The importance of quality ingredients and patience

[devotus]

G'day guys over the last month or so I've been busy making neutral and experimenting with my Absinthe recipe as well as the ouzo recipe that 5Star posted.

I totally screwed a neutral run by being impatient with my little vm and trying to take off too quickly with too much heat and smeared all parts together requiring me to re do the whole lot with a significant loss in time and product.

OUZO
I experimented with the ouzo recipe in two ways;
I cancelled the star anise out and used green anise instead, I also used sweet fennel crowns of good quality. This experiment didnt really work, well did and didn't. What I ended up with was a milder anise flavoured ouzo with a nice fennel kick but to my tastes the anise was just too mild for a proper ouzo. I like my ouzo in shots to be sipped and don't mix it with coke (I don't mix anything with coke except fish and chips). If I were to mix this with coke I think it would be a really nice faux ouzo mixer.

I then did the recipe again with the star anise and fennel crowns, I macerated the fennel for 24 hours in a small amount of 80% neutral and then added to the main mix just before distilling. I think punkins addition of a white wine was also a good idea so added some dry white as well. I ground the other ingredients fairly finely and then distilled. This turned out to be a very nice slick mouthfeel ouzo with a nice anise/fennel punch with the cardamom,nutmeg,pepper(corns) and cinnamon hanging in the background. A really nice drink for an after dinner sipper.


Absinthe
Here is the quality ingredients part. I was sent some home grown herbs from a friend and thought I would try them out in a batch. Unfortunately due to time stored and being stored in plastic zip lock bags the herbs had lost their original qualities and what I ended up with, using the same weights and measurements that I used with my other herbs, was a litre and a half of weak tasting and weak louching borderline down the sink crap. I'm going to keep it just for cocktail mix but to drink it as plain absinthe alone would not be great. In that macerate I also experimented with sweet fennel seed instead of crowns which added to the failure of the entire batch.

So a learning experience had,

Use fresh quality ingredients for full flavour, be patient with the still and fennels aint fennels.

Cheers

[SBB]

and fennels aint fennels.

How do I tell the difference???? :sad:

[devotus]

Best to go by both botanical and common name.

There are 3 types of Fennel

1)Florence Fennel or finnochio and the Botanical name variant is Foeniculum vulgare azoricum. (this Fennel is the preferred fennel of Absinthe distillers but is hard to get and is expensive)

2)Sweet Fennel Foeniculum vulgare which can be also split into two parts for use and that is seed (which is actually matured fruit) and crowns (tips buds). The crowns are far superior in taste and aroma. The crowns are the better product for distilling imparting a very nice taste to your product.

Here are the two Fennels that I have here at home.

Sweet Fennel Seed


Sweet Fennel Crown





3) Is Common fennel or bitter fennel and is used mostly for cooking and is the least desirable of all the examples here. Confusingly it's botanical name is Foeniculum vulgare variant (var) vulgare. So it is better to pay close attention to the common name.

I would google search a good bio herb supplier in oz (and a chemist for lube because I reckon the price will rape you) and buy, in order of best to second best, some Florence fennel and if not then Sweet fennel buds crowns or whatever term the supplier uses to describe what he has.

[devotus]

I just had a quick google search and typical of producers in Australia the prices are fucking ridiculous. For 100 gms of fennel seed $8.10

I would suggest growing your own. It isn't hard.

[R-sole]

Try Kumari spices and things. 8-)

[Cane Toad]

But really $8.10 isn't much if you're making something that you are going to enjoy,is it?Plus you don't need a great deal of it,so it's gunna last a while
THen again,with SSB and Draino together,I don't think it would last too long :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:

[stubbydrainer]

Hey...Lil Donga
this is for you :teasing-neener: :teasing-neener: :teasing-neener:
:laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:
the missus went shopping for me yeaty, come home with $ 10.00 worth of juniper berries & $3.00 coriander seed :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:

[devotus]

LD, $8.10 per 100 gm is a shitload of cash considering you use about 70gm per litre of macerate when making Absinthe. So if I were to make a usual 3 litre batch then thats over $16 just for the fennel. If making ouzo then it's not so bad.

It's a rip off simply as the product is not worth what they are asking for it.

[Kal]

$8.10 for 100G of fennel seeds? Tried ebay? Vanilla beans are like $4 each at the supermarkets so I bought some off ebay where they are ~$41 with shipping for 250grams (60+ beans). Will give me too much but it means I can experiment more :mrgreen:

[devotus]

Good call Kal

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/FENNEL-FLORE ... 3cc1cb45c6

I'd buy that in a split second, nothing better than herbs from your own garden

[Cane Toad]

Farkkk,thieving cunts,ort to be shot :violence-stickwhack:

[devotus]

Just a quick update; after a few week of sitting in uv protective bottles (not uv proof) in the semi shade this last batch has improved greatly. The colour has lost its green and is now feuille morte. The Louche building nicely and holding. The taste is good, much better than when first out of the still but unfortunately is spoiled a little by my heavy handedness in the colouration step. In fact I would say that the only fault with this batch now was created by my stupidity during that last step.

This means I will stick to the same recipe albeit using better quality herbs and try not to have a brain fart again when colouring. I believe I'm just on the edge of nailing it down and hopefully after this next attempt I can say that with confidence.

Cheers all.