Dave Arnold - "Liquid Intelligence"

[_john]

I have a centrifuge and have been working my way though some of the recipes that benefit or require a centrifuge. Also have a similar carbonation set up as the one that is mentioned in the book and will be getting to the carbonation section next. Anyone else experimenting with this James Beard award winning cocktail book?

[_john]

Bananas Justino

 

I made this with some mixed brandy and whiskey which had vanilla notes to try and accentuate the banana flavor. In the picture you can see the ripness of banana that I used. Unexpectedly the banana flavor developed more after letting the already clarified liquor sit for a day or so. This recipe requires a centrifuge. The taste was not as banana-y as I expected on the top note but has a very clear banana flavor in the after taste. It helps to smell the ripe banana before you try it to help you remember what non-artificial flavor  banana really smells like.

 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Yes, several folks...

 

http://forums.egullet.org/topic/40252-cocktail-books-the-topic/?p=1993735

[_john]

Milk Washed Tea Vodka

I used the milk wash technique to take a away astringency and bitterness from jasmine tea extracted in vodka. You have to be gentle with the curds as to not break them up again and re emulsify the milk. Interestingly it was very clear right out of the centrifuge but after chilling it became slightly cloudy. This is not really a problem as the final cocktail has other ingredients in it that slightly cloud the appearance. I wonder why it became cloudy? Any Ideas? As for the taste, the milk washing took away most of the bitterness and a significant portion of the astringency especially as the taste first hits you. The astringency does linger in the throat a little bit but I think this is a symptom of having steeped the tea a little too long as I am using a different tea as in the recipe. The jasmine aroma was strong and right up front, very good.
 

some floaters as this is before passing through a coffee filter

here is a short video of the mopping technique used to remove as much milk proteins as possible.

[_john]

made a tea time variation. I tried lime juice instead of lemon and instead of adding salt I added a bit of "pico limon" (chili pepper, citric acid and salt blend). very nice, tasted very similar to a cocktail I had at the Bamboo Bar at the Mandarin Oriental in Bangkok.

[Hassouni]

Bananas Justino

 

I made this with some mixed brandy and whiskey which had vanilla notes to try and accentuate the banana flavor. In the picture you can see the ripness of banana that I used. Unexpectedly the banana flavor developed more after letting the already clarified liquor sit for a day or so. This recipe requires a centrifuge. The taste was not as banana-y as I expected on the top note but has a very clear banana flavor in the after taste. It helps to smell the ripe banana before you try it to help you remember what non-artificial flavor  banana really smells like.

 

_bananas_justino___clear_banana_liquor..jpg

 

What centrifuge do you have there? Seems to be large enough capacity for 750mL?

 

To quote myself from this post:

 

 

It's unlike any other book in its class - I haven't read Modernist Cuisine but it strikes me as the equivalent for cocktails. If I were not running a pop-up cocktail bar and planning to open a full time one, I might have less use for it, but in my case, it's a godsend.

 

I don't reuse my ice, and to be honest I haven't put into practice a TON of techniques from it yet, but I am strongly considering a carbonation rig, and if/when the Green Zone becomes a brick and mortar bar, centrifuge all day long, and possibly even LN. I do use his iSi infusion technique, but I started that before the book came out (it was on the Cooking Issues blog years ago).

 

That said even before I pick up a carbonation setup, or a centrifuge, or an LN dewar, his coffee infusions will def get some trials for my Turkish Coffee Liqueur, and I did pick up a cheapo manual ice shaver at H Mart (cheap version of his expensive Japanese one), and I've tried his sub-threshold salt in sours trick, and it's great. I also used his technique for orgeat, using some Cooking Issues style hydrocolloids, and it was a breeze, and it's amazing. I also picked up some of his preferred brand of agar-agar powder and plan on doing some test runs of juice clarification soon.

 

Dave Arnold is my new God, basically.

 

And on Tuesday Rafa and I finally went to Booker & Dax - we had something like 10 drinks on the menu, including the G&T, Bangkok Daiquiri, and Mezcal + Y Chartreuse BDX Margarita. Amazing drinks, and it was also really cool to see liquid nitrogen being poured around everywhere!

[_john]

The cetrifuge and rotor combination I have can do exactly 1000ml. It is a Kubota 5420 with swining bucket rotor. Dave says in the book that anything less than 3L is not practical. I agree with him for a bar but for home use 1L is the sweet spot for sure. Why? even if your yeild is only 75% you can still make a full bottle of liquor 720~750ml.

[Hassouni]

The cetrifuge and rotor combination I have can do exactly 1000ml. It is a Kubota 5420 with swining bucket rotor. Dave says in the book that anything less than 3L is not practical. I agree with him for a bar but for home use 1L is the sweet spot for sure. Why? even if your yeild is only 75% you can still make a full bottle of liquor 720~750ml.

 

Yeah, I agree with you there, where did you get yours?

[_john]

Ebay, or the equivilent in Japan. it was used in a blood lab but was very clean. The rotor looked new, had some factory packaging still on it. Had a friend with a geiger couter check it for radiation too, came out clean. I spin in cut off squeeze bottles.