4.1. Extracts for drinks
Bitters are to bartenders what extracts
and spices are to chefs: they provide flavor with minimal impact on texture, volume, or
other variables. Bitters refers to any extract that includes a
bittering agent, such as gentian, quinine, or citrus rind. Angostura bitters is the
“generic” bitter—one of the few to have survived through the Prohibition era—and is what
most people think of when a recipe calls for bitters. Campari is also a bitter, although
not commonly described this way. Bitters come in a range of flavors: from the complex
and spicy (clove, anise, cinnamon) to the bright and clean (orange, grapefruit,
mint).
Bitters can be used as flavorings in things besides alcoholic drinks. Try a dash of
bitters in soda water, along with a slice of lime. Since they are a subset of extracts,
you can use them in any place where a bitter extract would work. You can balance out
bitterness with the addition of sugar, just as is done in an old-fashioned cocktail.
Bitters as an accent flavor in a chocolate truffle? As part of a dressing? Try
it!
Bitters recipes can be quite complicated, requiring exotic ingredients and involving
dozens of steps taking upward of a month. If you want to try your hand at one of the
more involved recipes, try the one that follows here. For additional recipes, pick up
Gary Regan’s book, The Joy of Mixology (Clarkson
Potter), from which the recipe on the following page is adapted
with permission. His recipe uses both ethanol and water as solvents. The ethanol at the
beginning dissolves one set of organic compounds present in the spices. Later, the water
dissolves a different set. Notice that the ethanol that contains the first set of
alcohol-solvent organic compounds is never subjected to heat!
