The Clever Cocktail Ingredient That Instantly Upgrades Fruit Salad
Though splashing cocktail-making ingredients may not be your first instinct as you stir together cut fruit and berries, it's a culinary move well worth consideration. Step behind your home bar and get ready to serve one of the most delicious collections of fruit you've made. While Angostura bitters can add dimension and flavor to drinks, your go-to bottle of spicy or herbal bitters will also build complexity within your next fruit salad. Chefs add the bitters into recipes ranging from dinner rolls and cookies to soups and jams for good reason, and you're about to find out why. With just one ingredient, each spoonful of fruit will come alive.
Splashing bitters into an assembly of fruit, sweetened with honey or not, can elevate the natural taste of berries and whatever seasonal varieties you choose. You'll notice some differences among the tasting profiles of bitters from brand to brand, yet regardless of the bitters you choose to complement your fruity compilation, you'll want to drop in the stuff conservatively. This is an ingredient that is condensed, and even a few drops of summer berries bitters can brighten a watermelon and avocado fruit salad.
A better dish with only a dash
You'll only need a few dashes of bitters to add interest to your fruit salad. Start with 1 or 2 tablespoons of bitters per 6 cups of fruit and adjust accordingly. Taste your culinary creation and add more bitters or other ingredients as needed. If you're not sold on the idea of stirring bitters directly into a bowl of fruit, you can also combine bitters with the dressing or vinaigrette you use, or the honey you intend to drizzle over the salad. Bitters can also liven up whipped cream that you can serve on the side of your fruit dish. You might notice that you can't exactly pinpoint the difference between a regular whipped cream recipe and one that has been enhanced with bitters, but you will detect a more vivid tasting experience on your tongue.
Should you want to spend a bit more time in the kitchen, you can make your bitters yourself to put the full flavor of the stuff in your own hands, like an orange bitters recipe that will surely add some zing to your next simple fruit salad with honey-lime dressing. This fruit salad is destined to become just a bit classier.