Finishing the Falernum
After more than three days of infusing the prior ingredients, it was time to strain, press, and complete Falernum #4.
Falernum #4 ingredients, cont.
3 cups simple syrup
1½ cups fresh lime juice
It’s time again to make another batch of falernum. This makes my fourth batch to date. I am still tinkering with my own recipe, based upon the wonderful Paul Clarke.
At Tiki Central I run into those who seem to be afraid to experiment in creating their own concoctions of tinctures, liqueurs and juices. There’s no need to dread or disdain working in the kitchen. If you can make an omelet, you can make falernum. There is not a time commitment needed: I spent a scant 25 minutes from start to finish below, and I was taking pictures.
Falernum #4
9 limes, zest from
¼ cup diced fresh ginger
45 cloves
2 cardamum pods
½ cup slivered almonds, dry-roasted
750ml Cruzan 120 Clipper Rum
A picture essay follows after the cut. I hope this inspires the previously kitchen-adverse to start tinkering.
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Simple Syrup Science has completed. The results are in! Noel was kind enough to be the last test subject for this round.
To summarize, I produced two 2:1 simple syrups. One was created by nothing more than shaking in a mason jar, the other was heated to boil, then removed from heat.
I did a double blind test, 2 samples of each syrup type in random order.
The main result is that while there is a perceptible difference, but not in the flavor. 66% of the test subjects could not taste a flavor difference. 66 % of the test subjects were able to tell one syrup from the other, but were wrong on which was which. What is the difference?
Viscosity. The hot method syrup was thicker than the cold method. One of the test subjects believed the thickness of the syrup affected the physicality of tasting, and so thought the hot-method syrup was less sweet than the cold-method. Results are a bit inconclusive, so I’d love to see this experiment repeated.
The next test will be tasting difference in falernum: Initial non-scientific non-blind tastings showed no difference between the two syrups in the falernum. I plan to test using the syrups in a cocktail as well.
But the take home? Don’t waste your time shaking the sugar (unless you are after a thinner mouth-feel for your syrup).
Also, I finished my initial design for the site. If you’ve never been there and only viewed via RSS feed, take a look and tell me what you think. If you’ve been to the site before, you may have to refresh your cache by force-reloading the page.
Cheers!
-=C
It’s so hard to be back at a day job after holiday festivities.
The simple syrup project already has some results: The hot and cold process syrups have been created. The volume and hue turned out exactly the same, no need for adjusting. Last night Heather and I blind tasted them and recorded our results. I’m not going to report just yet, as we have a few more local tasters who will be testing; I wouldn’t want to skew their results with any early reports.
The Holiday was lovely, with much drinking and mixing going on. There were Tom & Jerrys, Navy Grogs, 3 Dots & a Dashes, Nui Nuis, Corspe Revivers #2, Manhattans, Mah Jonngs, Cesar Rum Punches, Flippin’ Flips, and plenty of highballs to go around. I also treated our merry gathering with 2 growlers of Bridgeport’s Ebeneezer Ale, hand-pulled and cask conditioned.
We were also productive with tinctures and infusions: We made a Creme de Menthe with our house-grown peppermint, Falernum and Pimento Dram, Pomegranate Liqueur, & my most anticipated — Orange Curaçao.
Blair was nice enough to bring over some of his home-made goodies: Rum Shrub, Orgeat, Ginger Beer, Cola Tonic & Taboo Liqueur.
Cigars were smoked, video games played (guitars make heroes), merriment and good cheer abounded.
Sure makes being here now that much worse in contrast. Ah, but tonight shall see more celebration.
Happy New Year everybody!
Does heat change the flavor of a simple syrup? Or, is there a difference or preference between cold-process and hot-process simple syrup?
I’d expect heat to alter the flavor of complex ingredients like fruit juice (another experiment perhaps). That is, I would not make grenadine by heating my pomegranate juice, I add simple to concentrated juice (which hopefully was concentrated through evaporation). But does heat significantly change the flavor of the base syrup? It is my hypothesis that the method has no significance to the flavor of the product. Below is the draft of my experiment plan. Please comment and criticize. My goal is to produce an experiment that my be reproduced for any peer analysis that others may wish to take part in.
Experiment setup:
Cold process: 2 cups of sugar and 1 cup of water are added to a mason jar. Lid is applied and mason jar is occasionally agitated until sugar completely dissolves. If any solids are left after 24 hours, they are filtered out, dried and measured. Volume is measured.
Hot process: 2 cups of sugar (minus mass equal to any undissolved solute of cold process) and 1 cup of water is added to saucepan. Mixture is brought to gentle boil and removed from heat. Mixture is cooled to room temperature and volume is measured. Enough water is added to equal volume of Cold process (to replace water lost through boiling).
Person alpha transfers mixtures into jars, marks them with ‘A’ and ‘B’ and places into refrigerator. Only person alpha knows the identities of ‘A’ and ‘B’.
Experiment Execution:
Person beta removes mixtures from refrigerator after 24 hours and secretly dispences into shot glasses/cups labeled 1,2,3 and 4. 2 cups will contain mixture ‘A’ and 2 will contain mixture “B.” Only person beta knows which mixture is in each numbered cup/glass. This is done for as many test subjects that will be taking part.
Test subjects record experiences and try to match sets (i.e. 1&3, 2&4 — I preferred 1&3, the mouth feel was better).
Test recordings are collected by person beta and correlated to ‘A’ and ‘B’. Person alpha reveals identities of cold and heat-processed syrups.
