How To Make Herbal Tinctures, Infusions, and Distillations And Use Them In The Kitchen!

Ernest Foundas
May 8
5 min read

Why do we want to make tinctures, infusions and distillations?

The simple answer is – because they are fun! However, the more complete answer is, because they accentuate the subtly and complexity of flavors and beneficial properties. They are also a great way to preserve ingredients, use bountiful harvests, and minimize waste!

Tinctures:

A tincture is a liquid which has been infused with herbs, flavors, or medicinal ingredients. Typically, tinctures are made with strong alcohol or vinegar.

Infusions:

Culinary infusions (as discussed here) are liquids that have been flavored through heat, time or fermentation agents. Common infusion liquids are oils, teas, alcohols, wines, and vinegars. However any neutral or flavored liquid can be used as long as the conditions are controlled. Since we are the SG Tiki Farm, we like to also focus on South Pacific flavors and concepts – so it is worth noting that the beverage, Kava, is an infusion made by squeezing and wringing dry kava root in a sack or bag to infuse the flavors and mellowing properties into the water. It is also an example of an infusion that is not done for the flavor, but for the effect. Solids, such as sugar and salt can also be infused with flavors – but that is a topic for another day!

Distillations:

A distillation is where the essences (often oils) are extracted from the liquid substrate. The goal in a culinary distillation is to enhance, concentrate and crate unique flavors. By its nature, an infusion separates and concentrates the essential components – think of essential oils or stills with the squiggly glass collection devices. However, the limiting factor in the practical use of distillations in the kitchen is that they require specialized equipment, where Tinctures and Infusions do not. The basic process of making a distillation is to start with an alcohol tincture, so the essence of your substrate has been extracted into the alcohol. Next, the solids are strained out, the alcohol is boiled, and the essence is collected through vapor or it remains in the crucible once the vapor is removed. The best method for culinary distillations is to pull a vacuum in the air around the crucible containing the tincture. The reason for the vacuum is because alcohol boils at about 95-100 degrees in a vacuum, and flavors begin to change at 106 degrees. So, using a vacuum distillation device creates a pure unchanged result without changing flavors through high heat boiling. At the Tiki Food Lab, we have an ExactCraft, which is a really great little vacuum distillation devise that is really easy to use. If is a little costly, though.

What Tinctures, Infusions and Distillations are we doing right now?

Spring is a great time to make tinctures, infusions and distillations, because there are tons of flowers, ingredients and medicinals all around us. Just walking around the SG Tiki Farm, we collected the following great ingredients:

Magnolia Flower Buds: They taste great and may help with digestion, allergies and heart health;

Perserved Magnolia Flower Buds
Greenbrier Shoots: Also called Smilax. It’s that spikey vine that is everywhere. They have high vitamin and mineral content and may have anti-inflammatory properties;
Fresh Coriander: Just plant cilantro and you get coriander berries after it flowers. Coriander is a digestion aid, helps manage diabetes, and is good for your heart and immune system;
Dollar Weed Flowers: A medicinal weed that is also very common with dollar coin size round leaves. The flowers are delicious and all parts of the plant are medicinal, thought to be an anti-inflammatory, memory stimulant and anxiety reducing agent;\
Grape Leaves: Muscadines are verry common in the Gulf Coast, and the leaves are good for treating diarrhea, stomach aches and may also minimize menstrual bleeding;

Muscadine Leaves Shrouding our UFO!
Radish Flowers: They are super tasty and are a good source of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants.
Huacatay: This one is not common, but you should plant it in your garden!!! Huacatay is also known as Peruvian Mint or Black Mint, and it will become perennialized in the Gulf Coast/Zone 8b/9 area if you plant it. It is an amazing herb with a wide-range of culinary uses and is thought to help with respiratory problems, is a digestive aid, and minimizes flu symptoms.
Walking Garlic: Another very common Gulf Coast wild edible! You can see them on the side of the highway as you drive I-10 through Mississippi and Louisiana and they may be in your back yard. You can eat the flowers, the bulbs, the scapes, and the cloves that grow on top of stems above ground. They are great for cardiovascular health and immune system support – and they are delicious!

Walking Garlic & Fresh Coriander
Basil & Mint: Great flavor and has anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and antimicrobial properties.
Dewberries: Just like blackberries, but they grow on spikey vines instead of bushes. They also come out earlier than blackberries. They are great for digestive issues and have strong vitamin and antioxidant content. They also create a beautiful color in tinctures and infusions.

Dewberry Wine

This is just a list of what we saw last weekend at the farm, but there is so many other things available. Get creative and experiment with various herbs, ginger, turmeric, root veggies, fruits and leaves. However, make sure that what you use is edible and not toxic. Also, stay away from anything that may have been treated with weed killer or insecticides. The last thing you want to do is introduce toxins to any tincture or tonic you create.

Here are some items we started this week:

We started several oil infusions using walking garlic, fresh coriander, herbs, and koji. To make an oil infusion add your infusion ingredients, use about 15-20% koji an fill to the top with oil. Using koji to make infusions increases umami and minimizes the chance of bad microbe growth because the koji out competes all bad bacteria.

We also made several alcohol extractions, this one includes essentially everything we harvested while walking through the farm last weekend - dewberries, dollar weed flowers, radish flowers, walking garlic, ginger, and herbs. We started some in jars filled with high proof alcohol for tinctures (see above) and another (below) with sugar and spring water to create a wild-crafted wine. Once it finishes fermenting, we will decide whether to use it as a cooking wine or to turn it into a beautiful vinegar (or we will do both!). It already smells amazing.

Don't be afraid to experiment with edible herbs, fruits and flowers. Just make sure you are using EDIBLE ingredients! Or, better yet, check out one of our Tiki Food Lab courses for more information including a class and dinner involving these beautiful goodies!

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