly closed container in a cool, dark location. Cream liqueurs need to be refrigerated, and they will keep for at least a month. Cream liqueurs have a tendency to separate as they sit because the fat in the cream rises to the top. They can be recombined by shaking before serving.
Types of Liqueurs
Liqueurs are grouped by how they are flavored, as shown in this listing of popular commercial brands. The chapters in the book follow these groupings, with recipes ranging from highly inventive originals to copycats of commercial formulas (highlighted in blue). Although it is impossible to replicate secret corporate formulas exactly, most of the copycat recipes included come fairly close.
FRUIT LIQUEURS
Amabili (banana)
VEGETABLE LIQUEURS
Cynar (artichoke)
HERB LIQUEURS
Absinthe (anise, fennel, hyssop, peppermint,
NUT LIQUEURS
Amaretto (almond flavored, usually from the pits of stone fruits like apricots, peaches, and cherries)
FLORAL LIQUEURS
Many blended herb liqueurs contain flower blossoms, but a few are made exclusively from flowers.
Crème de rose Crème de violette (violet)
CHOCOLATE AND COFFEE LIQUEURS
Afrikoko (chocolate and coconut)
CREAM LIQUEURS
Baileys Irish Cream (Irish whiskey and cream)
CARAMEL AND HONEY LIQUEURS
Brandymel Bruadar (Scotch, honey, sloe berries)
The Difference between Liquor and Liqueur
All liqueurs are composed of just three components: liquor (distilled spirits), flavoring, and sugar. Liquor is distilled from fermented fluids, either wine (fermented sugary liquids such as fruit juice, sugarcane juice, or elderflower juice) or beer (starchy mashes such as barley mash, rice mash, or mashed potatoes). Since alcohol boils at a lower temperature than water — 173°F (78°C) compared to 212°F (100°C) — when wine or beer are heated, more alcohol than water turns into vapor.
Liquor is made by capturing that vapor and cooling it until it returns to a liquid state. The resulting spirit has a higher alcohol content than the original beer or wine, and because aromatic chemicals are also highly volatile, it has a more concentrated flavor as well.
The art of distillation is ancient. Mesopotamians were capturing the scents of aromatic plants through distillation more than 5,000 years ago. Written documents suggest that the earliest distilled alcoholic beverages were made by the Chinese, who concentrated alcohol from fermented grain about 2,000 years ago. By the tenth century, privileged Chinese were drinking distilled alcohols, and by the thirteenth century, spirits were being sold commercially.
By 1100 alcohol distilled from wine had a reputation as a valuable medicine in Italy, and throughout Europe alchemists viewed distilled alcohol as a powerful quintessence or vaporous "fifth element" that in addition to the four basic elements (earth, water, air, and fire) made up the world.
In the early fourteenth century, the Valencian alchemist and physician Arnaldus de Villanova, in his medical book on wine, Liber de Vinis (the first mass-printed wine book), dubbed the essence of wine aqua vitae, or "water of life." The term has given name to most distilled spirits, including Scandinavian aquavit and French eau-de-vie. In English, "whiskey" is the anglicized version of the Gaelic beatha, "water of life." Even the term "spirit" identifies alcohol as the soul of fermentation.
Spirits distilled from wine have different characteristics from those distilled from beer. Fruit-based spirits are divided between brandy (made from grapes) and fruit alcohol (made from other fruits). Grain-based spirits are divided among single-malt whiskey (made from malted barley), whiskey and gin (made from grain and malted barley), bourbon (made from corn and malted barley plus a regulated amount of other grain), and vodka (usually made from grain, but also from potato or other starches). Rum is distilled from fermented molasses or sugarcane, and tequila and mescal are distilled from fermented agave.
Turning Liquor into Liqueur
The following are the liquors most commonly used as bases for concocting liqueurs.
Brandy (Grape Liquors)
Brandies are distilled from grape wine. The two most prestigious are Cognac and Armagnac, the first named for a town north of Bordeaux in southwest France and the second for a region south of Bordeaux. Both are made from Trebbiano grapes, which are used to make more wine than any other grape in the world. Trebbiano grapes produce fresh, fruity, undistinguished wines that do not age well, but because of their fruitiness and high acidity, retain full flavor throughout distillation.
Cognac is double distilled with the lees still in the juice. Lees are the sediment of dead yeast that falls to the bottom of the tank after fermentation. They are quite pungent and give Cognac a savory, yeasty quality that balances the sweetness of the grape. Cognac is usually distilled to an alcohol content of 70 percent.
Armagnac is single distilled without lees to about 55 percent alcohol. The shorter fermentation time preserves more of the fruit's volatile acids, which makes Armagnac rougher and more assertive than Cognac.
By law, both Armagnac and Cognac are aged in new French oak barrels for flavor; the oak flavors dissipate as a barrel is used for a minimum of six months, but most brandies are aged for at least two years. The best Armagnac is aged for 20 years or more; Cognac can be aged for over 60 years before being bottled. Both are diluted to about 40 percent alcohol, and their flavor and color may be corrected with sugar, oak extract, and caramel before bottling.
Marc and grappa are the French and Italian names for single-distilled brandy made from pomace, the fermented skins, seeds, stems, and pulp left over from pressing grapes for wine. This solid debris still has some juice and a lot of sugar and tannins remaining in it, which, with the addition of water and a second period of fermentation, yield a pungent wine. Distillation concentrates the flavor, producing a brandy that is known for its strength and sharpness.
Traditionally, marc and grappa were bottled as is, without filtering out the sharper alcohols created in the distillation process, but today more refined aged products are being produced. With age, marc and grappa can develop the same flavor chemicals as those in blue cheese, a quality that is highly prized by aficionados.
Whiskey (Beer Liquors)
Distilled beer (minus the hops) is aged in wood to develop color and flavor, eventually producing whiskey. Like beer, much of its primary character depends on the mix of grains used in its preparation. Whiskeys made with all malted barley are called "single-malt." Those made with a combination of malted barley and grains are called "grain whiskey." These can be named for the type of grain used, such as rye, or they can be named for their place of origin, such as Scotch, Irish, or Canadian.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "Homemade Liqueurs and Infused Spirits"
by .
Copyright © 2013 Andrew Schloss.
Excerpted by permission of Storey Publishing.
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