Blackening: Apples
An ancient preservation technique coming through from Asia (particularly Japan, Korea & Thailand) and seen more often as a technique used for garlic; Blackening is a unique piece of our flavour puzzle in Fermentation Hacking.
Why, you ask? Because it’s not achieved through fermentation at all.
To explain what’s happening here, we asked Johnny for a few insights on what would be going on if we did this technique to something we all love for being crisp, delicious and slightly sour; the humble Apple:
Blackening is not a fermentation but rather a low-temperature, long-duration process that leverages the Maillard reaction to develop deep, caramelized flavours.
At 60ºC, amino acids and reducing sugars in the apples interact through the Maillard reaction, generating complex, dark flavours.
By taking the apples through this process, we will see the formation of a product that will display smoky & sweet (caramel, toffee & molasses) with notes of dark spices like cloves, allspice & cardamom. It works awesomely with dark spirits like Bourbon, Single Malt Whisky & Aged Rums.
Ingredients
- 20 Apples
Wash the apples by immersing them briefly (30 seconds) in recently boiled water – this is to kill any microbes on their surface.
Remove the stems and halve the apples.
Put the halves neatly into vacuum seal bags ensuring there is a single layer of well spread out apples with space between them.
Seal tightly in a vacuum machine. You want to remove all the air.
Blacken at 60ºC in an incubator for 1-2 months. The slow cooking will blacken and intensify the apple flavour.
If any bags produce gas, open and reseal tightly.
Once done, blend the apples into a puree and strain the juice. Should keep for 1 month, or longer in the fridge.
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