Home Distiller

You know how when you make a stew or pot roast that simmers a long time, the steam makes your whole house smell delicious? Well, I figured, why not gather that delicious smelling steam and drink it instead? I'd been thinking for a while about making this, and now finally did it for my wife's birthday party.

I cooked a big pot roast - I figure it was about a 10 pound cut of beef - with potatoes, onions, celery, tomato paste, bay leaves, garlic, 1.5 liters of red wine, and .4 or so liters of 40% neutrals, in the boiler of my small still (a pressure-cooker + boka). I simmered the pot roast for about 6 hours, during which I gathered about a liter of output.

The aroma didn't really start developing until an hour into cooking, so I put the first hour's collected output, minus heads, back into the still (since it's a boka, the top is open for returning liquid to the boiler). I made no tails cut, and the output was down to 10 or 15% by the end of the cooking time. In the end, I got not quite .75 liters at 30 or 32%.

The flavour was exactly what I was hoping for - it tastes delicious, in exactly the way a simmering stew makes the house smell delicious. Everyone who tried it had a reaction of - pause - blink, blink - wow - pause - ooh the aftertaste - omigosh roast beef vodka!

If I do it over again, I might try distilling a liter or two of the same wine I'd be using for the cooking liquid, and using that instead of the neutrals I added, to get a bit more of the wine's character in the spirits...

And now, I have one last dish to wash from the party - a 20 L still boiler with bits of beef and veggies stuck to it

My hats off to you for your ambition trying something outside the box. Plus you get your meal cooked while doing a run
Now I am hungry for some potroast...

I wonder what the results would be if you mixed the degreased and strained pot roast/stew dripping and liquid with some neutral low wine and run it. Don't know if the favor would as intense, but I suspect the boiler cleanup would be easier.

BG

MAd props for doing somthing that crazy!

boda getta wrote:I wonder what the results would be if you mixed the degreased and strained pot roast/stew dripping and liquid with some neutral low wine and run it. Don't know if the favor would as intense, but I suspect the boiler cleanup would be easier.

In my case, probably not - the boiler is the only pot I have that will hold a roast that size, so the roast was going in there either way - it was just a question of where the steam went.

I don't know if your nuts or a genus? And now my mouth is watering. Very interesting in deed. I don't have a boiler I could do this with unfortunately. Because I would so try this.

I gott ask,....was the roast any good?

dragonfrog, I have to hand it to ya, that's brave. my wife would kick my butt if I distilled her roast! I cant stop laughing but I would love to try it! And like Rivver ask how was the roast?

I guess I never mentioned that, did I? Yes, the roast was great. Other than adding the neutrals, I was just cooking the pot roast the same way I would have anyway.

Haha, I love it! I'm givin this idea a try with my next pot of squirrel stew!