The key to the technique is to overlook the gadget's ability to produce whips and foams and focus on the fact that it's really just a pressurized canister that you can chunk ingredients into. According to the Khymos blog:
The science behind this is quite simple: in the pressurized canister nitrous oxide (N2O) dissolves and penetrates the food. When the pressures is suddently released (and it is important to release pressure as fast as possible) the sudden pressure drop causes the dissolved gas to nucleate and form bubbles which expand and disrupt cells, thereby releasing flavor compounds. The physical phenomenon is known as cavitation.
To experiment with this technique I decided to try and infuse a liquid with a couple of different herbs and spices I had laying around the house. I wanted to go with something neutral to appraise exactly how effective the infusion technique was, so I decided to try it with vodka. Normally I despise vodka. I don't really see the point of a liquor that is praised for it's ability to taste like nothing. However in this case it's inherent blandness was an asset.
Dawn supervised the experiment and helped provide tasting notes. We selected following items to try and infuse the vodka with: basil, lemongrass, anise, juniper berries, and cacao nibs. We also decided that we'd prepare the basil two ways - with a pressurized infusion and with a more conventional non-pressurized muddling (kind of like you'd do with mint in a mojito). At first we tried to infuse the basil under pressure for a minute (the amount of time suggested in one of the blogs above) but we found the resulting infusion to be weak and hardly worth the effort. We were using both a different sized iSi whipper and different volume of liquid than the aforementioned blog, so that may have made a difference. Once we increased the infusion time things started to get a bit more interesting. In the end we opted to go with 50 ml of vodka infused under pressure for 3 minutes.
Here are our tasting notes for our 6 different infusions.
Basil, fresh (muddled: non-pressurized)
A strong basil aroma. The darkest infusion in terms of color and also a bit cloudy. Tastes strongly of basil, this could be considered a good thing or perhaps a bit harsh.
Basil, fresh (pressurized)
A fainter basil aroma than the muddled version. The color is considerably lighter. The flavor is much more delicate but still definitely basil.
Lemongrass, fresh (pressurized)
A very pleasant lemongrass aroma. The color is the lightest of all the infusions attempted, almost completely clear. To spite little change in appearance, the vodka has taken on a very pleasing lemongrass flavor.
Anise, dried (pressurized)
The vodka definitely smells like anise. The color was in the middle of the pack - darker than the lemongrass infusion but lighter than the muddled basil. The vodka has been infused with a definite anise flavor but it wasn't nearly as strong as traditional anise flavored liquors such as ouzo, raki, or absinthe.
Junpier Berry, dried (pressurized)
Almost no discernible aroma. The color was nearly as dark as the muddled basil infusion, but the juniper was clear instead of cloudy. The vodka acquired a pronounced and pleasing juniper flavor. I was wondering if we could use this technique to turn boring old vodka into exciting gin. Not quite. The infusion was missing gin's other herbal notes. However, the resulting infusion was very tasty. Dawn, who dislikes gin, declared that it was happy and "better than gin."
Cacao Nibs (pressurized)
A very faint aroma, I'm not sure I'd be able to place it if I smelled it without knowing it was suppose to be cacao. The color was by far the most interesting of the infusions we created. It was pink and rose and almost hinting at violet. I had read that this was a good infusion, but I was still surprised at just how good it was. It had a definite chocolate flavor, but it wasn't bitter, or sweet, or creamy. Just chocolate. It was quite unlike any chocolate liquor we've ever tasted (probably because it wasn't sweet and creamy). I find it to be superior to other chocolate liquors.
Verdict
Of the six infusions we made we decided that three had promise. The lemongrass, juniper, and cacao nibs infusions were both tasty and unlike other liquors we've previously tasted. The basil infusions were interesting but lacking. We decided that they needed an additional ingredient to help round them out.
I'm not completely sure the technique is worth the effort for ingredient that easy to muddle (like basil). I suppose it will produce more delicate flavors and clearer liquid. It seems to have definite advantage of being able to quickly infuse flavors of difficult to incorporate ingredient such as things that are dried or naturally hard. (I've tried to make lemongrass martinis in the past with very little success achieving discernible lemongrass notes.)
And no, we did not end up finishing all the infusions we made. It wasn't that kind of evening.
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