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  Every once in a while something that sounds crazy in a cocktail actually works, if you are open to the idea. One such concept is Bacon Infused Bourbon. It’s seems ridiculous at first, but when you consider sweet caramel and maple syrup flavors sometimes characterize a good bourbon, you start to think about breakfast and how a side of bacon tastes so good next to your pancakes! Does it still sound silly? Well, maybe if I break it down a bit, it will make a little more sense. What we are talking about is neither sweet nor sour, not salty or bitter—it’s the fifth fundamental flavor that the Japanese call umami.
Umami, or savoriness, is considered by eastern cultures as an important component of taste in their cuisine. It is the flavor produced by amino acids such as glutamate that we normally associate with beef, mushrooms or that “rich” character found in stews and some fermented foods. Although it isn’t often discussed in regular western culture, umami is widely recognized as a flavor descriptor in the culinary world. Naturally, ideas born in the kitchen can be carried over to the bar, and that’s what we are doing here.
In addition to capturing rich meaty flavors, the smokiness that typifies cured bacon is equally important in our infusion. That is why I recommend finding an extremely smokey bacon to start out. You can pick any bacon that you like, but the stronger the flavors the better. Benton’s Smoked Country Bacon is supposed to be very good for this. I used a delicious smoke house bacon I found at our local farmers market. It’s a thick-cut, organic product that is absolutely wonderful as a breakfast side, in an egg casserole or sprinkled over fresh salad greens. Whatever you use, plan to eat a good, healthy portion of bacon, because all we need is the fat!
That’s right, the process of infusing umami into bourbon is called fat-washing. The idea is simple. Cook your bacon as you normally would and reserve the rendered fat. You need about a third of a cup of fat for the process. Place it into a jar while it’s still hot, and fill the jar with bourbon. Let it cool, then freeze it for 24 hours. Filter it and you are done. It’s that simple.
 Bacon Infused Bourbon
.33 cup of rendered bacon fat
3 cups of bourbon
Cook a pound of bacon and reserve the rendered fat. Add .33 cup of hot fat to a jar and fill with bourbon. Seal and allow to stand until it reaches room temperature. Place the jar in the freezer for 24 hours. The fat will solidify but the bourbon will remain in a liquid state. Open the jar and pour off the bourbon, straining through a coffee filter or cheesecloth to remove any loose fat particles. Bottle it and slap on a cool label.
If you’ve done other infusions with vodka, the basic principles are the same. The high-proof spirit draws flavors from the fat into the alcohol. Over the course of a few hours, the cooling fat solidifies and allows complete separation from the booze. Using the freezer is a neat trick because the alcohol works as an anti-freeze for the bourbon making the separating process even easier. There are a few tricks I learned that can streamline the process.
First, don’t shake the jar while the fat is cooling. This will create an emulsion and the fat will have trouble coagulating. It will separate eventually, but there will be microscopic droplets that will make the bourbon cloudy, and even freezing and filtration will have a hard time clearing them out. Second, it can help to tip the jar on its side. This will make it easier to pour off the bourbon later so you don’t have to break through a solid fat cap. Finally, don’t worry so much about the proportions. You can use as much fat as you like. In fact, if the flavor isn’t strong enough or you picked a mild-flavored bacon, you can run the bourbon through the process multiple times to improve it.
So, what can you do with this stuff? Jim Meehan from PDT in New York serves a great riff on the Old Fashioned using Benton’s bacon for the infusion:
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  Making a great cocktail takes time, and if you have tried to recreate any of the recipes here, you know that the results are worth waiting for. But, during those moments when you have a guest waiting, you need a plan that makes the most of your equipment, your space, and your time. Although technique is important from beginning to end, I believe the biggest challenge comes when using fresh citrus.
It’s not that squeezing citrus is a big problem. It isn’t. In fact, if you aren’t using fresh juice in your cocktails it is by far the best improvement you can make. Yet, the moment you do start squeezing fruit, you quickly realize that the additional steps can slow you down, and if you are just a little bit clumsy, can result in a sticky mess all over the work area. Not everyone has the perfect space for making drinks, and few of us can dedicate an entire section of the kitchen for the task. With everyone probably doing it just a little bit differently, I thought I would write about my experience with some of the equipment I have used as well as a few techniques that make the process a little easier.
 Juicing Equipment
Let’s get a few things out of the way first. Some gadgets are just impractical. First on the list are the little wedge squeezers. Most of them are made of thin, stamped metal. One is setup like a pliers that you hold in your hand to squeeze lime wedges. Another is shaped like a cute bird with a hinged tail that pours from the beak. When you make a sour, you need .75 to a full ounce, and you are not going to get that much juice from a wedge. Consequently, you’ll be squeezing wedge after wedge, juice spraying everywhere, while you try to collect enough juice. This is just a hassle, not to mention the fact that you need to cut everything into wedges in the first place. These may be fine for seafood, but not for cocktails.
