A long time ago I found a set of instructions online that detailed how you could make infused vodka in an afternoon instead of in weeks. It was written by a bartender at what seemed to be a high-end bar. Now you might wonder why anyone, much less a skilled bartender, would want to make an infused vodka. Today, that might be a good question, but flavored vodka was a big thing at the time. And, hopefully, there will be always a certain kind of establishment who will take pride in offering a house-made product to discerning patrons.
But back to those instructions. I found these long enough ago that they no longer exist online. But they were so stupidly simple that I never had to go back to look for them again. Now I didn’t know this at the time, but the instructions were describing a large industrial-grade Sous Vide cooker. I didn’t know what Sous Vide was, but I could understand the concept behind it. Keep a water bath at a precise temperature for a determined length of time. Easy peasy. Using a very large stockpot, a thermometer, and a quick hand on the stove controls, I used those instructions to make a lot of infusions. I was mostly just playing around, but the lemon peel infusions were the first step in some mighty tasty limoncello.
Now being the kind of guy who likes to make things for myself, I’ve been making orange bitters at home for years. I even wrote about it way back in 2014. Originally I used the Orange bitters recipe in Brad Thomas Parson’s book Bitters: A Spirited History of a Classic Cure-All. But these days, I’ve modified the recipe some.
A couple of years ago I bought my first Sous Vide cooker. I love to cook, I’m a gadget guy and heck, Sous Vide cookers were finally available for less than $100. I’ve made the best steaks I’ve ever tasted using that thing.
This year, I finally realized that I could put these two things together. Instead of waiting for three weeks for my bitters to be done, I could use the Sous Vide cooker to easily make warm infused bitters. Now the warm infusion method doesn’t work for everything. Just like a cold brew tea and coffee taste different than a warm brew, using the warm infusion method will change the flavor. If you are infusing fruits, the result will taste more like cooked fruit than it will fresh fruit. But in some cases, this is actually beneficial so just keep that in mind.
And since this experiment worked so nicely, I thought I’d share my recipe with you.
Spicy Blood Orange & Tangerine Bitters
Ingredients
2 Cups Old Grand-Dad 114
2 oranges
2 tangerines
2 Blood oranges
4 Whole cloves
1/2 star anise
8 green cardamom pods, cracked
1/2 tsp cassia chunks (or broken cinnamon stick)
1/2 tsp gentian root
1/4 tsp Black peppercorns
1/4 tsp coriander seeds
1/4 tsp whole allspice
1 cup of water
1 ounce rich (2 to 1) simple syrup
Equipment
Instructions
Read all the directions and gather your equipment.
With a Y-peeler, zest 1 orange, 1 blood orange, and 1 tangerine. Make them a nice, thick zest and don't be afraid to get some pith on them. Give the zest a rough chop with a large knife. Keep the pieces kinda big as they will shrink.
Dry your chopped zest. I use a food dehydrator, but you can also use a baking sheet in a 200° oven.
After your dried zest is finished, zest your other three citrus fruits. I avoid the pith on this step, but it won't hurt if some comes along for the ride, you are making “bitters” after all. A little extra bitterness isn’t the end of the world.
Place your fresh zest, 1/4 cup of dried zest, and all your spices in a quart-sized Mason jar. Add 2 cups of Old Grand-Dad 114. Close the jar and give it a shake. Make sure all the ingredients are covered, if not add more bourbon and close tightly.
Fill your stockpot (or whatever you use for sous vide cooking) with water, set your cooker to 160° F and float your mason jar in the stockpot. There should have been enough headspace in the jar to allow it to float upright. Once the water comes to temperature let it cook for an hour and a half, shaking occasionally. After the cook is complete, do not empty your water bath unless you are finished for the day. You will need it again.
Strain the solids out through a piece of cheesecloth. Set the infused bourbon aside.
Place the solids and one cup of water in a second Mason jar and float in your water bath. Set temp to 160° F and let infuse for 45 minutes.
Strain the solids out through a piece of cheesecloth. Give the solids a squeeze to remove as much liquid as possible. Discard solids.
Combine the infused bourbon and infused water together. Add rich simple syrup. Let run through a coffee filter to remove any sediment. Let cool.
Decant into small bottles. It is natural for more sediment to settle out, just give it a shake before using. If something starts to grow in the bottle, please discard it. For best flavor, use bitters within a year or so.
So, right after I finished this, I realized that I didn’t have any bottles. I’d been reusing the same old Angostura bottles for years and had finally tossed them thinking that I’d easily have emptied more when the time came to need them. Well, I did. But then I tossed them too not remembering that I need to save them. After some searching online, I found out that they were called Woozy Bottles and are the same bottles used in hot sauce. The smallest amount that I could get from Amazon was a case of twelve. Needing only four, I wondered to my wife what I would do with the other eight. It was then that she said the most mind-blowing thing: “You know, you could always make other kinds.”
