Bacon Bourbon - Jan 21, 2011

The Rise and Shine

Last week I made mention of a project in the works involving bacon fat. Well, this was it. Nick had borrowed a book from the library called 'Cooking for Geeks' a couple weeks ago (and there's a blog). Now, you Dinner Clubbers can pretty well guess that would be a book we would find appealing. Although, in the interest of full disclosure, I would actually consider myself to fall more into the 'dork' category, but of course there's overlap. Basically, if I can mix together chemistry, cooking, and the Scientific Method I'm a happy camper. Needless to say, I was delighted to find a section in the book devoted to 'fat washing.' Fat washing was a new term to me, and it was described in the book as a way of using fat to remove undesirable molecules from alcohol as a means of refining or distilling, if you will. A fun way to apply this in the home kitchen is to use fat washing to infuse oil soluble compounds into alcohol. The book suggests bacon infused bourbon (yes please!) and butter infused rum.

Now, I have been pondering exactly how to make a bacon infused beverage for some time but have never been quite sure how to go about it. That is, until now. Thanks to this handy-dandy new technique I've added to my repertoire, the possibilities are endless. I decided to start with the aforementioned bacon bourbon and I added a bacon vodka into the mix as well.


'Fat Washing'

I used the ratio of 2 tsp of filtered bacon fat per 1 cup of alcohol recommended in the book. I let the mix sit out on the counter for 24 -48 hours, then popped the jars in the freezer for a couple hours to make sure all the fat was solidified. Then I simply used a coffee filter and strained the fat out of the alcohol. I find that my little melita coffee funnel works perfectly for this task. Now all I had to to was mix up a tasty cocktail and test the effectiveness of this experiment.

The Rise and Shine:

1/4 C bacon infused bourbon
1 Tbsp maple syrup
dash of orange bitters
soda water
crushed ice

Shake first three ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice.
Strain into a low ball glass filled with crushed ice.
Top with soda water.

Success!