Our next infusion: Chicken

Chicken infused vodka?

No! Vodka infused chicken.

Greetings one and all, it is I, the "other" scientician. Up until now, Brendan has taken a brunt of the load and written up all of the posts up until this point. In an attempt to even things up a bit, I promised to try and write more of the posts after the relaunch. So expect to hear a bit more from me as well from now on. Anyway, on to the science...

Our idea for this experiment was to take a dozen wings and then marinade them in our habanero infused vodka, in an attempt to transfer some of the flavor of the habanero pepper into the wings, thus giving them a bit more of a kick than our normal wings.

We made two batches of wings, a dozen marinated in vodka for several hours, the other dozen non-marinated for control purposes.

But first, I had to find the habanero vodka in our ever-expanding infusions cabinet.



They say the waiting is the hardest part, but compared to our normal infused vodkae that can take several weeks; marinading the chicken only took a few hours, which seemed relatively short, since we went on to other tasks while they marinaded.

Eventually, the time had arrived and we began to fry the wings. We started with the non-marinaded batch, so as not to risk contaminating the oil. Both batches were dipped in egg wash, then rolled into our Mad Scientician brand chicken batter - flour mixed with seasoning salt and a secret blend of spices. The trick is to balance the heat between the front and back end, with just enough saltiness to give the flavor some depth.



We tasted the non-marinaded wings and had the following reactions:

Brendan:

"The frying process always reduces the heat a great deal. When tasting the batter straight, it has a heavy burn. After cooking the wings, however, they're not nearly as hot. These are a little less hot than I'd like, but do have some heat and just enough saltiness."

My reaction was fairly similar:

"Pretty good. I think we got the batter right on this time... I'll definitely be interested to see how the infused wings turn out."

Since we cooked all the wings before tasting any, the habanero infused vodka infused wings were ready to try immediately after.



Personally, I was not overly impressed, but thought it might get better with a longer marinade time:

"There is a subtle difference here I'm not exactly sure I can put my finger on. It's somewhere in the middle. I thing we might have more success if we let them infuse longer."

Brendan, on the other hand, was not impressed at all:

"Those wings are a little hotter. It's not a large difference, but it's about enough to kick these up to where I like them (when I'm not going all out with the heat). However, there is an odd flavor to the wings, reminiscent of vodka, an effect that I haven't observed with other foods we've marinaded with our infusions. Most of those previous experiments have involved beef, so perhaps the chicken accepts more of the vodka itself, along with the infused flavor."

Later, we theorized that the remaining vodka was probably due to the cooking method. Other foods, such as beef roasts, cook long enough and hot enough that the alcohol evaporates. The wings don't fry for quite as long, so the alcohol may not have had time to evaporate. Not to mention, the fried batter and oil may have trapped the alcohol in the wings.

So I wasn't impressed and my co-scientician felt the marinade detracted from the overall flavor. So, unfortunately, I think we need to call this one a failure.

But, isn't that what science is? Pushing the boundaries to see just what we come up with.

Bam! Habanero vodka results

Today's post is dedicated to the loving memory of Don Herbert, a.k.a. Mr. Wizard.

After three days of infusion, our habanero vodka experiment was ready for tasting. We invited our friend Jason, a fellow capsaicin addict, to the lab to sample it with us.

A few things to keep in mind regarding this infusion:

• We have previously created jalapeño infused vodka. That infusion was fairly spicy on the back end, though not overwhelming.
  
• Habanero peppers are around 40 times hotter than jalapeños, according to the Scoville scale.
  
• We used four habanero peppers, as opposed to the two jalapeño peppers from the previous infusion.
  
• Both infusions ran for the same amount of time.

These factors should give you an indication of just how hot we were expecting this vodka to be. As much as we love spicy foods, the only one who was not at least little nervous about it was Jason.

It didn't seem fair to make anyone go first, so we poured three shots and sampled them all at once.



In the eloquent words of Professor Hubert Farnsworth, "Oh my, yes."

The vodka knocks you for a loop, but not maliciously. It's actually quite bearable, if you enjoy heat; though if you're not a fan of capsaicin, I would suggest steering clear. The heat is significantly more intense than the jalapeño vodka, hits more quickly (though not immediately) and sticks around longer. Beneath the heat, the vodka has a crisp, almost sweet flavor.

"It starts out pretty smooth," Wayland remarked. "Actually, for the first two seconds, it didn't seem like it was going to be spicy. Then it grows past mild to a pretty strong burning sensation." He added that you would pay the next morning if you had several shots.

We consider this experiment to be very much a success. We're excited about the possibilities for using the habanero vodka, though we have not created any cocktails (or marinades) with it as of yet.

Kicking vodka up a notch: Habanero Vodka

We Mad Scienticians are spice fiends. There really is nothing like the brief endorphin high that comes from really hot salsa or chicken wings, and it's legal to boot. Therefore, three months ago, we conducted an experiment in creating jalapeño-infused vodka. Though we do enjoy the heat, we were a bit wary of it at the time, not knowing exactly what to expect from it. As it turned out, it had a good kick to it, but was still relatively mild. Though we've used the jalapeño vodka in a few drinks, we primarily use it as a marinade.

This week, we decided to try pushing the limits a little further, and picked up a few habanero peppers to infuse. Habaneros are the hottest chili peppers generally available to most consumers, with a Scoville rating of 100,000 to 350,000 Scoville units (a measure of a pepper's heat). In contrast, jalapeño peppers rate 2,500 to 8,000 Scoville units. Pure capsaicin, the chemical which causes the heat sensation, rates 16 million Scoville units, the maximum rating possible.

We infused the vodka with four habanero peppers of various colors. (We purchased five, but had to discard one of the yellow ones; it was a bit squishy for our tastes.)



I cut each habanero in half, just like we did with the jalapeño vodka. Notice that we used twice as many peppers for this infusion than for the jalapeño.



This will be another fast infusion; the jalapeño vodka only took three days.