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Modernist Cooking Made Easy: Infusions: The Ultimate Guide to Crafting Flavorful Infusions Using Modernist and Traditional Techniques
Infusions are all around us.
From tea and coffee to flavored vinegars and oils, and even many traditional soda pops, infusions are a part of our daily lives. Now, they are becoming more prevalent as many talented chefs and bartenders are creating custom infusions for use in food and cocktails.
These infusions can be used in unique and novel ways but they all stem from the same process: transferring flavor from herbs, spices, and other flavoring agents into a liquid. Exploring this process allows you to create many wonderful dishes, from custom cocktails and personalized sodas to flavorful vinaigrettes and sauces.
There are many different ways to create infusions but several modernist techniques turn infusing from a multi-day process into one that can take just a few hours, or even minutes!
This book covers the basics of what an infusion actually is. It shows you how to create infusions through the traditional process, as well as through the modernist methods of using a whipping siphon, sous vide and fat washing.
Creating infusions is fun and easy! You will master this process in no time using the more than 140 recipes in this book for infused alcohols, vinegars, oils, bitters, food, soda and water. There are also more than 50 recipes focused on using those infusions in cocktails, vinaigrettes, shrubs, sauces, foams, gels and spheres.
After reading this book you will be able to consistently create amazing and vibrant infusions of your own with a minimal amount of effort.
Feel free to skim the recipes looking for something that inspires you. Turn to a specific method section to learn how that method can be used to make infusions. I have provided images of many of the infusions and finished dishes. In the print and non-Kindle Fire versions these images are black and white, but for larger, full color images you can go to the online photo gallery.
What You Get In This Book
- A detailed look at the infusion process including typical flavoring agents and infusing mediums.
- An exploration of the main infusing methods, including traditional cold infusions, hot infusions, whipping siphon infusions, sous vide infusions, and fat washing.
- Recipes for infused vinegars, infused oils, infused alcohols, infused waters, infused bitters, infused creams, infused spirits, and infused syrups.
- Discussion of how to use infusions, including for cocktails, fizzes, carbonated sodas, shrubs, vinaigrettes and caramel sauce.
- Introduction to many modernist dishes such as agar gels, gelatin panna cotta, carrageenan panna cotta, lecithin airs, agar foams, maltodextrin powdered oils, foamed cocktails, oil foams, xanthan gum vinaigrettes and spherified cocktails and soups.
But you don't need to be a modernist cook to enjoy this book. If you want to discover how to easily create colorful and tasty infusions to wow your friends and family, then this book is for you!
From tea and coffee to flavored vinegars and oils, and even many traditional soda pops, infusions are a part of our daily lives. Now, they are becoming more prevalent as many talented chefs and bartenders are creating custom infusions for use in food and cocktails.
These infusions can be used in unique and novel ways but they all stem from the same process: transferring flavor from herbs, spices, and other flavoring agents into a liquid. Exploring this process allows you to create many wonderful dishes, from custom cocktails and personalized sodas to flavorful vinaigrettes and sauces.
There are many different ways to create infusions but several modernist techniques turn infusing from a multi-day process into one that can take just a few hours, or even minutes!
This book covers the basics of what an infusion actually is. It shows you how to create infusions through the traditional process, as well as through the modernist methods of using a whipping siphon, sous vide and fat washing.
Creating infusions is fun and easy! You will master this process in no time using the more than 140 recipes in this book for infused alcohols, vinegars, oils, bitters, food, soda and water. There are also more than 50 recipes focused on using those infusions in cocktails, vinaigrettes, shrubs, sauces, foams, gels and spheres.
After reading this book you will be able to consistently create amazing and vibrant infusions of your own with a minimal amount of effort.
Feel free to skim the recipes looking for something that inspires you. Turn to a specific method section to learn how that method can be used to make infusions. I have provided images of many of the infusions and finished dishes. In the print and non-Kindle Fire versions these images are black and white, but for larger, full color images you can go to the online photo gallery.
What You Get In This Book
- A detailed look at the infusion process including typical flavoring agents and infusing mediums.
- An exploration of the main infusing methods, including traditional cold infusions, hot infusions, whipping siphon infusions, sous vide infusions, and fat washing.
- Recipes for infused vinegars, infused oils, infused alcohols, infused waters, infused bitters, infused creams, infused spirits, and infused syrups.
- Discussion of how to use infusions, including for cocktails, fizzes, carbonated sodas, shrubs, vinaigrettes and caramel sauce.
- Introduction to many modernist dishes such as agar gels, gelatin panna cotta, carrageenan panna cotta, lecithin airs, agar foams, maltodextrin powdered oils, foamed cocktails, oil foams, xanthan gum vinaigrettes and spherified cocktails and soups.
But you don't need to be a modernist cook to enjoy this book. If you want to discover how to easily create colorful and tasty infusions to wow your friends and family, then this book is for you!
304 pages, Paperback
Published November 21, 2015
About the author
Jason Logsdon
27 books5 followersMy name is Jason Logsdon and I'm a passionate home cook who loves to try new things, especially when it comes to cooking. However, I'm not the type of cook who enjoys trying out "experiments" just to see what works. I'd much rather take existing knowledge, distill it down to easy-to-follow concepts, and apply it successfully to my own cooking.
I find it quite rewarding to ease emerging cooking technologies from the realm of the professional chef into the kitchen of the cooking enthusiast. I accomplished this first with sous vide cooking where I created a website, CookingSousVide.com (Now integrated into ModernistCookingMadeEasy.com), and wrote four books that have assisted in bringing sous vide cooking into the kitchens of thousands of passionate cooks.
