Natural Perfume Blending with Mandy Aftel

I don't know if I can say more about how wonderful it is to arrive at Mandy Aftel's beautiful studio in Berkeley, California.  For a woman who loves the raw materials of perfumery it's the closest thing to heaven.  I'm proud of my collection of oils and absolutes that I've assembled, but it pales in comparison to the quantity, quality and desirability of Mandy's scent organ.  What a joy to use the finest (and sometimes rarest) materials in their ground glass stoppered bottles and jars. 

Mandy collects antique oils as well and displays their original bottles in the window with the gorgeous California light streaming through.  It was a visual feast as well as olfactory.

Questions answered, curiosity piqued, inspiration fired up I return to my studio to get to work on new creations.  I'm so grateful for the opportunity and for another chance to get to know Mandy a little better.  I'm a fan!



Mandy also sells a collection of oils.  Let her do the work for you tracking down the best possible materials.   Visit her website at aftelier.com.

Making Bitters

Edible Brooklyn, in their recent alcohol issue, said that everyone in Brooklyn has to make bitters, it's one of the rules.  It's true that I know an inordinate amount of people who make bitters (and beer, mead, hot sauce, play the ukelele, the accordion, etc.).  Bitters are a Very Big Thing in these parts and they're taken very seriously.

Traditionally they're considered medicine and used as a digestive tonic for the occasional upset of overeating.  In the Victorian era they found their way into cocktails.  Once the Manhattan was invented they were assured their place in every bartender's arsenal.

After doing a bit of research online I found a few recipes I wanted to try.  I was recommended to try the Dandelion Botanical Company for my bittering herbs and flavoring agents (I would also recommend Mountain Rose Herbs).  My intention was to follow a few recipes and then continue to experiment on my own.  The primary bittering herb is gentian root, the stuff that made Angostura so famous.  I also purchased chinchona bark, the principal ingredient in creating tonic water (another experiment for later), sarasparilla, devil's club root, black walnut leaf and wild cherry bark.  (The catalog had other things I just couldn't resist ordering including sandalwood powder, patchouli leaf and osmanthus flowers - yet another project).

The recipe I settled on, amongst others, was Woodland Bitters.  I loved the idea of the earthy devil's club root with wild cherry bark and toasted nuts.  I also made a classic Angostura style bitters as well as Cherry Hazelnut Bitters.  If I didn't think I'd be inundated with bitters for the rest of my life I'd be experimenting with many variations (figs, citrus, cranberry, wormwood, etc.), and it's nowhere near Christmas where I could at least hand them out as presents.

              Woodland Bitters

1. 2 cups overproof bourbon (such as Wild Turkey 101)
2. 1 cup pecans, toasted
3. 1 cup walnuts, toasted
4. 4 cloves
5. Two 3-inch cinnamon sticks
6. 1 whole nutmeg, cracked
7. 1 vanilla bean, split
8. 2 tablespoons devil's club root
9. 1 tablespoon cinchona bark
10. 1 tablespoon chopped black walnut leaf
11. 1 tablespoon wild cherry bark
12. 1/2 teaspoon cassia chips
13. 1/2 teaspoon gentian root
14. 1/2 teaspoon sarsaparilla root
15. 3 tablespoons pure maple syrup

1. In a 1-quart glass jar, combine all of the ingredients except the syrup. Cover and shake well. Let stand in a cool, dark place for 2 weeks, shaking the jar daily.
2. Strain the infused alcohol into a clean 1-quart glass jar through a cheesecloth-lined funnel. Squeeze any infused alcohol from the cheesecloth into the jar; reserve the solids. Strain the infused alcohol again through new cheesecloth into another clean jar to remove any remaining sediment. Cover the jar and set aside for 1 week.
3. Meanwhile, transfer the solids to a small saucepan. Add 1 cup of water and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer over low heat for 10 minutes; let cool completely. Pour the liquid and solids into a clean 1-quart glass jar. Cover and let stand at room temperature for 1 week, shaking the jar once daily.
4. Strain the water mixture through a cheesecloth-lined funnel set over a clean 1-quart glass jar; discard the solids. If necessary, strain again to remove any remaining sediment. Add the infused alcohol and the syrup. Cover and let stand at room temperature for 3 days. Pour the bitters through a cheesecloth-lined funnel or strainer and transfer to glass dasher bottles. Cover and keep in a cool, dark place.

