Cleaning citrus fruit for infusion

I'm starting to play around with making rapid infusions with high proof spirits in an iSi whipper. The aquavit style is a current favorite. I've been using various blends of toasted/untoasted caraway, toasted/untoasted anise, lemon peel, and orange peel. I wash the citrus fruit prior to peeling, but I have started to wonder about best practices for washing the citrus while minimizing loss of oils in the rind. Any thoughts?

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lfmichaud

Once you've got a good recipe. Please share it for other aquavit lovers!

matthewmicahhall

Quick update -- I'm still slowly playing around with this recipe. A couple recent items:

Extraction of the citrus peel in a rectified spirit situation is a little tricky. I generally work with 250 ml of spirit for the infusion. The bitterness of the peel seems to extract out very quickly (typical infusion procedure is 1 N2O charger, followed by 30 seconds shaking, 1 minute rest, quick vent, and about 3 minute rest). First experiments used about 1/2 of peel from orange/lemon -- way too much. I'm now thinking that even 1/4 peel is too much under the current conditions. I will either cut back to 1/8 peel and/or do a quick blanch on the peel to hopefully remove the bitterness.
My initial experiments were done with the Polish rectified spirit (Spirytus Rektyfikowany). Later experiments were done with Everclear -- possibly a big mistake. I am now attempting the clean up the Everclear by running it through an activated charcoal filter in a standard water purification pitcher. I did 10 filtration cycles and the aroma of the Everclear seems noticeably better (or perhaps I've just managed to burn out all of the receptors in my nose). I hear a lot of good things about Technical Reserve from Industry City Distillery, but it's sadly not available in my area (Rochester, NY). Anyone is welcome to send me a bottle for my experiments!

lfmichaud

How are you using your peels? Personally I'm taking the flavedo with a microplane and I usually don't have biterness problems.

matthewmicahhall

I am using a standard OXO Y-shaped peeler. I try to be careful about not stripping off the albedo, but perhaps that is the problem. Thanks for the microplane suggestion. I will try that instead on my next batch and report back.

matthewmicahhall

Another update -- I am close to dialing in a good result, but of course "good" is very subjective here. My thanks to Louis-Frederic for the microplane suggestion. It worked well in this case. Here is my current method.

Ingredients:

250 mL high proof neutral spirit (currently Everclear filtered 10 times through an activated charcoal filter)

250 mL water

5 grams whole anise seed

9 grams whole toasted caraway seed (about 1 tablespoon)

9 grams whole untoasted caraway seed (about 1 tablespoon)

5 grams of fresh dill

Microplaned zest of 1 lemon

Add all ingredients except water to a half liter iSi whipper and apply 1 nitrous charge. Shake for 30 seconds and let rest for 1 minute under pressure. Release pressure quickly and let rest for 2 minutes. Pour contents into a coffee filter and strain into a bottle. Some portion of the solids invariably remain in the whipper, and so pour water into the whipper, swirl to suspend remaining solids, and pour into the filter once adequate volume is available.

A few notes:

- The fresh dill is a new addition. The 5 grams I specified here is perhaps on the strong side, but it has grown on me.

- Exact timing of the procedure is an obvious issue once the infusion is being filtered. I didn't keep track of the time needed to strain through the coffee filter, but let's just say that it is painfully slow. The solids are in continuous contact with the liquids throughout filtration, and so actual infusion time extends well beyond the time in the iSi.

- I have made no attempt to look at the difference between infusing in high proof spirit and then diluting versus infusing in pre-diluted spirit.

- The current method produces a somewhat spicy, bready infusion with strong herbal notes. The lemon is subtle now, perhaps because of the microplane.