I don’t think it takes any familiarity with SEO to recognize the entertainment that will come with having a post with the page title: Ice, Three Ways | Food Goes In Mouth

Hint for those visitors who don’t have a website or have never used web analytics: The rest of us know what search terms bring people to our sites.

Anyway, Back to the Food

You probably already know about the storage convention for homemade chicken stock. After you’ve simmered the hell out of a bunch of vegetables, chicken carcass, and whatever other madness you choose to add, after you’ve skimmed what you plan on skimming, what do you do with the end product? You use it. Immediately.

Oh what, don’t plan on using it all right away? Empty out those trays in the freezer, you’re turning it into ice!

So if we can store the wonderful flavor of homemade stock in the freezer for months this way, why should we limit the flavor we’re saving? Here are a few other “ice” flavors I’m ready to start playing with:

Goose Ice

Geese are some oily little wing-flappers. When I last cooked a goose I did it on a bed of four different types of onions. The greasy, oniony puddle at the bottom of the roasting pan was too good to let waste, so I froze it.

The goose fat rises from the rest of the mixture and we’re left with these little two-tone cubes, easily separated if you’re looking for pure fat or onion-broth.

Garlic Ice

I took four heads of garlic, separated the cloves and peeled them. They were thrown in the Crock Pot along with half a bottle of Chardonnay and some water for six hours.

The result? A complex roasted-ish garlic flavor that comes with cooking it for so long, except available instantly.

Chili Ice

I simmered three whole Jalapeño peppers and one whole Habanero along with some annatto seed and black pepper in water for six hours. On paper it sounds unbearably spicy. In reality the final product has absolutely no kick.

I’m a bit of a dummy with food science so I can only speculate on why this doesn’t kill you if you lick it. Maybe since I left the peppers whole the capsaicin never escaped the peppers themselves. Would the fact that capsaicin is hydrophobic cause it to sit on top of the simmering pot and vaporize out of the mixture? Oh well, I guess if I want instant tongue melting powers I’ll just have to stick to oil infusion.

What I did end up with is ice that has locked in the rich flavor of slow-cooked peppers, just without the spice. Not what I was going for, but equally useful.

I really hate going three weeks without posting. With busy times come more fast-food mouth stuffing. As photogenic as the crunch-wrap from Taco Bell wants to be, I just don’t think it would make a good post. The good news is I’ll be able to return to my usual pace of cooking once I’m done making a few thingamajiggers for some crazy fruit company we sometimes call Client.

Since the cooking has been sparse I really want to highlight a couple of special food related gifts I received for Christmas. The first is a set of products from the Lucero Olive Oil company pictured above. From left to right you’ll see a bottle of balsamic vinegar, extra-virgin olive oil, and…a mystery blob which, you will have to trust me, is just an unlabeled bottle.

The balsamic vinegar isn’t produced by the Luceros, because apparently that kind of thing takes a little time. However, it is imported from a high quality Modena source.

The olive oil is their Ascolano variety. Not to be confused with Olive Ascolane, the Ascolano variety of olive tree grows well in the area around my hometown.

Whats with the mystery bottle? My good friends would probably say, “Oh no, it’s some kind of insane olive fermented 150 proof super-booze.” And that would be awesome, but I guess the next best thing would be flavored balsamic vinegar, black cherry balsamic to be exact. When my folks picked this up they hadn’t even gotten to labeling yet.

Oh, how does it all taste? Amazing. Yep, that’s the extent of my review skills but let’s see if I can’t add a little literary fluff. I read through the Lucero website before opening the bottles and they describe the Ascolano as being, “amazingly fruity flavored.” Surrounded by Central California wine country, I’m used to seeing this kind of thing in marketing literature or reviews. “Mild fruity notes with a hint of leather and jasmine on the back of the tongue” or something completely ridiculous. But they weren’t lying. I’m no olive oil conniseur but the second I took in the aroma I started questioning whether it was slightly infused with fruit. Tasting it left me with the same impression, but with the a disinct accompanying flavor of good olive.

While the flavors are wonderful, it really isn’t the most surprising thing to me about these products. See, Linda was my 6th grade teacher. And Russ, I don’t even know how many years we went to school together before graduating High School, wherein I would school him on the golf course (hahahaha I really do hope he reads this). Dewey and Katie are Cal Poly SLO grads. They were winding up the tail end of their years here when I was just starting.

After more than 10 years of knowing the Lucero family I just now learn that they’re producing top notch olive oil?! Holy crap, where have I been?

Thanks for making something tasty guys. (And of course :D thanks again Mom & Dad for the gift)

I just know it. You’re sitting there right now thinking two things: First, who does this bastard think he is, telling me what I’m thinking? And second, why the hell would infusing oil be the first step in some crazy quest for a tasty hamburger?

I say shhhhhh…to both thoughts.

This technique for oil infusion is pretty much ripped straight out of an episode of Good Eats. I’ve dug through the 12 season episode list and cannot figure out which damn episode it is so…um…I guess you’ll just have to watch all of them to see this properly executed.

What I Used

• Lemon Zest, fresh
• Basil, whole fresh
• Lavender, whole dried
• Canola Oil
• Olive Oil
• Quart Mason Jar

What I Did

1. Wash and dry the basil and combine with zest and lavender at the bottom of Mason jar
2. Combine oils in a saucepan and heat to 210°F
3. Carefully remove pan from heat and using a funnel, add the oil to the Mason jar
4. Place cheesecloth/tea towel/straining cloth of your choice on top of the jar
5. If possible, just put the sealing ring back on without the cap, otherwise, seal it up tight with rubber bands
6. After 24 hours on the counter just strain the oil through the lid into some wicked-fancy oil delivery device

I used five parts canola to one part olive oil. I used a pinch and I’m talking about 20 of the little dried flowers of lavender. It’s easy to use too much lavender because it is so overpowering, so this time I barely splashed it. I probably would not be able to taste it in the oil if I didn’t look for it.

This stuff has tons of everyday uses outside of its future burger fate. I urge anybody at home to pick up some of your favorite leafy flavorings and home brew your own varieties of oil. Stay tuned to see what happens with this one.