Never tried this. Maybe on a Sunday morning when I'm feeling adventurous.

Bacon-infused bourbon old fashioned with maple syrup

How about an Old Fashioned, but one with maple syrup in place of simple syrup, bourbon in place of the rye so popular in these parts, and let's infuse the bourbon with...bacon.

"Bacon and maple syrup go together so well," enthuses food and beverage director Melanie Splatt, who notes that many of the recipes in a culinary smackdown held last Monday at the Drake successfully combined those two classic breakfast tastes. Bacon flavour may not suit everyone's drinking palate, but those who love the taste love it to, well, bits.

The drink is cribbed from the bar menu at PDT (short for Please Don't Tell) a famously discreet New York City hole-in-the-wall.

The Drake has modified PDT's original recipe, tripling the amount of bacon used for a fuller flavour. The Drake makes its own bacon in-house, but storebought will do the trick. Splatt says to follow the smoke. "The maple syrup already has kind of a smoky flavour to it and so does the bourbon so the more smoky (the bacon) is the more it complements the actual drink," says Splatt.

INGREDIENTS


12 strips bacon (enough to render 3-4 oz of fat)

26 oz bottle bourbon

DIRECTIONS


Fry bacon in frying pan, then pour off bacon fat into 2-litre empty bucket. Pour in entire bottle of bourbon; set bottle aside. Stir mixture, then allow to sit at room temperature for six hours. Place bucket in freezer for about two hours so that fats can separate from alcohol and become solid.

Remove fatty solids from top of mixture; this is the first filtration. Strain through coffee filter into empty bourbon bottle, using a funnel. Makes 12 2-oz drinks.

Splatt says that a "slightly unctuous mouthfeel" is desirable, but warns that you can have too much of a good thing. She suggests a third filtration, through a Brita filter (it's not just for water), if you find the fat too noticeable.

For the drink:

1/2 oz maple syrup

dash or two (to taste) of bitters

2 oz bacon-infused bourbon

1 orange twist to garnish

Place syrup and bitters in Old Fashioned glass. Add ice if desired. Add bourbon and garnish with twist. Makes 1 drink.

Bacon, will the uses for this wonderfood never cease?

we have plans to try to get into PDT (there seems to be some elaborate protocol, but we do know where it is) over memorial day weekend, maybe this might be my drink of choice.

I recently tried this and the results were pleasing. I made a small batch using Evan Williams green-label Bourbon ( a bourbon that I think is best at the lower end of the cost spectrum,) and store-bought Oscar Meyer bacon, because I was unsure if the experiment was going to taste great, or be poured down the drain.

I am happy to say I was pleased with the results and will duplicate it on a larger scale. I will probably upgrade to a better bourbon and perhaps some home-smoked bacon, if I can get my dear friend to smoke some for me.

I modified a few things from Gerry D's posting above.

For the infusion, I thought the PDT/Drake method for infusion was a bit long, so I infused at room temperature for 2 hours, then into the freezer for 8 hours before straining. Lower temperatures inhibit fat infusion flavors, and I wanted to go easy on my first try.

For the cocktail, the above recipe from PDT is basically a bourbon old-fashioned, with maple-syrup instead of bar sugar. I choose to interpret a sour - so I did bourbon, lemon juice, hickory-smoked maple-syrup, and a bit of egg white. I used a manchego cheese tuile and a sprig of rosemary for garnish. I was tempted to use sage, but the rosemary worked well as you need to pick it up off the glass before taking a sip, and thereby getting some scent and aroma on your fingers as you bring the glass up to your lips. Just enough rosemary to entice without being overwhelming.

J Biesinger has a photo on HIS camera, so I will try and post a pic of the cocktail later.

Cheers
Jerry

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh...PjQg?feat=directlink

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Jerry Ciesielski,

I am so glad you shared this. I am in the process of infusing my bourbon right now. This will be for a party this coming weekend.

My variation is using the following:





I will post pics of the final results later.

That Buffalo Trace is good stuff...