On food and cooking the science and lore of the kitchen ( PDFDrive ) 1433

(Fusel is the German for “rotgut.”) A small
dose of fusel oils gives a distilled alcohol
character;toomuchmakesitunpleasant.
ConcentrationbyFreezing
Distillation is the most common way of
making concentrated alcohols, but it’s not
the only way. Freezing also concentrates
the alcohol in fermented liquids, by
causing the water to form a mass of solid
crystals from which an alcohol-enriched
fluidcanbedrained.(Alcoholfreezesat–
173ºF/–114ºC, far below water’s freezing
point of 32ºF/0ºC.) In the 17th century,
Francis Bacon noted Paracelsus’s claim
that “if a glass of wine be set upon a
terrace in bitter frost, it will leave some
liquor unfrozen in the center of the glass,
which excellethspiritus vini [spirit of
wine] drawn by fire.” The nomads of
central Asia apparently applied “freezingout” to their alcoholic mare’s milk,


koumiss, and European settlers in North
America made apple brandy — applejack
—inthesameway.Freezing-outproduces
a different kind of concentrated alcohol.
There’s no heating step that alters the
aroma,andunlikedistillationitretainsand
concentrates the sugars, savory amino
acids,andothernonvolatilesubstancesthat
contributed to the original liquid’s taste

andbody.
PurityandFlavorThebestindicationofhow
stronglyflavoredadistilledalcoholwillbeis
thepercentageofalcoholintheliquid
immediatelyafterdistillation,beforeit’s
furthertreatedbyagingand/ordilutionwith
watertoitsfinalstrength(seebox,p.765).
Thehigherthealcoholcontenttowhichit’s
distilled,thepureramixtureofalcoholand
wateritis,thelowertheproportionoffusel
oilsandotheraromatics,andsothemore
neutraltheflavor.Vodkasareusuallydistilled
to90%alcoholormore;brandiesand