I recently made a simple pineapple infused rum. Now it’s time to kick it up a notch, start a fire, and make some grilled pineapple syrup. It’s a versatile syrup that can be used in cocktails, like a simple syrup, or over ice cream and pancakes. This is a bit more involved than the infused rum, but you don’t need as much in cocktails so it’s completely worth it. Let’s get started!
Experiment: Grilled Pineapple Syrup
Since we have a gas grill, and the grilled pineapple syrup recipe calls for wood smoke, my project nearly got derailed when I discovered we’d given away our smoking wood chips. Luckily, we’ve been planning to have a fire in our still-unused fire pit, so my husband had bought a bundle of wood. We found the smallest log, wrapped three sides in tinfoil, and put it on the gas burner. It caught fire pretty fast and I put the pineapple on the top grate. The recipe called for lightly smoked fruit, so I checked it every three minutes. Twelve minutes seemed to do the trick. When I make it again, I think I would cook it longer for a smokier taste.
After cooling, I cut the pineapple into strips that would fit into my juicer for juicing. The juice came out a nicely singed gray and weighed a little under 600g. Since the recipe is just 1:1 juice to cane sugar with a little bit of citric acid, I used all of it and adjusted the sugar and acid accordingly. You add all ingredients to a blender and blend until smooth. The texture is rich and smooth.
I made a huge mess filtering the mixture through six layers of ultra fine cheesecloth and a mesh strainer, but it worked. You might find that you need to squeeze the cheesecloth by hand. Because you are dealing with grilled pineapple, you definitely don’t want to skip this step as ash in your cocktail is not ideal. After straining, I poured it into a Crew bottle and refrigerated.
Grilled Pineapple Syrup
Equipment
- Grill, Juicer, Blender, Scale, Cheesecloth, Metal Strainer
Ingredients
- 1 pineapple peeled & sliced into 3/4" wheels
- 500 g unbleached cane sugar
- 2.5 g citric acid powder
Instructions
- Grill pineapple wheels over a wood fire until lightly smoked.
- Let cool and run through a juicer.
- Weigh out 500g of the juice and combine in a blender with the sugar and citric acid.
- Blend until smooth and strain through a mesh strainer and cheesecloth.
- Transfer to a container and refrigerate for up to four weeks.
Pineapple Cocktail Recipe #1: Pineapple Old Fashioned
This is just one idea for what you can use the grilled pineapple syrup for. I love an old fashioned but I prefer them balanced. Too often they can be overly sweet. With this riff, I wanted the pineapple to be present, which can be tricky with mezcal. The recipe below is quite delicious. If you prefer it sweeter, just bump up the pineapple syrup to an ounce per drink.
Pineapple Old Fashioned
Ingredients
- 1.5 oz rye whiskey or bourbon
- 0.5 oz mezcal
- 0.5 oz smoked pineapple syrup
- 2 dashes Crude 'Tiki 500' bitters
Instructions
- Add ingredients to a mixing glass with ice
- Stir until cold
- Double strain over a large ice cube into a high ball glass
Pineapple Cocktail Recipe #2: Grilled Pineapple Daiquiri
Grilled Pineapple Daiquiri
Ingredients
- 1.5 oz white rum
- 0.5 oz pot-stilled (or aromatic) rum
- 1 oz fresh lime juice
- 0.75 oz grilled pineapple syrup
- 2 dashes tiki or Jamaican bitters
Instructions
- Add all ingredients to shaker with ice.
- Shake and strain into a chilled coupe glass.
- Garnish with fresh pineapple and moonshine cherries (why not?).
There you have it, a delicious grilled pineapple syrup and a couple of killer pineapple cocktails! I hope you are finding some time to be creative and experimental. Let me know what you’ve been trying lately, I would love to hear from you. Cheers!
