Pumpkin-Spice-Hooch (Sous-Vide)

Over the last few months, I've been thinking about Thanksgiving and all the lovely aromas associated with this beautiful Holiday. I won't be precise, but if you search the internet on Food and Drink in the Bible, the plethora of verses is pretty amazing. I will summarize what Ecclesiastes 9:7 says- Go eat your delectable food with Joy and drink your liquor with a happy heart and G-d will not only approve but give you a high five. I think G-d would approve of my paraphrasing and the liberties I took with His Text. 

My all-time favorite nonreligious Holiday has to be Thanksgiving. I have many reasons why I love this Holiday, so here are just a couple to ponder. Generally speaking, regardless of your religion, we can all agree that Thanksgiving is for everyone!! Thanksgiving has the best smells!!! It incorporates just about every food group and cooking style. It does not discriminate. 

I've been working on this idea for months. When
I say working on, I mean day/night dreaming about making a Thanksgiving Hooch. Focussing on that, I decided to direct my attention to the aromas associated with Thanksgiving. The fragrance I am talking about is none other than simmering cider with cloves, cinnamon, and other goodies. As with all my infusions, it starts out with Liquior, and one of my favorites to work with is Everclear. 

Again my favorite ethanol to use is Everclear because it's a neutral spirit and it's high ABV (95%). Starting with a very high ABV allows you more flexibility when dialing in the desired ABV after dilution. And because it's 190-Proof (95% ABV), you get more bang for your buck.

I find that shooting for an ABV (Alcohol by Volume) of 70-80 proof is best for cocktails. The benefit of using Everclear is the ability to have more flexibility when calculating ABV. The high ABV lets you add all kinds of stuff without reducing the alcohol percentage. Don't forget whatever you add to the infusion dilutes the ABV. If you use, let's say, 100-Proof Vodka, your wiggle room is diminished, and you end up with an ABV of something like 25%.

Optional reading to the right. If you are not into Geeky-Stuff, don't bother reading. Geeky Math Calculations HERE.

Recipe

2-bottles of EverClear (One extra bottle: see Notes) 1216 grams

2-Sticks of Non-Salted butter

1180 grams of Organic Apple Cider

500 grams of Organic Cranberry Juice

404 grams of Sugar

4- Cinamon Sticks

4- Whole Nutmegs

35 grams of Fresh Ginger

5-grams of Cloves

I decided to Fat-Wash the Everclear to give it that mouthfeel that can only be described as velvety and rich. The best flavor results are to make sure all the water has evaporated and taken the butter to the brown butter stage. a

1- Melt the butter: Heat a skillet on medium heat and add the butter, whisking often.

2- Watch for brown specs, and you should start to smell a great buttery aroma. The butter will foam up a bit and settle down a bit. By this time, all the water will have evaporated. As the butter starts to brown, specks will begin to form at the bottom of the, and a great nutty aroma shall emerge by now. If you go too far, you might end up with a Butter Noir. 

3- Using a whisk, combine brown butter with Everclear. Let it sit out for 2-3 hours, then place in the freezer. Most frozen butter will solidify on top but not with Everclear. Note: even after freezing, you will still have some tiny bits of fat in the booze.

4 and 5- Just emerged from the freezer.

6- Filtering through Cheesecloth. Squeeze cheesecloth to ensure you got out every ounce of Everclear. 

7 and 8- There will be a disk on the bottom of the container. 

9- Fat-Fusion at room temp. Note: During the Fat Washing process, the butter absorbed about 200 grams of the Everclear. I lost 200 grams, so I added this amount back to achieve 1216 grams so the math would still work. If you do not want to add back what you have lost, just rerun the numbers. 

A pic of everything I used...

To a container, add the 1216 grams of EverClear, 1180 grams of Apple Cider, 500 grams of Cranberry Juice, and 404 grams of Sugar. Whisk until thoroughly combined. 

Line a large container with a Vac Bag. I decided to use my Chamber-Vac, but a Food-Saver Bag type will work great too. With the Food-Saver Bag, you will use the displacement method to process. Place Ginger, Cloves, Cinamon, and Nutmeg at the bottom of the bag. 

Vac-Sealed using my Chamber Vac. I also placed this bag in my Food-Saver as a precaution. Processed at 140f for 6-Hours. Note: If using a Chamber Vac to seal liquids, make sure they are supercold, or they will boil inside the chamber and most likely not seal well. 

After Processing, I strained through a nutbag. 

Make a Cocktail- I prefer Apple Cider to Apple Juice.

Note: This Hooch can be drunk straight, but it's strong. When I say strong, I am not talking about the ABV but the Pumpkin Spice flavors. I played around with Apple Cider, Hooch, and a Half and Half cream with good results. 

This was a review from our Wonderful Aunt Holly, who got a chance to sample the Hooch during Thanksgiving. 

HOOCH - or "MOONSHINE. was originally a slang term for high-proof distilled spirits that were and continue to be produced illicitly, without government authorization. Distilling such spirits outside a registered distillery remains illegal in the United States and most countries around the world." Well, your MIL and I have vast knowledge and experience in this arena and must caution you that based on taste alone, your Thanksgiving "Hooch" would definitely be considered illegal by the feds, who would most likely commute your jail time or give you a full pardon in exchange for a glass of that tasty potion!! MMM-m-m-m Good!!