So far my bitters have been aging for a little over four weeks.  I think I'll skip parts 3 and 4 and just let them macerate for four weeks and strain thoroughly before adding a bit of water and maple syrup.

Acorn Shortbread

Back in October I wrote about the laborious process of making acorn flour.  I only was able to process three batches before my acorns deemed too wormy to continue.  My scant cup and a half of flour has been waiting in my 'fridge since then for a recipe worthy of my efforts.  Friends have had scads of ideas but all of them included lots of added flavor.  For all of my hard work I wanted the subtle nutty acorn-ness of the flour to come through.  Finally I decided on a simple shortbread.

All of my cookies start out, usually, with the original Betty Crocker Cookie Book.  It's where I learned to bake back in the 70's and it never fails.  The original shortbread recipe has been slightly altered to allow for my handcrafted flour (and my tendencies towards whole and organic foods).  At one time in my early adulthood I used to collect cookie cutters.  I still have them and to my delight there was an acorn leaf shape.  Perfection!

Acorn Shortbread

3/4 cup unsalted organic butter
1/4 cup unrefined sugar
1/2 cup acorn flour
1 and 1/2 cup unbleached white flour
1/4 t salt
fleur de sel

Mix butter and sugar thoroughly.  Work in flour and salt with hands.  Chill dough for at least one hour.  Heat oven to 350.  Roll dough out to 1/3 to 1/2" thick.  Cut to desired shape.  Sprinkle with fleur de sel.  Place on ungreased baking sheet for 20 to 25 minutes.  Allow to cool before removing from pan or cookies will crack.

Bayberry

As soon as I moved to New York I started going to the local beaches.  I'm not one to sit still for very long and as soon as the SPF was applied I'd go exploring.  Walking along the beach I'd look for shells and pretty rocks, but further up along the dunes were some other treasures to behold.  Beach roses, or beach plum, were the first discovery.  Even tho they're not a showy rose they have a wonderful rich fragrance.  The rose hip, or plum as they're called in this case, are much larger than your average hip and many people make jam with them.  I also found horsetail, a very old plant that's been around since prehistoric times.  Horsetail is loaded with calcium, so much so that one has to be very careful not to take too much for fear of calcium crystals forming.  There's plenty of bittersweet, too, and in the autumn the dunes are a sea of orange.

The best thing I've discovered on the beach, tho, are the bayberry bushes.  They're so huge yet inconspicuous that they could easily be overlooked.  Northern bay, Myrica pensylvanica, has leaves with a sticky spicy aroma and the waxy berries were used by American colonists to make clean burning candles.

The herb is astringent and stimulant and emetic in large doses.  A decoction is good as a gargle for chronic inflammation and is an excellent wash for the gums.

Culinarily the leaves can be used dried as in traditional bay leaves.  In that case harvest them in the fall when they've matured and turned leathery.  Leave them to dry completely and their flavor will intensify.  I use them in soups and stews all winter long.  In season I like to chop them up fresh and use them to season pork and chicken.  I haven't had a chance to see what they do in vodka yet but I'll be trying that soon.  I hear they did wonders in a bottle of gin according to Edible Manhattan.

My special interest in making botanical colognes got me thinking of using the leaves to try my hand at making Bay Rum.  I read many recipes and bought myself a few bottles (most notably Dominca and Ogallala, the reputed best available) and set to work experimenting.  Like all of my colognes they are a work in progress and the formulas will be tweaked and improved upon until I find just the right recipe.  I made mine with fresh bay leaves, allspice, cinnamon, dried orange zest, vodka and white rum.  The scent wasn't quite accurate so I admit to adding a couple of drops of bay essential oil (Pimenta racemosa), the optimal variety of bay leaves used in making Bay Rum.

My colognes, including Bay Rum.

