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Getting Crafty with Fruit Preserves

Kevin Liu, the author of Craft Cocktails at Home, revealed a secret ingredient for his “craft” strawberry daiquiri recipe on the Craft Cocktails at Home blog.  The post is entitled “MxMo LXXI: The “Craft” Strawberry Daiquiri.”   It’s his response to a Mixology Monday challenge.

Follow the link to the post to get Liu’s recipe.  To me, the really interesting part of this post is his explanation of why the recipe calls for commercial fruit preserves:

•  You probably won’t do better at home. Fruit flavors do not dissolve readily into water. To incorporate fruit flavors into a cocktail, your best bet would be to make a liqueur or syrup, but the flavor of these would not be as concentrated as preserves.

• They are balanced. Preserves makers add just enough sugar to achieve the ideal acid-to-sugar balance. And that means it’s usually ok to add them to a sour without mussing with the other components too much. Easy.

• Texture comes included. Try the strawberry daiquiri recipe. You’ll notice that the drink ends up with an attractive, long-lasting foam and luscious mouthfeel. That’s due to the naturally-occurring pectins in strawberries that act as thickeners. I wouldn’t pair gomme syrup with fruit preserves for this reason as well.”

Liu’s books explores the science behind the mixing of ingredients in craft cocktails—how different ingredients interact, create unique flavors or “mouthfeel”; how temperature affects flavor and texture.  If Liu tells me that strawberry fruit preserves from the squeeze bottle are the way to go to make his luscious-looking strawberry daiquiri, I’m going to follow his instructions from spirits down to orange-flower water.

Photo courtesy of Flickr.com

Laura Abrahamsen, May 22, 2013

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