Infusions are all around us.
From tea and coffee to flavored vinegars and oils, and even many traditional soda pops, infusions are a part of our daily lives. Now, they are becoming more prevalent as many talented chefs and bartenders are creating custom infusions for use in food and cocktails.
These infusions can be used in unique and novel ways but they all stem from the same process: transferring flavor from herbs, spices, and other flavoring agents into a liquid. Exploring this process allows you to create many wonderful dishes, from custom cocktails and personalized sodas to flavorful vinaigrettes and sauces.
There are many different ways to create infusions but several modernist techniques turn infusing from a multi-day process into one that can take just a few hours, or even minutes!
This book covers the basics of what an infusion actually is. It shows you how to create infusions through the traditional process, as well as through the modernist methods of using a whipping siphon, sous vide and fat washing.
Creating infusions is fun and easy! You will master this process in no time using the more than 140 recipes in this book for infused alcohols, vinegars, oils, bitters, food, soda and water. There are also more than 50 recipes focused on using those infusions in cocktails, vinaigrettes, shrubs, sauces, foams, gels and spheres.
After reading this book you will be able to consistently create amazing and vibrant infusions of your own with a minimal amount of effort.
Feel free to skim the recipes looking for something that inspires you. Turn to a specific method section to learn how that method can be used to make infusions. I have provided images of many of the infusions and finished dishes. In the print and non-Kindle Fire versions these images are black and white , but for larger, full color images you can go to the online photo gallery.
What You Get In This Book
• A detailed look at the infusion process including typical flavoring agents and infusing mediums.
• An exploration of the main infusing methods, including traditional cold infusions, hot infusions, whipping siphon infusions, sous vide infusions, and fat washing.
• Recipes for infused vinegars, infused oils, infused alcohols, infused waters, infused bitters, infused creams, infused spirits, and infused syrups.
• Discussion of how to use infusions, including for cocktails, fizzes, carbonated sodas, shrubs, vinaigrettes and caramel sauce.
• Introduction to many modernist dishes such as agar gels, gelatin panna cotta, carrageenan panna cotta, lecithin airs, agar foams, maltodextrin powdered oils, foamed cocktails, oil foams, xanthan gum vinaigrettes and spherified cocktails and soups.
But you don't need to be a modernist cook to enjoy this book. If you want to discover how to easily create colorful and tasty infusions to wow your friends and family, then this book is for you!
