[abakker]

Incidentally, I have been doing this for making bitters for years. I have an ultrasonic cleaner and I fill it with a warm water. Then I put liquor and flavorings in a jar - sometimes grain alcohol, sometimes 151, sometimes strong bourbon, depending on the intended result - and hit it with ultrasound for about 30 minutes at 100F. I make about 2-3 fluid ounces at a time and it works great. Not sure I'd call it (Aging), but it certainly does infuse things well. for certain things, like fresh rosemary, you can see the oils separating from the leaves as soon as the ultrasonic starts. it is nearly instantaneous.

I suspect that the time is a function of surface area. If instead of wood chips they used shavings, I'd bet that they could take the time down even further.

[nickff]

Thanks for sharing this; do you happen to have any guides or blogposts on the subject handy?

[abakker]

I don't, other than to say that experimentation is easy - I bought my ultrasonic off of eBay. (bigger is better), makes the device more useful.

I use small spice jars for making my batches, and woody things last longer than squishy ones. i.e. orange rind dried is lasts longer than orange rind fresh. However, fresh orange rind gives a different taste and is cool if you're doing a cocktail night, or something. You can do things that you can't do any other way like this.

Cloves, Sassafras root, ginger, juniper berries, rosemary, lavender, sage. All have great effect.

Also, Ultrasonic makes EXCELLENT sangria. This is the only way to do sangria, IMO.

You can either use bitters to add to sangria, or just put wine and other things directly into the ultrasonic and infuse that way. It works great with herbs. For fruits, you should really just use the juice or crush them with a mortar and pestle. Any fruit soaking in the sangria is purely for show. IMO, all sangria should have sage in it. Sassafras in small quantities makes cheap red wine taste about 2 shelves better. YMMV.

[malandrew]

Can you share the instructions and ingredients for your sangria?

Also, you said bigger is better. What size/volume would you recommend?

Is there any brand of ultrasonic cleaner that is most recommended or are they basically all the same?

[abakker]

If I were doing it again, I'd get one of these: http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-6L-Ultrasonic-Cleaner-Stainless-...

I have a 1.5L one now and it is constantly too small for my jobs. I'd like to see how it does at vacuum sealed meat, prior to sous vide, also.

[cityhall]

What ultrasound thing should I search for? A quick attempt turned up strange skincare and aromatherapy products.

[mickeyp]

This concept is quite well-known in high-end cooking. Nitrogen cavitation is another method of rapidly infusing (though not necessarily aging!) liquids with aromatics.

Ultrasonic boths -- as the OP mentioned -- is also another way of extracting more flavour from liquids. Both concepts are talked about in "Modernist Cuisine" by Myhrvold & co.

[abakker]

Yes - I got the idea from Russell over at the Ice Cream Bar in SF in Cole Valley. They use Nitrogen cavitation for all their extracts using the whipped cream bottles from Isi. I thought "cavitation?" and went to an ultrasonic because I already had one.