Ask me anything about vacuum sealing infusions

[zimne_piwo]

I use flash frozen fruit, mason jars, and 20# of vacuum to make infusions. I get three monthsof agig in a week Gin infusionsare amazing.

[Dnderhead]

some place lost in the shuffle..

[heartcut]

Sounds interesting. How do you get 20# of vacuum?

[bobtail]

An A/C vacumn pump will easily pull 20in.

[acfixer69]

An A/C vacumn pump will easily pull 20in.

Inches of mercury yes,,,, pounds psi no..

AC

[pistachio_nut]

An A/C vacumn pump will easily pull 20in.

Inches of mercury yes,,,, pounds psi no..

AC

Magic Vac with ball jar attachment. I may be incorrect in the inches of mercury vs pounds of pressure, I'm going by what the salesman told me. I'll look it up and see whether it's true.

[heartcut]

Sounds like a good idea and I already have a vacuum pump- might help and it's unlikely to make it worse. Got some rum to spice for next winter.

[Halfbaked]

What is the best way to do infustion for the dollar? start from ground zero. $ and where to get it? I don't have a ac pump but can get one but figure that it might be out of range where $ conerns. Are you doing all this in a glass jar or other.

[Bushman]

I use flash frozen fruit, mason jars, and 20# of vacuum to make infusions. I get three monthsof agig in a week Gin infusionsare amazing.

Can you show pictures of the process? Are the jars made for vacuum sealing that you purchased? The reason I ask I have a vacuum pump that I use for a vacuum funnel when filtering but I think it might be a bit strong for this processes. I also have a vacuum sealer that has a plastic container for sealing and was wondering if they make the jars in glass or another acceptable material.

[heartcut]

From experience, a mason jar will hold at 28"Hg, don't know what they're rated for but vacuum is part of canning. I'd guess they'll hold a full 30" or canned peaches would need a warning label.

[bellybuster]

start an "ask me anything" post and vanish....the nerve!!

[pistachio_nut]

What is the best way to do infustion for the dollar? start from ground zero. $ and where to get it? I don't have a ac pump but can get one but figure that it might be out of range where $ conerns. Are you doing all this in a glass jar or other.

It all depends on what you're making. For fruit infusions, I go heavy on the fruit. I use flash frozen fruit that has no woody components. For example, peach slices tend to be skinned and have no stem or flower on them. Same with black cherries and pineapple. Strawberries have woody seeds on the outside, so unless I want to shave the seeds off with a vegetable scraper, I don't use strawberries. The added bonus on using flash frozen fruit is that the cell walls are ruptured by the flash freezing process so it seems that it would be easier to get the fruit infused with ETOH and suck out the flavors. The taste of wood is stronger than the taste of the fruit. My strawberry infusions tasted much more like wood than like strawberries.

I use a home vacuum sealer that has a Ball jar attachment. I use a fresh lid without pre-warming. I fill the jar to about 1" headspace, cover with product, apply the attachment, and hit the vacuum button. There really isn't much more to it than that.

Gin infusions are more complicated because spices tend to get very strong. Juniper berries work very well. I use dried berries, put about an inch in the bottle, fill to 1" headspace, and apply the attachment. Any more than a week and the product becomes opaque and yellow. I do coriander and other spices in wide mouth pint jars, one spice per jar. Mix to taste, record measurements of how much of each spice to use, and fill bottles for later consumption. Watch out for cinnamon, one stick will get very hot. It only takes a little. The taste of pure juniper infusion in tonic water is absolutely delicious. It may make sense to you to work with more spices, and it may not.

For vanilla vodka, I buy fresh beans from Surfas online. Slit the bean stem to stern, and start with one bean. You can get fresh beans online much cheaper than you can get old dried out beans at Safeway. From time to time Costco has vanilla beans for sale. I like their beans, maybe you will too. I don't trim the tips from vanilla beans right now but I might if I notice a woody taste to the vanilla vodka.

To address the $ issue, it all depends on you. I think my vacuum sealer cost about $150 with the attachments. YMMV. I use regular canning jars, so that depends on you as well. From time to time there are very good sales, so I keep an eye out for them. Frozen fruit runs about $3/pound where I live. I'm sure that if you looked around you could find a better deal, so go with what you know. If you're like me, you might have a few raspberry bushes on your property that you can use for this. Spread out the berries on a baking tray, put into freezer, and dump into a Ziploc bag once they are completely frozen solid. That's not a bad way to go.

I would say that it's not CHEAP to make infusions this way, but I would say that the quality is far superior to any kind of liquor you may find on the shelf of your local liquor store. My black cherry infusion is as black as the toches of a black steer on a moonless prairie night. It's a little thicker in consistency than un-infused product. In a week, I've about sucked the fruit dry, so it's time to use a metal slotted spoon to remove the remaining fruit and mix the infusions to taste.

If I could offer any direct advice, it would be to put each ingredient in its own bottle to infuse. Some will be stronger, some will be weaker. In the end, you can add to taste. It's hard to get a peppercorn out of a good peach infusion. Much easier to make a peppercorn infusion and add to the peach infusion. I have not yet tried mint as an infusion but it sounds interesting.

I hope that answered your questions. I'll keep an eye on the thread to see if there are more.

[Gorebyss]

Should we invest so much on vacuum seaer for infusion? I bought mine on crazysales: http://www.crazysales.com.au/vacuum-sealer/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow I don't know which is better but bought one for $60. It works fine. And I have to admit that I did fail to do a good job on it. Maybe I didn't bought a proper equipment? Was I using an improper model of vacuum sealer?