Flavourings

Flavouring essences (or extracts) are volatile oils extracted from flowers, nuts, fruits and herbs, dissolved in alcohol. These essential oils have a wonderfully concentrated flavour and so should be added only sparingly to food. Examples include:

• Almond Extract
  Made with almond oil and alcohol and used to add to biscuits and cakes.
• Anise Extract
  A liquorice tasting oil that may be added to biscuits and cakes.
• Lemon Extract
  A lemony oil roughly equivalent to double the same volume of lemon zest or 2 tablespoons of lemon liqueur. Use for cakes, buns, icing, muffins and pies.
• Peppermint Extract
  Use for making icings, desserts, ice cream, mints and other confectionary.
• Vanilla Extract
  Made from vanilla beans that have been steeped in alcohol, and used to flavour desserts, such as cakes, ice cream, custards and drinks.

The alcohol in extracts makes them evaporate easily, so they cannot withstand high heat or prolonged cooking. For recipes that require this type of cooking, such as toffee or hard sweets, flavouring oil is a much better choice. These are highly concentrated essences, with one unit of oil being roughly equivalent to four units of extract. Examples include flavourings such as oil of lemon or peppermint oil.

Although synthetic or imitation flavourings are cheaper than extract or oil, it is usually worth spending a little more to buy the real thing, as imitation flavouring can never be as complex or full-flavoured as a pure extract.