clarified key lime pie daiquiri
Clarified (milk washed) key lime pie daiquiri.
let’s break it down.
This cocktail was created to highlight Fee Brother’s Lime Bitters, a tart and bright ingredient that adds a citrus ‘pop.’ I followed a daiquiri build with added creamy and vanilla elements to evoke key lime pie in a glass. I then proceeded to geek out over cocktail clarification.
key lime pie daiquiri (v1)
The first version of this cocktail was simple(r). Shake the ingredients below and double strain into a coupe.
2oz white rum
.5 oz lime juice
4 dashes Fee Brother’s lime bitters
.5 oz Amarula cream liqueur
[made from the Marula fruit of Africa & distilled in French oak for two years. Imparts a creamy, exotic, almost nutty flavor]
.25 oz Giffards Vanille de Madagascar
.25 simple (1:1 sugar water)
The flavors are here, and this cocktail is delicious, but I was craving the silky mouthfeel of a key lime pie… Enter, milk wash. Feel free to stop here, save 6 hours and forgo the milk wash.
clarified key lime pie daiquiri (v2)
Still here? Let’s be friends.
Milk-washing a cocktail removes cloudiness and polyphenols (including harsh tannins) yielding a silky, smooth, translucent, clarified cocktail.
Add milk (last) to your cocktail ingredients at a 4:1 ratio, and let it sit for at least 6 hours, refridgerated.
My preferred method for at home clarification involves a hawthorne strainer and a coffee filter.
The liquid straining one drop at a time is a good sign that you’re doing things right.
The final product is beautifully clear, and incredibly easy to serve. Put in the 6 hours of waiting and additional hour of straining, and you’ll be rewarded with the simplest serving procedure- pour over ice.
…how tf?
If you’re like me, you want to understand how the f*ck this clarification process happens. I researched a bunch and distilled it down for myself.
To understand milk clarification, you need to understand the properties of milk’s two major protein groups, caseins and whey. The two protein groups are defined by how they react in the presence of acid. Caseins coagulate or curdle, and whey remains suspended. (McGee, H. (2004). On Food and Cooking, page 19.)
Say it with me, caseins curdle. When you add lemon juice to milk to make ricotta cheese, caseins curdle. When the expired milk in your fridge begins to ferment and decreases in PH, caseins curdle. When you add milk to an acidic cocktail, caseins curdle.
When caseins curdle, they trap other molecules with them, such as astringent tannins and get discarded. The ‘purified’ alcohol, -along with milky flavored alcohol-soluble whey protein- filter through.
In short, you’ve imparted a milky flavor via milk’s whey protein, removed harsh tannins and impurities via the milk’s casein proteins… aaand the cocktail is now translucent.
More on milk punches, here.
Ps. Lactose’s polarity and water soluble nature means that it remains suspended in the whey protein, and is in the final cocktail. Dairy free, not lactose free. Lactaid in my amazon storefront ;)