Next I addressed the increasingly popular developments in modernist cooking. Here I take the almost mystical technology of molecular gastronomy and present it in a manner that makes it easy for the adventurous cook to understand and execute. Once again I have created a website, ModernistCookingMadeEasy.com, and written a book, Modernist Cooking Made Easy: Getting Started, that doesn't attempt to explain the science of modernist cooking, but instead focuses on how these new techniques and ingredients can be employed to create dishes with completely new flavors, aromas, textures and visual appeal. The recipes range from ones that will amaze readers' friends to another that will simply make it quicker and easier to make flavorful traditional gravy.
My next book, Modernist Cooking Made Easy: The Whipping Siphon, focuses on perhaps the most versatile tool in the modernist cooking arsenal. Couple it with some modernist cooking techniques and you can create dishes that will delight all of your senses.
My third book on modernist cooking, Modernist Cooking Made Easy: Party Foods, explains how to create remarkable cocktails, hors d'oeuvres and small plates that will amaze your friends.
In my most recent book I leverage my experience, from cooking hundreds of sous vide meals and writing four books on the subject, to write a comprehensive primer for cooks of all experience levels. Modernist Cooking Made Easy: Sous Vide demystifies the process, serves as a reference for more than 80 cuts of meat and vegetables, and provides a collection of inspiring recipes.
In my writing I aim to simplify and my website and books focus on explaining things in a way even my mother-in-law can understand. My dishes might not be as inventive as Grant Achatz's, but hopefully they will successfully illustrate the concepts that underpin modernist cooking, allowing you to gain the information you need to start using modernist techniques and ingredients more in your everyday cooking.
I can be reached at: Jason@modernistcookingmadeeasy.com or through Twitter at:@jasonlogsdon_sv
I find it quite rewarding to ease emerging cooking technologies from the realm of the professional chef into the kitchen of the cooking enthusiast. I accomplished this first with sous vide cooking where I created a website, CookingSousVide.com (Now integrated into ModernistCookingMadeEasy.com), and wrote four books that have assisted in bringing sous vide cooking into the kitchens of thousands of passionate cooks.
Next I addressed the increasingly popular developments in modernist cooking. Here I take the almost mystical technology of molecular gastronomy and present it in a manner that makes it easy for the adventurous cook to understand and execute. Once again I have created a website, ModernistCookingMadeEasy.com, and written a book, Modernist Cooking Made Easy: Getting Started, that doesn't attempt to explain the science of modernist cooking, but instead focuses on how these new techniques and ingredients can be employed to create dishes with completely new flavors, aromas, textures and visual appeal. The recipes range from ones that will amaze readers' friends to another that will simply make it quicker and easier to make flavorful traditional gravy.
My next book, Modernist Cooking Made Easy: The Whipping Siphon, focuses on perhaps the most versatile tool in the modernist cooking arsenal. Couple it with some modernist cooking techniques and you can create dishes that will delight all of your senses.
My third book on modernist cooking, Modernist Cooking Made Easy: Party Foods, explains how to create remarkable cocktails, hors d'oeuvres and small plates that will amaze your friends.
In my most recent book I leverage my experience, from cooking hundreds of sous vide meals and writing four books on the subject, to write a comprehensive primer for cooks of all experience levels. Modernist Cooking Made Easy: Sous Vide demystifies the process, serves as a reference for more than 80 cuts of meat and vegetables, and provides a collection of inspiring recipes.
In my writing I aim to simplify and my website and books focus on explaining things in a way even my mother-in-law can understand. My dishes might not be as inventive as Grant Achatz's, but hopefully they will successfully illustrate the concepts that underpin modernist cooking, allowing you to gain the information you need to start using modernist techniques and ingredients more in your everyday cooking.
I can be reached at: Jason@modernistcookingmadeeasy.com or through Twitter at:@jasonlogsdon_sv
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
March 10, 2019
I have recently become fascinated by the idea of infusing flavors into other things - think coffee, tea, vinegar, and yes also booze. My sister and brother in law have always been very supportive of my cooking so they hunted out this book for me. Apparently, there is a whole series of Modernist Cook Made Easy books that play with new technology to cook with. It turns out I’m more of a traditionalist than I would have thought, but my read has me seriously considering playing with sous vide as a technique. (I can do without the whipping siphon)
Alright so, as an overview on infusion this does a good job. While Logsdon spent a lot of time on his ‘modernist’ techniques he did a good job covering the traditional techniques and gives solid guidelines on how to modify a recipe for a different technique. He also does an excellent job describing the effect the different methods have on flavor.
Because his focus is on Modernist technique, most of the recipes are in those sections. Additionally, infusion is an old process, so this feels more like a cookbook that probably is in aid of his other books where infused liquids probably come in handy. He seem particularly enamored of sous vide. In any case, this is a solid text. He did a good job.
Alright so, as an overview on infusion this does a good job. While Logsdon spent a lot of time on his ‘modernist’ techniques he did a good job covering the traditional techniques and gives solid guidelines on how to modify a recipe for a different technique. He also does an excellent job describing the effect the different methods have on flavor.
Because his focus is on Modernist technique, most of the recipes are in those sections. Additionally, infusion is an old process, so this feels more like a cookbook that probably is in aid of his other books where infused liquids probably come in handy. He seem particularly enamored of sous vide. In any case, this is a solid text. He did a good job.
Displaying 1 of 1 review