Tonic Water Experiment #2

I have learned a little about cinchona since my last posting, but not enough to report back too much on. Suffice it to say that the South American tree grows in the hills of Ecuador and has been transplanted on numerous occasions, and people are not so good at classifying it. As such, I highly suspect that not everyone knows what cinchona bark they are purchasing, even if the herb companies claim to know.

My last tonic water was good. The fragrant nose was among its best characteristics. For my second batch, I want to make two big adjustments. The first is to remove all citrus peel. This is not because citrus is undesirable, but because it dominates both nose and flavor profile. So here is the recipe I followed this time:

4 cups water
1/4 cup cinchona bark (heaping, ground into more or less a powder)
15 cardamom pods
1 tsp coriander seeds
about 1/3 cup lavender
1 tbsp jasmine
two big handfuls of lemon balm.
1/4 tsp sea salt

brought it to a boil and let it simmer for 30 minutes. Then let it steep for an additional hour.

UPDATE:

After one day of steeping in the fridge, I transferred it to a carafe and let it sit another day in the fridge. Then the entire mixture was strained through a paper filter.

honey tonic #2

Then, three different tonics were made with different sugar profiles.

Agave syrup: 3/4 cup agave syrup (plus some) for 1 1/4 cinchona syrup.

Honey: 1/2 cup tupelo honey for 1 cup cinchona syrup.


Sugar: 1 1/4 cup rich syrup (2-1 ratio) for 1 cup cinchona syrup. This was a mistake--I poured more syrup in, carelessly, than I should have. The result will be a cloyingly sweet syrup.

Tonic Water Experiment #1

The bell sounded last night. The tonic water experiment has officially been launched.

Here were the ingredients:

1/4 cup powdered cinchona bark. (this required using about 3/8 of a cup of chips to yield 1/4 cup powdered)
1/4 cup citric acid
1 tbsp fresh lavender
10 juniper berries
1 tsp coriander
15 cardamom pods
1/4 tsp kosher salt
zest of: 3 lemons; 3 limes; 1 grapefruit

first stage

Fresh cut lavender

red gold?

A couple of things I learned this week. Cinchona Officialis, the bark that is most available for purchase, contains only trace quinine. It is Cinchona Pubescens that is the original fever tree. The only cinchona bark I could find was the officinalis variety. However, I also learned that the taxonomy is often muddled, so cinchona calisaya is often mistaken for officinalis, and calisaya is known to produce significant amounts of quinine. Most of the "Peruvian bark" taken from Cinchona trees are, it turns out, no longer cultivated in central and south America. And different encyclopedias (Columbia, etc.) are telling me different things.

I brought the concoction to a boil, covered it and let it simmer for thirty minutes. Then I cooled it, transferred it to a glass carafe and put it in the downstairs fridge, where it will steep for two days. Then I will take it out, strain out the big stuff and let it sit another two days before filtering it finely and mixing it with sugar syrup. Apparently I need a rich one, 2-1 sugar ratio, and almost a 1-1 tonic water to sugar. But that part will be about balance.

UPDATE:

I strained it through cheesecloth after two days, and returned the mixture to the fridge. After one more day, after which more of the sediment settled on the bottom, I strained the mixture through a paper coffee filter. Then I began mixing. One bottle I mixed with a light sugar syrup (1-1 ratio) and the remaining 2 I mixed with a heavier syrup (2-1 ratio). The light syrup required more volume to balance with the concentrate. But basically a 1-1 ratio was necessary.

The result is a potent concentrate syrup. Tasting the syrup to correct the sugar set my stomach on edge. I was not surprised by how bitter the cinchona mixture was, but I was surprised that it took the full 1-1 ratio of cinchona to sugar, and that the ratio did not result in a cloying mouthfeel or flavor.

Now--the appropriate gin and tonic recipe from this will be another matter. Because I am dealing with a concentrate, the ratios will need to be worked out. I tried the following last night to great effect:

3/4 oz. gin
3/4 oz. concentrate tonic
juice of quarter lime, which comes out to about half the 3/4 oz. jigger, or so.
topped with seltzer water, probably 2 oz.

I initially mixed the ingredients in the glass, then poured it back and forth once into a boston shaker.

This produced a pleasant cocktail with layered flavors. A bitter bite, bright acidity, and a nose of lavender and coriander.

