The Art of Fermentation: Creating Unique Flavors and Umami Notes

Fermentation is a fascinating process that involves the controlled rotting of organic matter to create new flavors and umami notes. In this article, we'll explore how fermentation can be used to manipulate and create unique flavors, and we'll dive into the details of creating a fermented watermelon base for a cocktail.

When it comes to fermentation, having a swap is great, and that's exactly what we have here. Our watermelon has been fermenting for about four or five days, and it's ready to be strained and used as the base for our cocktail. To do this, we need to open up the bag and let out any built-up gases, which can cause the fermentation process to go haywire. This step is crucial in preventing a blowout, especially when working with an open-top container.

After straining the watermelon juice, we add a little bit of honey or sugar to bring out the natural sweetness. The warmth of the sun also helps to dissolve the sugars and create a more complex flavor profile. To enhance this process, we squeeze in a little lime juice, which adds a touch of citrus and brightness to the mixture.

Now it's time to choose our spirit for the cocktail. We've opted for a Mexican mezcal, which pairs perfectly with the sweet and sour notes of the fermented watermelon. The smokiness of the mezcal complements the umami flavors that come through during fermentation, creating a truly unique drinking experience.

As we add ice to the mixture, the flavors begin to meld together, and the drink starts to take shape. We add a sprig of tarragon and another type of mint, which adds depth and complexity to the cocktail. Finally, we stir in some seltzer water to give it a bit of fizz and texture.

After taking a sip, it's clear that this is no ordinary cocktail. The flavors are bold and intriguing, with notes of sweetness, sourness, and umami that will keep you coming back for more. Whether you're a seasoned cocktail enthusiast or just looking to try something new, this fermented watermelon mezcal cocktail is sure to delight.

The beauty of fermentation lies in its ability to create unique flavor profiles that can't be replicated through traditional means. By controlling the environment and manipulating the process, we can coax out hidden notes and flavors that would otherwise go unnoticed. In this case, our fermented watermelon base has added a rich, candied quality to the cocktail, which complements the smokiness of the mezcal perfectly.

As we sit on the beach, sipping our cocktails and enjoying the warm sun on our skin, it's clear that this is a drink worth sharing. But be warned: once you fall in love with fermented watermelon, you may never want to go back to regular old cocktails again. And as for drinking alone? Well, let's just say that this particular drink is perfect for enjoying solo, as long as you're responsible and mindful of your surroundings.

