Bacon-infused Old Fashioned Cocktail

I recently had a similar cocktail at the Ravenous Pig in Orlando, Florida (wonderful experience there). I found several recipes for bacon-infused bourbon online, but decided to try it with rye as I prefer that spirit for Old Fashioned cocktails.

 

I picked a happy medium of the recipes I found for the amount of bacon drippings to use (from 1 oz. fat to 750 ml liquor, to 1 cup fat to 2 cups liquor {at Restaurant August}). I used about 1/4 cup of my homemade bacon (using the MC cure) drippings that I had saved in the refrigerator with 750 ml Old Overholt Straight Rye whiskey.

 

You  add the liquor to the melted fat and agitate the jar frequently over 6 hours, warming as needed to keep the fat liquid; then freeze overnight to solidify the fat for removal.

 

The recipe for the infusion and cocktail that I found on the New York Magazine site called for maple syrup which was also listed as an ingredient in the Ravenous Pig menu. I was so happy I already had some maple syrup on hand.

 

The Ravenous Pig used the maple glazed bacon strip garnish. I wanted to use that idea, but I didn’t want to take 20 minutes to cook up just a couple of slices of my homemade bacon so I (gasp!) used my “emergency freezer bacon” – Hormel Microwave Ready bacon that I keep in the freezer for bacon emergencies (anyway, it’s still BACON). This was very easy to do and I think the cocktail is very good.

My First Nomiku Recipe: Deep Fried Egg Yolks

Technorati Tags: Sous Vide,Eggs,fried

I received my Kickstarter reward Nomiku immersion circulator last week, the night before I was leaving for vacation. I didn’t let myself even open the box because I was afraid of getting sucked into trying it when I really needed to get to sleep.

Being the egg yolk fan that I am, I’ve been anxious to try the recipe for Deep Fried Egg Yolks that I saw in the web version primer kindly provided by the founders for the backers to look at while waiting for their unit to ship.

 

The unit seemed to keep a stable temperature as specified and the yolks came out perfect (though I popped one, being too vigorous when pinching off a chalaza). I was able to rescue it by proceeding quickly to the breading and frying.

 

Served the yolks with homemade bacon and hash browns fried in duck fat. I’m very pleased with the result and the Nomiku.

Duck-Fat Powder for Popcorn

THE perfect popcorn seasoning? At least it’s the best I’ve ever tasted.

It was finally cold enough to light a fire last weekend, and I love popcorn and hot chocolate by the fire. I had a quarter tub of rendered duck fat from D’Artagnan in the fridge and some tapioca maltodextrin in my pantry and thought, “Eureka! I can make duck-fat powder for my popcorn.” I decided to search online for some relevant recipes to get an idea of the ratio (since I was sitting in my office and didn’t feel like going to my cookbook shelf to check MC). Much to my chagrin, I found that Scott Heimendinger of Seattle Food Geek and MC's Director of Applied Research had posted a recipe for just that. I’m sure I must have seen his post in the past; and here I thought I had had a genius idea…

It’s a very quick and easy modernist cuisine technique with the addition of a tiny bit of cornstarch to prevent clumping and some popcorn salt. I popped 1/3 cup of popcorn in about 3 tablespoons of duck fat, then tossed it with the duck-fat powder. Oh my! It was so good, I may serve it at my next party. My husband skeptically deigned to try some; he went through the rest of the bowl like a wood-chipper. In fact, it was so wonderful, and since it used half of my small bag of tapioca maltodextrin, I immediately ordered a one pound tub of it to keep on hand.

WillPowder Tapioca Maltodextrin, 1-Pound Tubs: Grocery & Gourmet Food ASIN: B00250U9BI