Now, bring us some (vodka-soaked) Figgy Pudding...

November 28, 2014 7:26 PM

I've dumped a pound of dried figs into a jar full of vodka for some fig-infused vodka goodness. The liquor is starting to turn golden and figgy... Mmmm! My recipe tells me to strain the figs out of the jar before consuming and discard them -- is there any way to reuse the figs themselves in another holiday recipe?

I've heard of fruitcake made with liquor-soaked fruit... but that liquor is usually rum or bourbon, not figs and vodka. Googling dried fruit liquor infusion gets me lots of recipes for soaking liquor but no info about what to do with the fruit after. Is the fruit worthless after the infusion? Anything cool I could do with it, particularly with baked goods (boozy fig bread, anyone)?

I've never infused alcohol with fruit so any recommendations are much appreciated.

posted by rogerrogerwhatsyourrvectorvicto to Food & Drink (4 answers total)

Best answer: In my experience, if you've done the infusion properly, the fruit is flavorless when you're finished. I always taste the fruit when I'm done with the infusion, and it's never worth eating, so it's not really good for anything. The fruits in fruitcake or soda breads and the like are soaked for only 10 minutes or so and still taste like fruit.
posted by crush-onastick at 7:47 PM on November 28, 2014 [7 favorites]

Best answer: Yep, ethanol is a hell of a solvent, and it will (with time) reduce those fruits to fiber husks. The thing about using a different spirit, such as rum or bourbon, is the (aged, interesting) spirit will remain in this fibrous husk, giving you a nice juicy rum bomb in apparent fruit form. Vodka, being nothing more than ethanol and H20, has no such benefits. Your post-infusion prune should taste merely like your infused liquor, but with prune skin texture. If you evaporate away the ethanol in a baking procedure, I would assume you would be left with some extremely flavorless prunes.

I recently did a hazelnut maceration for 3 days, followed by a distillation with the hazelnuts in the still, and afterwards the hazelnuts were - literally - tasteless. The looked like hazelnuts, and they still had the same texture, but they actually tasted like nothing. Just pure fiber.
posted by special agent conrad uno at 12:35 AM on November 29, 2014 [2 favorites]

The fruit won't taste like much, but it will be full of alcohol. You can bake with it if you want, but I'd recommend mixing it with non-vodka-laden fruit.
posted by yarntheory at 1:57 PM on November 29, 2014

Response by poster: Ok, thanks all -- looks like these figs are headed for the compost after they release the last of their figgy flavor.
posted by rogerrogerwhatsyourrvectorvicto at 2:45 PM on November 30, 2014