In the end, fermentation is all about experimentation and creativity. By embracing the unknown and pushing the boundaries of traditional cocktail-making, we can create truly unique and memorable drinks like our fermented watermelon mezcal cocktail. So go ahead, take a chance on something new, and see where the journey takes you. With a little bit of courage and an open mind, the possibilities are endless.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: ena little garbage-y it was just rotten in a bag for a few days how would you smell you know hey guys and it's alive we're gonna be doing a really fun summer recipe from my book that's coming out it's a fermented watermelon cocktail a little spicy sweet a little hint of salty makes for a great non-alcoholic or a little adult beverage cocktail as well today we're gonna be making one a little bit of mezcal it's coming out my new book pre-sale available now first off you want to go and get yourself a real nice watermelon of course organic if you can even better if it's local nice and sweet i don't know where this one came from this thing probably weighs five to guess if i had a guess oh i wish we had a scale this is a fun game you just scale out here it's your house if i guess i'd say six pounds i've got my watermelon knife here so you can't do this without a very nice watermelon knife it's gonna cut off the rind okay and then i just kind of peel it with the knife one day next year back over here over there or something i'm going to dig up a nice little spot and i'm just going to have a big old watermelon patch i don't care if i lose like sixty percent of it to like animals and stuff i get it you know it's just for all of us but i want something yeah so you just want to clean off any of that white you don't have to go crazy and then you just bite it or go full gallagher get yourself a sledgehammer oh we gotta do we should be doing that he went out on the road imitation i wonder if he was like maybe he would get drunk and be a dick and everyone's like man gallagher sucked but it really was like his drunk brother i have the same problem no i have a sister but she dresses up like me and goes out and does like meet and greets and stuff it's freaking weird no i'm just kidding she's a sweetheart so because we're gonna ferment this you don't have to go chopping up in the small pieces for personal consumption i would like it a few degrees colder but for fermentation it's actually perfect because if it's too cold all it's going to do is take a little longer to get there but yeah this one is seedless you can even get a seeded one sometimes i think they're a little sweeter that might be in my head or just like luck of the pick but um because this is gonna get fermented and strained out the remaining solids can get discarded or compost or fed to the chickens so seeded seedless it doesn't have much of a difference i don't think when was the last time you had a slice of watermelon right great on the rind but with all the the black seeds never anymore if i remember you used to spit them you used to spit them at each other and stick to your skin no one does that anymore so you could ferment this in just about anything right but we're gonna do it in a bag you can do it in a big jar in a big crock the reason i really like to use this bag keeps the oxygen off it keeps anything out of it yeast from getting in there all flavors from really dominating the ferment now if you were doing this in a jar i like to crush it up and muddle it break it down and let it get juicy it will do it it's on itself but breaking it up a little bit just really kind of helps get that whole party going so we're only going to use half the tomato because this was a big boy and it's all we really need i called it a tomato yeah yeah i struggle sometimes remember i called a freaking mango and avocado and i did it today again so check it out we got our big chunks of watermelon looking good and what we're gonna do is just sprinkle just a little bit of salt in there for this application i mean we're only coating the top there and then we got a little bit of mint and tarragon and a little pinch of basil in there too shove a few little herbs in there and then look a little habanero beautiful i just have it throw it right in the bag and there we go now we're gonna hit it in the vac bag those things filled pretty good here so here it is there's your thumbnail bro one two three i just like to give it a little crush all right this will help redistribute some of that salt and just get a nice little little brine going right look at that beautiful get those herbs going in the liquid oh this already looks good if you are doing it in a jar or in a crock maybe get a little weight to keep that underneath its own liquid maybe even sprinkle the salt on top of the brine instead of on top of everything just to have a little bit of a salty solution on top kind of help knock down any mold if you do get mold or some yeast going you could probably just scoop it right off another reason why i kind of like the vac bag it stops at open air market where just kind of anything can party on the surface the good microbes that we have in here aren't combating with new yeast and microbes that are coming in through the air if there was cheese cloth or an open vessel container for fermentation it's like the best thing i've ever said on the show and there you have it so that sits at room temp depending where you are obviously and if you are in a bag one of the downsides especially in something like this it is very eager to ferment i'll probably have to open this in a day or two just a little bit and let the gas out because i'm anticipating this to be very active the natural organisms that are in and all over the watermelon and all over the world here yeasts and bacterias are going to consume the sugars and other proteins and stuff you were to look under that in a microscope it'd be like a whole universal life and that's fermentation it's basically a controlled rot that we can use to manipulate and and create new flavors and umami basically i have a swap which is great and we're gonna make a little cocktail so we have our watermelon that's been fermenting for about four or five days now i once two days ago had to open it because it was about to blow up uh and degas it you know if you're doing it in a jar or an open top container you don't have this problem but here with the bag you'd have to let it off and then just reseal it again so now i'm just going to strain it a little pour sprout oh god brad it smells a little garbagey it was just rotten in a bag for a few days how would you smell it you