Infusions

I was standing in a corner of a very crowded kitchen talking to a second cousin I had never met. The room was filled with familiar strangers, long lost cousins; people who look like people we had seen in old photo albums. Everyone passed around a few mason jars of reddish brown liquid, pouring it into our cups, shot glasses and champagne flutes. In the middle of all this, my godfather, a well-spoken, sometimes even poetic man, lifted his dram, pointed at me across the room and shouted “WIDGETTES BRISKEY!” Everyone cheered to this bizarre toast, threw back their drinks, smiling, laughing, clapping each other on the back, assuming he spoke some foreign language, “Prost! Nostrovia!” But I knew he was toasting me. Explaining for everyone, “This is Bridgette’s Whiskey!” Now, whenever I bring my family a new infusion or cordial, we repeat his cheers, “Widgette’s Briskey!”

My grandmothers monogramed decanters make a beautiful vessel for a finished infusion

Infusions and cordials are not only wonderful host gifts, ensuring future invites, but they are among my favorite ways to preserve seasonal, expensive or otherwise ephemeral ingredients. When a recipe tells you to scrape the gooey insides of a vanilla bean, its waxy pod is still filled with heady vanilla flavor. If you have some spirits on hand, you can actually make an infusion and an extract.

When making an infusion, try to think about your ingredient, and what spirit would complement its flavor. 100 proof vodka is great to have on hand if you think you will be experimenting with infusions or cordials because it is virtually flavor-less. Starting out with mild, clear spirits might help you get a sense of how alcohol pulls out flavor and aroma. All you have to do is place your ingredient in a clean jar with a cover, add the spirit, steep in a dark area, smell and taste test until you think it’s perfect, then strain into a clean serving bottle.

Since I personally tend to be a whiskey drinker, I usually have bourbon on hand and I have had great success with infused whiskeys. In the case of the vanilla bean, if you had rum on hand, use that and impress people with your signature mojito.

To make a vanilla bean infusion and extract

• Split vanilla pod in two (or in this case I actually had two beans on hand) and put one in a relatively small container and cover completely with the spirit. This will be the extract and you can use it by the droplet in recipes that call for vanilla extract. As time goes on, you can continually add alcohol as you run out of liquid, and even continue to add vanilla beans as you use them. Kept somewhere relatively dark and cool you can use this extract for at least a year.

• The other half (or whole) bean goes directly into the bottle of the spirit you make the extraction with and, again, steeps until you feel it reaches its best flavor. In my experience, I usually steep for a couple of weeks and just leave the bean in the bottle as our house tends to use the remains of the bottle before the flavor gets too strong.

Vanilla is also a wonderful complementary flavor and the beans can be added to many other infusions to soften and warm the flavor profile. A vanilla bean thrown into a lemoncello in the making is delicious. I usually make a cinnamon and clove bourbon in the early fall and pour into nip bottles and give them to friends to pour into cider or drink straight around a fire. A vanilla bean complements the spiciness of this concoction.