To drink | When fat enters cocktails

Any ingredient can be chosen to prepare a good cocktail. Even the fat. Thanks to the technique of fat washingbutter, coconut oil and duck fat bring even more flavors behind the bar.

Under the name Loyd Von Rose, Montrealer Loïc Fortin won over the judges of the series Cocktail masters on Netflix thanks to the originality of its Old Fashioned. His secret? He made a fat washing. “One of my favorite techniques. It adds a lot of texture and flavor,” explains the co-owner of the Tittle Tattle cocktail bar in Old Montreal.

THE fat washing, or fat washing, involves mixing alcohol with fat kept at room temperature. After a few hours, the infusion is placed in the freezer. Unlike alcohol, fat solidifies in the cold, which makes it possible to recover the liquid whose taste and texture are thus transformed.

The method of fat washing was popularized in the 2000s in New York. Mixologist Don Lee placed a strip of bacon in bourbon, then used the alcohol to make an Old Fashioned. His idea went viral. However, using fat to capture aromas is a very old technique.

In Grasse, in the south of France, Michèle Dulac is a perfumer and trainer at Fragonard. She says that fat has been used in perfumery for a long time. “It is an extraction principle used so as not to damage the aromatic extracts by heat,” she explains. Jasmine absolute is still made this way today. »

If fat is still used in the perfume industry, in mixology, it is multiplying.

To each his own fat

On the Instagram account of the Vandale restaurant in Montreal, a video features mixologist Jacob Cristofaro preparing his version of the White Bronco. This summer cocktail includes orange juice, grenadine syrup and rum. However, in the Vandal shaker, the white rum was first washed with coconut oil.

Watch the video

This is not surprising, as vegetable oils are becoming more and more popular in creating cocktails.

The Distillerie du Square has just launched a gin fat washed with olive oil. Its creator, Pier-Luc Roussel, had long dreamed of using this ingredient in a gin. However, adding this oil to the still did not give good results.

“It always tasted like overcooked olive oil,” he says. I looked for a different technique and remembered a bourbon cocktail fat washed with bacon fat. I was inspired by it. »

The olive oil used in the Mediterranean Garden Gin from Distillerie du Square adds roundness to the spirit as well as lovely fruity notes. Since the fat washed was made before bottling, it also gives a helping hand to mixologists. Indeed, according to the rules of the Régie des alcools, all mixtures of alcoholic beverages must be made on the same day of service, then must be destroyed at the end of working hours. Thus, it is prohibited for an establishment to keep its mixture for several days.

This rule does not limit mixologists in their creativity. Marrow bones, camelina oil, sesame oil, foie gras and cold meats, the challenge is above all to combine the flavors of the fat with those of the chosen spirit.

And when the combination is successful, the cocktail is even better, adds Jacob Cristofaro. Because according to him, the fat not only brings texture to the cocktail, it also masks the bitter taste of the alcohol. “When you eat an arugula salad, if you take just one leaf, it’s very bitter,” he illustrates. But if you put olive oil on it, you taste the aromas of the plant without the bitterness. It’s more complex. THE fat washing has the same effect for a cocktail. »

To carry out the technique, the Vandal mixologist follows a simple rule: he uses three times the quantity of alcohol for a serving of fat. However, he adapts the quantities according to the fat chosen. If the latter is very tasty, like that of duck, it adds more alcohol.

The bar menu at the Queen Elizabeth hotel, Nacarat, in Montreal, offers a cocktail based on dark rum washed with brown butter. This fat is also gaining popularity. “The principle is to toast the butter in a pan until it takes on a certain color,” explains Nacarat’s director of mixology, Claudia Doyon. It gives a nutty taste to the butter, and if you use salted butter, it’s even more delicious. »

Another interesting point: fat is reused several times to wash alcohol and even in cooking. Thus, duck fat having been washed with whiskey can be used to brown potatoes, for example. The idea is as decadent as it is eco-responsible. She would undoubtedly have pleased the judges.

Tasting Notes

Gin from the Mediterranean garden

The citrus flavors of this new gin are enhanced by the herbal notes of olive oil. However, it is in the mouth that this addition is most noticeable. The neutral corn alcohol, prepared by the distillery, is even more rounded and supple in the mouth thanks to the olive oil from the company La Belle Excuse. Pier-Luc Roussel chose black olive oil for its delicate and fruity aromas. It works ! Try it in a martini.

Distillerie du Square, gin from the Mediterranean garden (15294241), $50, available in SAQ branches from mid-March and now at the Distillerie boutique in Chelsea.

Consult the SAQ sheet

Visit the Distillerie du Square website

Coconut Oil Martini

By Loïc Fortin, aka Loyd Von Rose

Ingredients

• 1.5 oz vodka
• 0.5 oz dry vermouth
• 2 oz coconut oil
• Grapefruit zest

Preparation

1. Pour the alcohol (vodka and vermouth) into a heat-resistant container.
2. In a pot, heat the coconut oil until liquid.
3. Pour the coconut oil into the container containing the alcohol and mix.
4. Place the container in the freezer for an hour.
5. Remove the layer of hardened fat and pour the alcohol into a shaker.
6. Stir with ice for a few seconds.
7. Pour into a martini glass.
8. Garnish with a grapefruit zest.

The coconut oil alcohol mixture can be kept for several weeks in the refrigerator. Quantities can be multiplied to have some on hand.