Damien mixes: Pineapple Perfection
© Damien Guichard
Damien Guichard mixes another Community Cocktail. The star of this month’s drink is pineapple!
If you like Piña Coladas and getting caught in the rain – this recipe is not for you! Pineapple has long been a staple in some of the most frowned upon, bastardized cocktails in the history of cocktails - which as we all know started with the 1988 Tom Cruise documentary.
Today we’re going to look at one of my favourite and cheapest techniques to clarify ingredients - agar agar. It is by no means my own technique, in fact, I merely apply the Dave Arnold method to the T as it works wonders.
The Agar Agar Method
At Wax On we are lucky to have a battery of equipment we can use to extract, clarify, and infuse but somehow agar agar is still one of our preferred methods to process larger volumes.
Agar agar is a gelling agent derived from red algae. It is therefore vegetarian friendly. It is also extremely cheap and you can find it everywhere and if you follow the next steps and ratios, you will also find it extremely easy to use. Let’s get into it!
I - Clarification
1. First, grab your pineapple, chop them up, and blend them into juice.
2. Weigh out your juice and apply the magic ratio:
3. For each 750ml of juice, you wish to clarify, boil 250g of water with 2g of agar agar powder - this means boil 33% of your juice to water ratio with 0.8% water to agar agar ratio.
4. Once the water and agar agar powder has come to a boil, mix well and transfer them into a container.
5. Add juice to agar agar and water mix - not the other way around.
6. Mix it all up and stick in the freezer.
7. Monitor the process but do not poke it around. Once your juice + agar agar mix has reached a gelatinous consistency, it is ready to strain.
8. Pass it through a cheesecloth and voilà: you have clarified juice.
I do not recommend squeezing the cheesecloth as it will break agar agar and end in your juice, making it cloudy. Simply let gravity do the work, go get a coffee and leave it alone. Now that we have our clarified pineapple let’s turn it into a cordial.
II - Make a Pineapple Cordial
Industrial pineapple juice is known to be quite sweet whereas fresh pineapple juice is acidic. With an average PH of 3 out of 14, its acidity is in fact pretty close to that of lime juice. In order to be able to use our cordial as a balanced cocktail ingredient we are going to add malic and citric acid as well as sugar. It will add balance and texture to the cocktail.
- 33% sugar to pineapple juice
- 1% of combined citric and malic acid powder (0.5% each)
Heat up at a very low temperature - ideally in a thermomix or sous vide, but if you only have a pot at your disposal, avoid burning your juice by boiling it.
© Damien Guichard
III - Make a Tasty Little Drinkie
Our drink today will be a twist on a forgotten classic the East India Cocktail #2. The traditional recipe calls for pineapple syrup and pineapple juice, it is also a shaken drink. Now that we have our nifty little clarified pineapple cordial, let’s make it a stirred-down drink.
“Smooth Operator”
- 40ml Cognac
- 25ml Clarified Pineapple Cordial
- 5ml Madeira
- 2 drops angostura
- 1drop black walnut
- 1 drop absinthe
Stirr and strain into a coupette. No Garnish. Cheers!
© Damien Guichard