know once we let that kind of breathe a little bit and some of those sweetnesses start to come out again yep yep smells pretty it smells better it smells like it's starting to smell a little bit like watermelon but the color is just incredible i'm going to add just a little bit of honey or if you had sugar or something or whatever you're into this has been out in the sun so it's pretty warm i think it's going to dissolve quite nicely just to bring out the little bit of the sugars in there too because when you ferment it the sugars are being consumed as well and i'm just going to squeeze juice one lime in there too give it a little swirl take that honey just get that honey moving a little and that's going to be the fermented watermelon base for the cocktail oh delightful i think it's like a pineapple or lemon mint or something we'll put that in there a little sprig of tarragon throw that in there and just another different type of mint this one is i don't know which type it is almost like a spearmint or a peppermint one of the two but it's just like right there man it's amazing and then we'll add some ice a bunch of the juice a couple ounces of those cow here it's a pretty authentic mexican mezcal man a little shake just get that ripping cold ripping cold so i'm talking about a little more ice in it if you don't like mezcal i'm sure vodka you know i'm sure that would work great too or a good a nice rum how do they do this jesus spilled half of it on the cutting board oh look at that huh the flowering thyme and the mint in there oh don't mind if i do oh that's great i'm going to try one just a little bit of seltzer as well it's going to dial it back just a little bit give it a little spritzier you know bruise of the mint see if we can do the better job here okay i'm just gonna stir it real quick get some of those bubbles up there we go all right let's try it let's try the ones with the bubbles first oh yeah buddy right there on the beach all right oh the breeze ooh the breeze is even going no seagulls nice low tide not a lot of swell out there real calm day kids are digging a hole dad's drinking a fermented watermelon mezcal well i kind of disappeared there for a minute that's delicious you know what this one oh now this one oh yeah that's the sipper oh that's delightful like because it's not just like oh it's sweet sour and and mezcal or tequila or something right it's like there's also that like salty weird funky fermentation umami notes that come through and you're just like i'm not sure if i love this yet and then you're like but i can't stop drinking it and then you fall in love and then it's real love and it's deep oh i feel like i shouldn't be drinking this by myself it's that good oh my phone i can make a show about drinking by myself at my house pretty good at it oh and it gets a bad rap too drinking alone you know as long as you do it responsibly i'm not going nowhere i'm not arguing with no one i'm not fighting with no one except myself maybe you know and that's that's on you you got to deal with that oh this is so good and it's pleasant but you do get this like candied squashy undertone which is kind of nice wow fermented watermelon what a little mezcal and again you can do that without it recipe in the book all right pre-sale now you can get it now you can go ahead and order that'll show up right up at your house november 9th is when it's you know out out and uh recipes in there if you weren't paying attention thanks for hanging out guys summer friday as they used to say maybe i should drink alonea little garbage-y it was just rotten in a bag for a few days how would you smell you know hey guys and it's alive we're gonna be doing a really fun summer recipe from my book that's coming out it's a fermented watermelon cocktail a little spicy sweet a little hint of salty makes for a great non-alcoholic or a little adult beverage cocktail as well today we're gonna be making one a little bit of mezcal it's coming out my new book pre-sale available now first off you want to go and get yourself a real nice watermelon of course organic if you can even better if it's local nice and sweet i don't know where this one came from this thing probably weighs five to guess if i had a guess oh i wish we had a scale this is a fun game you just scale out here it's your house if i guess i'd say six pounds i've got my watermelon knife here so you can't do this without a very nice watermelon knife it's gonna cut off the rind okay and then i just kind of peel it with the knife one day next year back over here over there or something i'm going to dig up a nice little spot and i'm just going to have a big old watermelon patch i don't care if i lose like sixty percent of it to like animals and stuff i get it you know it's just for all of us but i want something yeah so you just want to clean off any of that white you don't have to go crazy and then you just bite it or go full gallagher get yourself a sledgehammer oh we gotta do we should be doing that he went out on the road imitation i wonder if he was like maybe he would get drunk and be a dick and everyone's like man gallagher sucked but it really was like his drunk brother i have the same problem no i have a sister but she dresses up like me and goes out and does like meet and greets and stuff it's freaking weird no i'm just kidding she's a sweetheart so because we're gonna ferment this you don't have to go chopping up in the small pieces for personal consumption i would like it a few degrees colder but for fermentation it's actually perfect because if it's too cold all it's going to do is take a little longer to get there but yeah this one is seedless you can even get a seeded one sometimes i think they're a little sweeter that might be in my head or just like luck of the pick but um because this is gonna get fermented and strained out the remaining solids can get discarded or compost or fed to the chickens so seeded seedless it doesn't have much of a difference i don't think when was the last time you had a slice of watermelon right great on the rind but with all the the black seeds never anymore if i remember you used to spit them you used to spit them at each other and stick to your skin no one does that anymore so you could ferment this in just about anything right but we're gonna do it in a bag you can do it in a big jar in a big crock the reason i really like to use this bag keeps the oxygen off it keeps anything out of it yeast from getting in there all flavors from really dominating the ferment now if you were doing this in a jar i like to crush it up and muddle it break it down and let it get juicy it will do it