Vodka Infused by Nitrous Oxide Cavitation
2012-01-21
Chris Shenton

Dave Arnold of Cooking Issues described a new technique for instanly
infusing liquids with flavors -- infusions that would ordinarily take
weeks or months. Dave uses a variety of liquors including Rum and
Vodka with star anise, jalapeno, ginger, bay leaves, carrot, cocoa
nibs.

http://www.cookingissues.com/2010/08/11/infusion-profusion-game-changing-fast-%E2%80%98n-cheap-technique/

Basically, you add whatever flavoring agent you want to an iSi N2O
whipped cream siphon (crushed if hard or skinned), then vodka, inject
N2O, shake, rest, exhaust the gas, strain into glasses.  Oddly, the flavor
takes about 5 minutes to emerge in the glass so give it a little time. 

We've been having fun using it to make flavored vodkas.  I'll try and
record some notes here on combinations we've tried so we can re-do,
tweak, or avoid some.

All are made with a well-priced decent flavored vodka; we've been
using Luksusowa (potato, from Poland) and Fris (grain, from
Denmark). Both are about $20 for a 1.75 liter.  We use 125 mL in our
0.25L iSi, and 250 mL in the 500 mL siphon.

The herbs and spices came out surprisingly well, but the fruits seemed
to have a bit of a rough edge.


* Dill

* Cardamom
  - 2.5 g in 50 ml: too strong
  - 7 g  in 250 ml: try it...

* Juniper berry
  - 0.5 oz to 125 mL: good

* Sea Buckthorn berry
  - 10 g to 250 mL: too weak

* Cranberry