More Cologne Experiments

I had such a great time making colognes this summer, and the results were so successful, that I tried my hand at a couple more.  The new brews, Fresh Mown Hay and Bay Rum, did not disappoint.

Fresh Mown Hay is a maceration of sweet woodruff (which is left to rest after harvesting in order to bring out it's distinctive hay like scent), orris root, benzoin, roses, vanilla, lemon verbena, linden blossoms and jasmine flowers.  The woodruff not only gives it it's signature scent but also considerable tenacity.  It is a rich, lush fragrance with an almost edible quality to it and conjures images of rolling in meadows.

Bay Rum was definitely inspired by the vast bay bushes lining most of the coastal areas in the New York area. I've been gathering them and cooking with them for many years and finally came around to making a fragrance. Over the summer I gathered leaves and dried them (I read they yield a better fragrance dried) and did my research on formulary and then started to experiment. Using the rinds of some mandarin oranges and freshly ground cinnamon, allspice and cloves I was able to replicate and expand on the traditional scent.

Herbal Liqueurs

For the past couple of years I've been fooling around with liqueur making, especially herbal liqueurs.  I love amaros, Italian bitter digestive cordials, so I've done some research and found a nice old recipe, most of which I could either grow or get my hands on somehow.  I made it last year and followed the recipe but it came out sickeningly sweet so this year I used considerable restraint and made a much more palatable libation.

Liquore de erbe

• 200 ml alcohol 95%bv
• 500 ml water
• 400 g sugar
• 6 bay leaves
• 1 sprig of rosemary
• 10 mint leaves
• 10 chamomile flowers
• 10 sweet basil leaves
• 10 lemon leaves
• 15 sage leaves
• 3 cloves
• 3 saffron filaments

Steep botanicals in alcohol for 20 days. Add sugar syrup. Strain. Age for 4 weeks before consuming.  I made a simple syrup and added it to the brew one tablespoon at a time to the tune of six tablespoons per cup.


Also after reading through recipes of many herbal liqueurs made by monks over hundreds of years, I attempted to create my own recipe using mostly herbs grown in the 6/15 Green Community Herb Garden.  After harvesting the herbs I chose a few things from my apothecary herb collection and began macerating.  After falling in love with Chartreuse earlier in the year I made sure to include a lot of angelica, a principle ingredient in Chartreuese.

                                                                                     Sixfifteen Herb Garden Liqueur

                                                                                          oregano, nine inch stem
chamomile, 30 or so flowers
lemon balm, several handfuls
hyssop, two flowering stems
angelica, half stem
angelica root, one teaspoon
angelica seed, one teaspoon
mint, three large stems
coriander, two flowering tops
rosemary, 9 inch stem
basil, 15 leaves
sage, 4 seven inch stems
dried orange peel, one teaspoon
vanilla, half pod
saffron, five threads
cloves, nine cloves
calamus root, generous half teaspoon
wormwood, dried, three generous pinches
cinnamon, one small stick
orris root powder, half rounded teaspoon
mace, quarter teaspoon
lavender, eight stems
red clover, eight blossoms
yarrow flowers, one flower head

Steep all ingredients in vodka to cover for at least 30 days.  Sweeten to taste with simple syrup and age two months.

Overall both liqueurs came out very good and quite palatable.  I'll keep trying in the years to come but this holiday season I'll be very pleased to serve my guests a little cordial straight from my garden after a full meal.

A Nice Review of my Perfume Blending Class

A young woman approached me after my last Natural Perfume Blending class at 3rd Ward who had been sent to take the class from Brooklyn Magazine.  She had a few of questions and we exchanged contact info.  I was so incredibly delighted to read the review she sent me today from their blog.

I was most pleased to read that "Everyone in the class was really engaged and took notes and participated in the class in a way that was, frankly, really fun to be a part of", and that she though of me as "a lively, informative presence during the class, which she starts off with a history of perfume that manages to be both comprehensive and easy-to-follow for the novice.".  What I hope most about my classes is that they're informative and fun.  It's nice to receive some validation that I'm getting it right.