it's on itself but breaking it up a little bit just really kind of helps get that whole party going so we're only going to use half the tomato because this was a big boy and it's all we really need i called it a tomato yeah yeah i struggle sometimes remember i called a freaking mango and avocado and i did it today again so check it out we got our big chunks of watermelon looking good and what we're gonna do is just sprinkle just a little bit of salt in there for this application i mean we're only coating the top there and then we got a little bit of mint and tarragon and a little pinch of basil in there too shove a few little herbs in there and then look a little habanero beautiful i just have it throw it right in the bag and there we go now we're gonna hit it in the vac bag those things filled pretty good here so here it is there's your thumbnail bro one two three i just like to give it a little crush all right this will help redistribute some of that salt and just get a nice little little brine going right look at that beautiful get those herbs going in the liquid oh this already looks good if you are doing it in a jar or in a crock maybe get a little weight to keep that underneath its own liquid maybe even sprinkle the salt on top of the brine instead of on top of everything just to have a little bit of a salty solution on top kind of help knock down any mold if you do get mold or some yeast going you could probably just scoop it right off another reason why i kind of like the vac bag it stops at open air market where just kind of anything can party on the surface the good microbes that we have in here aren't combating with new yeast and microbes that are coming in through the air if there was cheese cloth or an open vessel container for fermentation it's like the best thing i've ever said on the show and there you have it so that sits at room temp depending where you are obviously and if you are in a bag one of the downsides especially in something like this it is very eager to ferment i'll probably have to open this in a day or two just a little bit and let the gas out because i'm anticipating this to be very active the natural organisms that are in and all over the watermelon and all over the world here yeasts and bacterias are going to consume the sugars and other proteins and stuff you were to look under that in a microscope it'd be like a whole universal life and that's fermentation it's basically a controlled rot that we can use to manipulate and and create new flavors and umami basically i have a swap which is great and we're gonna make a little cocktail so we have our watermelon that's been fermenting for about four or five days now i once two days ago had to open it because it was about to blow up uh and degas it you know if you're doing it in a jar or an open top container you don't have this problem but here with the bag you'd have to let it off and then just reseal it again so now i'm just going to strain it a little pour sprout oh god brad it smells a little garbagey it was just rotten in a bag for a few days how would you smell it you know once we let that kind of breathe a little bit and some of those sweetnesses start to come out again yep yep smells pretty it smells better it smells like it's starting to smell a little bit like watermelon but the color is just incredible i'm going to add just a little bit of honey or if you had sugar or something or whatever you're into this has been out in the sun so it's pretty warm i think it's going to dissolve quite nicely just to bring out the little bit of the sugars in there too because when you ferment it the sugars are being consumed as well and i'm just going to squeeze juice one lime in there too give it a little swirl take that honey just get that honey moving a little and that's going to be the fermented watermelon base for the cocktail oh delightful i think it's like a pineapple or lemon mint or something we'll put that in there a little sprig of tarragon throw that in there and just another different type of mint this one is i don't know which type it is almost like a spearmint or a peppermint one of the two but it's just like right there man it's amazing and then we'll add some ice a bunch of the juice a couple ounces of those cow here it's a pretty authentic mexican mezcal man a little shake just get that ripping cold ripping cold so i'm talking about a little more ice in it if you don't like mezcal i'm sure vodka you know i'm sure that would work great too or a good a nice rum how do they do this jesus spilled half of it on the cutting board oh look at that huh the flowering thyme and the mint in there oh don't mind if i do oh that's great i'm going to try one just a little bit of seltzer as well it's going to dial it back just a little bit give it a little spritzier you know bruise of the mint see if we can do the better job here okay i'm just gonna stir it real quick get some of those bubbles up there we go all right let's try it let's try the ones with the bubbles first oh yeah buddy right there on the beach all right oh the breeze ooh the breeze is even going no seagulls nice low tide not a lot of swell out there real calm day kids are digging a hole dad's drinking a fermented watermelon mezcal well i kind of disappeared there for a minute that's delicious you know what this one oh now this one oh yeah that's the sipper oh that's delightful like because it's not just like oh it's sweet sour and and mezcal or tequila or something right it's like there's also that like salty weird funky fermentation umami notes that come through and you're just like i'm not sure if i love this yet and then you're like but i can't stop drinking it and then you fall in love and then it's real love and it's deep oh i feel like i shouldn't be drinking this by myself it's that good oh my phone i can make a show about drinking by myself at my house pretty good at it oh and it gets a bad rap too drinking alone you know as long as you do it responsibly i'm not going nowhere i'm not arguing with no one i'm not fighting with no one except myself maybe you know and that's that's on you you got to deal with that oh this is so good and it's pleasant but you do get this like candied squashy undertone which is kind of nice wow fermented watermelon what a little mezcal and again you can do that without it recipe in the book all right pre-sale now you can get it now you can go ahead and order that'll show up right up at your house november 9th is when it's you know out out and uh recipes in there if you weren't paying attention thanks for hanging out guys summer friday as they used to say maybe i should drink alone\n"