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.

Roasted Beef Bone Marrow

I’ve been wanting to try beef marrow, especially since I read about them in this cookbook - .  As I was shopping in Whole Foods a couple of weeks ago, these frozen marrow bones literally jumped into my consciousness from my peripheral vision.

One is supposed to soak the bones in changes of salted water for 12-24 hours to leach out the blood. I thought they looked good at 12 hours and was anxious to try them; but, as you can see, there was still a bit of blood in them. At least it flaked off easily before we ate them on crostini.

 

Having no marrow spoons, we used the handle of some narrow spoons to spread the marrow on the crostini. We served them with a nice red wine and some pesto (for a “green vegetable” angle to the meal). It was like eating beef butter on toast – very unctuous; rich, fatty, and delicious.