I’m going to be honest with you, that thought had never crossed my mind. So I set out to think of what other kinds of bitters I might want to make. Well, my wife likes cherry bitters in her Old-Fashioneds so that was a no brainer. And I knew just the thing to base it on: my Orange-Spiced Cocktail Cherries. These have been a big hit with everyone who has tried them ever since I developed the recipe. And, since I already had many jars of these cherries in storage, I could even use them to make the bitters. Once again I got out my trusty food dehydrator and got to work sucking the moisture out of them.
Spiced Cherry Bitters
Ingredients
2 Cups Old Grand-Dad 114
1/2 Cup Dried Orange-Spiced Cherries
1/4 cup Orange-Spiced Cherries
1 TBSP Dried Orange Peel
1 TBSP Gentian Root
1 TBSP Cassia Chunks (or broken cinnamon stick)
1 TBSP Whole Allspice Berries
1 TBSP Juniper Berries
1 Star Anise (broken up slightly)
1 cup of water
1 ounce rich (2 to 1) simple syrup
Equipment
Sous Vide Cooker
Food Dehydrator
Small knife
2 mason jars
Measuring spoons
Instructions
Read all the directions and gather your equipment.
With a small knife, cut about a cup of Orange-Spiced Cherries in half. Dry your cherries in a food dehydrator (I got impatient and pulled mine out when they were about three-quarters dry, they still worked great).
Place your dried cherries, 1/4 cup of non-dried cherries, and all your spices in a quart-sized Mason jar. Add 2 cups of Old Grand-Dad 114. Close the jar and give it a shake. Make sure all the ingredients are covered, if not add more bourbon and close tightly.
Fill your stockpot (or whatever you use for sous vide cooking) with water, set your cooker to 160° F and float your mason jar in the stockpot. There should have been enough headspace in the jar to allow it to float upright. Once the water comes to temperature let it cook for an hour and a half, shaking occasionally. After the cook is complete, do not empty your water bath unless you are finished for the day. You will need it again.
Strain the solids out through a piece of cheesecloth. Set the infused bourbon aside.
Place the solids and one cup of water in a second Mason jar and float in your water bath. Set temp to 160° F and let infuse for 45 minutes.
Strain the solids out through a piece of cheesecloth. Give the solids a squeeze to remove as much liquid as possible. Discard solids.
Combine the infused bourbon and infused water together. Add rich simple syrup. Let run through a coffee filter to remove any sediment. Let cool.
Decant into small bottles. It is natural for more sediment to settle out, just give it a shake before using. If something starts to grow in the bottle, please discard it. For best flavor, use bitters within a year or so.
Of course since I’d gone this far, it’d be silly to not do an Aromatic Bitters as well, right?
Arok’s Aromatic Bitters
Ingredients
2 Cups Old Grand-Dad 114
1 TBSP Molasses
1 TBSP Gentian Root
1 TBSP Cassia Chunks (or broken cinnamon stick)
1 TBSP Blade Mace
1 TBSP Whole Allspice Berries
1 TBSP Dried Orange Peel
1 tsp Green Cardamom Pods (cracked)
1 tsp Whole cloves
1 Star Anise (broken up slightly)
1/2 tsp black peppercorns
4 pieces Dried, Sliced Ginger Root
4 Orange-Spiced Cherries
1 cup of water
1 ounce rich (2 to 1) simple syrup
Equipment
Sous Vide Cooker
2 mason jars
Measuring spoons
Instructions
Read all the directions and gather your equipment.
Place your molasses, cherries, and all your spices in a quart-sized Mason jar. Add 2 cups of Old Grand-Dad 114. Close the jar and give it a shake. Make sure the molasses is dissolved and all the ingredients are covered, if not add more bourbon and close tightly.
Fill your stockpot (or whatever you use for sous vide cooking) with water, set your cooker to 160° F and float your mason jar in the stockpot. There should have been enough headspace in the jar to allow it to float upright. Once the water comes to temperature let it cook for an hour and a half, shaking occasionally. After the cook is complete, do not empty your water bath unless you are finished for the day. You will need it again.
Strain the solids out through a piece of cheesecloth. Set the infused bourbon aside.
Place the solids and one cup of water in a second Mason jar and float in your water bath. Set temp to 160° F and let infuse for 45 minutes.
Strain the solids out through a piece of cheesecloth. Give the solids a squeeze to remove as much liquid as possible. Discard solids.
Combine the infused bourbon and infused water together. Add rich simple syrup. Let run through a coffee filter to remove any sediment. Let cool.
Decant into small bottles. It is natural for more sediment to settle out, just give it a shake before using. If something starts to grow in the bottle, please discard it. For best flavor, use bitters within a year or so.
So there you have it. Four bottles each of three different kinds of bitters all in one afternoon. Not too shabby. If you are curious, I got all my spices from my local Penzey’s Spices location except the Gentian Root which I ordered from Mountain Rose Herbs. Neither of them are sponsors, I don’t take sponsors, I just like these stores. Oh and the labels above are original Eric Burke designs cut out using my Cricut. I told you like making things myself.