Pork, over a barrel

Pulled pork is one of my favorite, and most frustrating, experiences. I long ago abandoned the tepid cue that comes out of smoke shacks both makeshift and corporate. The quality of meat is usually bad, and it is usually disguised by saucy squirts of overpowered bbq sauce. These are jars of high fructose corn syrup with pepper flakes and liquid smoke, and they serve to disguise bad meat, not to supplement flavor.

But when I cook good pork shoulder at home, the result is usually frustrating as well. For starters, I have a hard time getting the internal temperature to 190 degrees. The best I've been able to achieve is just a few ticks upward of 160. But because at that point the pork has been in 14 plus hours, I usually give up and pull it, sweat it for a few hours, and then pull it anyway.

But I have now triple-threated my pork shoulder with good results.

brined, kneaded, and basted

 The first step is to brine the meat. While I had once done this with pork shoulder, I had never repeated it. Why not do it? I made up a basic brine from Charred & Scruffed and brined the meat. The brine is essentially water and apple juice with salt, lemons, sugar, garlic, red pepper, and whole peppercorns. You bring it to a boil, chill it overnight, and then pop the pork in the morning of grilling.

I pulled the pork out of the brine about two hours before starting the grill and let it warm up to room temperature. Then I rubbed it with a simple rub--salt, garlic salt, pepper, cayenne. Frankly, the rub could have been more imaginative. Maybe a dusting with smoked paprika, or even nutmeg. Depends on which way you want to go to balance the spice. And note to self--could have used more spice.

230, all day and all night

 Now the meat is ready to go on. So I put the plate setter in the egg, dropped in a foil pan to catch the drippings, filled the foil can with apple sauce, and commenced smoking the pork. I combined hickory chunks with the charcoal. It's the easiest go-to wood. I let it smoke for two hours first at low heat and then let it rise to 230. At the two hour mark, I started the basting. Using an herb brush (sage and rosemary and oregano and thyme), I piled on southern style baste at one hour intervals for the next six hours.

The temperature kept pretty normal, although it was down quite a bit when I picked it up in the morning. After adding more charcoal, I cooked it another two hours. Total cook time: 14 hours and thirty minutes for two boneless Boston butts, weight 15 pounds.

The pork under the lights

But this wasn't the end of the story. This is when it gets interesting. First off, I let the pork sit in the pan under foil cover for another eight hours. This was a long time, and frankly was determined more by my schedule than by any premediated plan on my part. But letting the meat rest is certainly important. Then I pulled the pork. This took a long time, as it turns out that fifteen pounds of pork is a lot of pork. when the pork was entirely pulled, I added the reserve baste. I know, I didn't mention that I reserved any of the baste, but I did. Half of it in fact. I tossed it with the meat.

The pork, at rest

And then, I salted the meat. I have to admit, at this point I wish I had a good finishing salt, like a lime coriander salt. But I didn't. Boo. Hoo.

I'm rambling.

Back to the pork. I put the pork in the oven, under foil, at 400 degrees for forty-five minutes to reheat. At this point, the baste melted, the fat rendered, the salt did its magic, and the pork turned out brilliantly. Beautiful bark. Wonderful smoke ring. Succulent pig.

Pulled!

I do have a few tweaks for next time. I will go ahead and wrap the butts in foil after the eight hour mark. I will also cook it fat side up. I usually avoid this because I don't want the actual barked pork touching the grill, but I need to get over that little problem, especially as I baste. I can always grab the butt, turn it, baste it, and then put it back in place. And I'm going to go ahead and make that lime coriander salt. I also need a vinegar based bbq sauce. I've never made one successfully. Too much tomato paste in my ghost pepper sauce. It's a good sauce, don't get me wrong. But with this kind of meat, there really is no need for sauce at all.

The Rows Beautiful

Alright, lame title. I was looking to play on the architectural term of beautification, and came up with the City Beautiful--since this is the base of my rows, then, well you get the idea.

I've been wanting to add an aesthetic cap to the plain rows for some time. Given the angular nature of the yard, I desired a rounded shape. I initially wanted to plant a concave circle. It may end up this way by the end, but for right now it bulges outward. I planted three hearty perennials: two species of guara (white fountain and pink fountain) and cotoneaster dammeri, a groundcover.

More on Guara in an update. In the mean time, notice the way the front has really come along. I have out of control begonias in the planters, giving a nice pink flowering on the steps; a plot of golden pineapple and purple sage, Jethro Tull and wildflowers and French thyme. The Guara and Cotoneaster will fill out the lower area.

before

after