Alice in Wonderland; Drink Me Potion, Heston Blumenthal Style

"...so Alice ventured to taste it, and, finding it very nice (it had, in fact, a sort of mixed flavor of cherry-tart, custard, pine-apple, roast turkey, toffy, and hot buttered toast), she very soon finished it off."
-Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll

This should read 'Don't Drink Me' potion.
Cherry tart, Custard, Pineapple, Toffy, Hot buttered toast. All delicious.

But then I hit roast turkey and nearly hurled on my mom’s kitchen floor.

Don’t get me wrong. I love turkey. Favourite meat ever. And I can stomach pretty much everything. But infuse milk with roast turkey, and the effect is like drinking the smell of a rotting carcass. My gag reflex and memory may be healed just in time for Thanksgiving.

Maybe…

Or I might find myself eating pumpkin pie for dinner.

Heston must’ve used a different process, since his guests didn’t seem to recoil, but for all the other flavours, this milk infusing process worked wonderfully.

However, regardless of how terrible the turkey flavour was, here is the entire process I used.

Disclaimer: If you follow the recipe, you do so at your own risk. This is the process I took as I'm sure there are others like me who will want to give it a go and it'll give you some base. However, I take no responsibility for your process or outcome.

Step One

Start by prepping by:

Baking a cherry tart

Making or buying custard

Chop up a pineapple, or pull aside a can

Roast a turkey. Hello Sunday dinner. It was great before I infused it! I'm wondering what would've happened if I had used cold turkey slices. However, wanting to keep this authentic, roast turkey it was.

Buy or make toffy

Have the bread (in my case, gluten free) ready to toast and the butter ready to slather it

Step Two

I made mine on a mini scale and used small glass containers that would've held 30-40ml each. I used glass throughout since it doesn't hold flavour as much as plastic does (from my experience anyway ). Each glass jar was labelled and filled with each ingredient. Cherry tart in one, custard in another etc.

Step Three

When you have all your ‘ingredients’ together, heat one cup of milk until hot (not scalding), then fill each container until full. Stir (Use a wooden skewer for each so flavours wouldn't mix).

Step Four

Seal the containers and pop them in the fridge. I know this question will come up, can you heat milk then chill it? I googled it, and they use that process for yogurt making, so I'm going to assume so (although I take no responsibility if someone doesn't do well). On a good note, I gave myself up as a guinea pig, and I didn't get sick when I drank it, so...

Step Five

Leave overnight (8-12 hours)

Step Six

Strain milk of cherry tart into another glass container. Either leave the labelled container next to it, or re-label so you don't confuse them! If you're going for authentic, you'll want them in the right order. Repeat with each ingredient until all milk is separated. Discard the

Step Seven

Using a syringe, for control, put 3 drops of pink food colouring into each glass. Stir (using separate wooden skewers for each!)

Step Eight

Next, in a mug, mix a packet of gelatin with hot water. Stir well. Yes, it reeks. No, it doen't have any taste. Yes, it's pig skin. And quite frankly, if you're actually planning on making this with roast turkey, gelatin isn't something you should be getting sqweamish about.

Step Nine

Add about 4 tbsp of gelatin to each milk glass. (Google note: yes gelatin and milk are fine together. Apparently they are compatible thanks to the milk protein)

Step Ten

Stir each glass well, cover with plastic wrap or lid and place back in fridge until slightly solidified (~two hours).

Step Eleven

Prepare your container. I used two different ones. For a traditional look, I used a cleaned vanilla bottle. For a more whimsical container, I used a oil and vinegar bottle that has two openings ($10 from a pretty homeware store up the road from us).

Step Twelve

When the gelatin is set, give it a good stir to break it up. Fill a syringe with one mixture. Remember the order goes:

cherry-tart
custard
pine-apple
roast turkey
toffy
hot buttered toast.

Step Thirteen

To get the mixtures into the jar without splattering up the sides, I placed the syringe into one end of a straw, and the other end of the straw where I wanted the mixture to go. This will allow you to layer neatly, with next to no mixing of flavours.