Mmm, bacon. The salty, smoky meat can make anything better... even our favorite cocktails.
A technique called Fat-Washing can be used to infuse the flavor of any fatty meat (such as bacon) into liquor. It's become popular in restaurants to infuse the fat of bacon especially into liquors such as bourbon and vodka.
Learn how to infuse liquor at home and make a doggone good bloody mary!
1. First render the fat of good quality bacon in a frying pan. Reserve the fat in a measuring cup until you have 4 ounces (about 1/2 lb of bacon).
2. Pour a bottle of liquor (750 ML) into a large bowl and combine 4 ounces of bacon fat (I used a bottle of spicy vodka: Absolut Peppar) .
3. Tightly cover the bowl with plastic wrap and put in the freezer for 24 hours, allowing the flavors to combine. The freezing process will also separate the fat from the liquor, making it easier to remove.
4. Twenty-four hours later, the fat from the bacon will have risen to the top of the liquor, forming a hard layer. Use a large spoon to crack the fatty layer and discard it.
5. Small flecks of fat may remain in the liquor. To remove this, position a sieve lined with a paper towel over a pitcher. Slowly pour the liquor into the sieve so that remaining fat particles are collected by the paper towel.
6. Pour the liquor back into its original bottle and you have bacon-infused liquor!
I used my spicy bacon-infused pepper vodka to make a bloody mary. The pepper vodka infused with bacon added a delicious dimension of smoky-spicy flavor. Here's the recipe (serves 1):
To a glass filled with ice, add:
1.5 oz of bacon-infused vodka
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Dash of Worcestershire
and Tabasco sauce
Tsp. of prepared horseradish
Dash of pepper, celery salt, garlic seasoning, and Old Bay seasoning
Tomato juice
Garnish with a celery stick and lemon wedge
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