Olive Oil Vodka
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I love me a nice savory cocktail every now and again. When I created the caprese-ish cocktail, I struggled with how I was going to incorporate the olive oil favor in there. I didn’t want to just add a drop to the top if it, because the cocktail already has quite a bit of fat in it from the burrata brine, and I thought it might disturb the delicate foam on top, so I omitted olive oil from the drink completely.
It wasn’t until I was developing the watermelon feta milk punch recipe, that it dawned on me to fat wash the spirit!
You’ll need the following equipment:
Ingredients:
Vodka
Fat washing is a technique that used to extract ethanol and water-soluble flavor compounds from fat and infuses them into a spirit. The most common way to fat wash is to add liquified fat to a spirit, freeze the mixture, and extract the spirit from the fat. Since fat solidifies at low temperatures, and alcohol remains liquid, it’s easy to separate the two. You can use this method to varying degrees of success depending on what fat you use. I have also used this technique in my Breakfast in Paris cocktail where I made a butter flavored Cognac.
I’m choosing vodka for this project, because gin is far too fragrant a spirit and the delicate flavors would get lost because of the stronger botanical elements in there. Vodka proved to be the perfect carrier spirit for the delicate extra virgin olive oil flavors.
To a blender I added one cup of vodka and a quarter cup of extra virgin olive oil, then very quickly blend on low for a few seconds. You could always just whisk it instead if you didn’t want to bust out your blender.
Basically, I am trying to rapidly extract the flavor of the olive oil into the vodka. However, I do not want the fat, so the next step is to pour this into a container, put on a top and pop this in the freezer where the oil will solidify on top and I will be able to extract the olive oil flavored vodka. The olive oil vodka needs to sit in the freezer overnight to solidify.
After 24 hours in the freezer, you’ll see that the olive oil has risen to the top of the vodka and hardened into a disc on top.
Once the hardened disc of olive oil has been removed, strain the vodka through a coffee filter to remove any bits of solidified oil.
If the vodka remains really cloudy, let it sit in the refrigerator for a few hours and filter the vodka through a coffee filter once again.
This olive oil vodka turned out to be really amazing and added just the right touch to my watermelon and feta milk punch. I can’t wait to test it out in another variation of my caprese salad inspired cocktail.
Olive Oil Vodka:
1 cup Vodka
1/4 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Method:
Combine 1 cup of vodka with 1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil. Once thoroughly combined, cover and store in the freezer overnight or until the oil solidifies on top.
Once solid, remove the olive oil cap and pour vodka through a coffee filter to remove any solidified oil.
If the vodka remains cloudy, keep in the refrigerator to solidify remaining oil and filter again through a coffee filter.
