Bacon Bourbon: Bloody Derby and the Old Fashioned

BACON!  BACON!   MOTHERFUCKING BACON!

Yes friends, we have jumped on the burgeoning bacon bandwagon boisterously bringing you; Bacon Bourbon, and two cocktail creations that it brings to life: The Bloody Derby and the Old Fashioned.

Of course, we will be putting our own little twists on these, and you are more than equally welcome to try your own variations of these as you attempt to recreate suck awesomeness.

If you've been with us since the beginning (and who are we kidding, no one reads this thing anyway so we know you haven't), you may want to welcome back our original host, as seen in our Margarita episode.











Ok that Zechs Merquise joke is gonna be lost on almost everyone unless you were an anime otaku in the 1990's, but there's this famous image of that character with his shirt off and yada yada yada that's a bottle of Wild Turkey next to him there.  In 1980's and 1990's Japan, a fine Kentucky Bourbon was like a pair of Levi's Jeans behind the Iron Curtain... almost unattainable.  So that's why that's a thing.

Why infuse bourbon?  Well we've already done infusions with vodka, and vodka will work in this method just fine... but how many things can you really infuse bourbon with?  Not really a whole lot (we don't think anyone want's to find out what kiwi bourbon tastes like), so when the opportunity arose, we went for it.





Meat has been procured at Los Paisanos in Brooklyn NY. 










This bacon fat can be saved to help season cast iron pans or lube up griddles for flapjacks.










Bacon Bourbon can end up a bit cloudy but that's ok.  Bacon Bourbon is supposed to be.



The Bloody Derby is a great version of the Bloody Mary, which can be given a bit of a BBQ flavor either from scratch or by adding a bit of BBQ sauce.





What we mean by that, is that the "bloody _____"  Cocktail (be it Bloody Mary, Bloody Caesar, Bloody Derby, Bloody... nose ...who knows) is usually a blank canvas made of tomato juice, a distilled spirit, and a whole bunch of other things that are up to your own tastes.  Traditionally, these usually fall with the peppery spicy type of things, but hey, if you like garlic puree and some sugar-added mayonnaise, then... go for it.   Let us know how that turns out.




Here are some pointers:
If you don't feel like filling a blender with cherry tomatoes, filtering it out, and then simmering it on the stove, try to use low-salt tomato juice if you buy some from the store.  This is because many of the other additives have salt in them, and there is a potential to end up with too much salt in the thing.

BBQ version.  In a 12 oz glass:
-7oz tomato/vegetable juice (optional: add to blender with 5 cloves of boiled garlic).
-2 to 3 oz of bacon bourbon
-1 tablespoon of Worcestershire
-2 teaspoons cider vinegar
-3 dashes of liquid smoke
-1 tablespoon of sweet chili sauce (not pictured)
-hot sauce to taste (sriracha is recommended)
-ground pepper to taste

Shake over ice and strain back into the same glass.  If you want a sweeter version, cut the hot sauce and add some simple syrup made from brown sugar.





Check out our original Bloody Mary here.  Also check out our BBQ sauce recipe, which you can make and add to this as a shortcut.




And now a New Old Fashioned.  We swing for the fences to recreate that rural-diner feeling of sitting around Sunday morning having pancakes and bacon. But now it has the added bonus of being able to get hammered, so you can tune out your Aunt Mildred when she starts to go on and on about how things are terrible now because there's a secret Kenyan Socialist Communist Muslim in the White House and only Glen Beck can save us.






You know us... that 1.5 oz turned into 3 a little later.




"Grade B" does not mean it's less quality than Grade A, but rather that the color is darker due to the sugars involved.  Just about every producer ends up making both because those sugars are in every tree.  To find high quality, try to find a producer that owns their own farm and produces only from their own trees and doesn't blend anything.  Kind of the same "Single Estate" rule for wine, rum, and coffee. 








Things like soda water, 7up, ginger ale are all standard.  A nice dry hard cider can really bring this drink alive thought.  We recommend Doc's Draft if you feel so inclined.




This is an awesome cocktail, but these days it's more of a fashion accessory than something that people actually appreciate.  We can't fight the masses on this one, so here's your stupid garnish.













Enjoy kids!

Next up, prepare for entertaining, with the original formula of Cape Fear Punch.