On the opposite side of the spectrum are the big, heavy pull-arm squeezers. Setting aside their higher price, these are fantastic for juicing a lot of fruit. I own the Hamilton Beach Juicer which does a great job of extracting every last drop from grapefruit to key limes. If I batch my juice or want a gallon of fresh orange, I pull this out. Similar models may work just as well, but to be honest,
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 You just don’t find many cocktails made with Scotch whisky. Perhaps it’s hard to produce combinations that work well together considering the prominent flavors that are typical of any good Scotch. Nevertheless, a few creations have succeeded, and the Blood and Sand is one of them. I’m not saying the world needs more Scotch cocktails. Those of us who enjoy Scotch will say it’s just fine on its own, but not everyone likes to sip spirits neat. Here’s a chance to try something that is pretty rare in the world of mixology.
As uncommon as Scotch cocktails are, you might expect a working recipe to look better on paper, but when you see what’s in this, you wouldn’t expect the combination to work. I have to say that if I set out to create a Scotch cocktail myself, it might take me a while before I would try mixing
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 You may be wondering, Martinez? Don’t you mean Martini? Well, I suppose I mean both. You see, the origin of the Martini is somewhat fuzzy, but almost everyone agrees that the Martini started life as the Martinez, and when you consider the ingredients and how cocktails evolve, it’s easy to believe.
As important and recognizable as the Martini is in the pantheon of cocktails, few people have ever heard of the Martinez. Instead, we recognize the V-shaped glass dripping with sweat, the ice cold gin and vermouth glistening like a clear, perfect gem, the olive or lemon twist garnish—the Martini is iconic. And yet, we are really talking about the Dry Martini, a more accurate name because of the fact that it is made with dry, French vermouth. Of course, that would imply there was a sweet version, right?
It’s true. The first Martini was concocted of gin and
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  At long last, I am finally posting the Negroni for the Drink of the Week. I am finding that there are just too many interesting twists on this classic that are worth writing about and I want to be able to reference the original.
The history of this cocktail provides a two-for-one opportunity since one cannot describe the Negroni without first referencing the Americano, and to describe the Americano requires mentioning the essential ingredient, Campari. So, this brings us to late nineteenth century Italy where production of a unique apéritif and digestif was just getting started. Campari is basically an alcoholic infusion of fruit, bitter herbs and aromatic plants. The exact formula remains a secret. By the early 1900s, Italians were enjoying Campari with soda water, and it is this simple combination that inspired a drink that became quite popular.
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 This week’s Drink Of The Week is actually a recipe I posted last year as a suggestion for using fresh grenadine. So far, I have tried to avoid reposting cocktails that I already mentioned, but today I am going to make an exception. That’s because the Monkey Gland is delicious. It’s a cocktail that bears repeating and one that I need to remind myself about occasionally. It’s one of those drinks that can convince someone that they really do like gin cocktails.
Monkey Gland 2 oz gin 1 oz orange juice 1/4 oz grenadine 1 dash absinthe
Add all ingredients to a mixing glass and shake with ice to chill. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass and garnish with an orange twist.
The Monkey Gland is named for an unusual medical procedure once thought to reinvigorate a man’s sexual prowess. By transplanting a monkey’s testical into a human host,
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 It’s that time of the year again. Time to feel happy you have a job. Time to fill out those crazy forms. Time to feel good about paying your part. Time to feel horrible about how big that part is. Time for another Drink Of The Week!
The selection this week is the appropriately timed Income Tax Cocktail. It’s a forgotten classic, so this serves as a reminder for you to file your return and to remember this old drink. It’s based on another cocktail that was once popular, only this version has the minor difference of adding bitters.
Income Tax Cocktail 1.5 oz gin .75 oz sweet vermouth .75 oz dry vermouth a fresh squeeze of orange juice 2 dashes Angostura bitters
Add the gin and vermouths to a cocktail shaker. Cut an orange into quarters and squeeze one quarter right into the shaker. Add the bitters, seal and
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 Chimp In Orbit, huh? This ought to be good! I admit, it’s a really odd name for a drink. So, why monkeys in space?
This week in history. . .
I was researching this week in history and found a few things that seemed thematic to me, although not every story has a good ending. First, on this day in 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded. I know, it’s not a happy event, and it’s certainly not an image most of us will forget. So, let’s just get the sad stuff out of the way first. In the coming week on February 1, 2003, the world watched in shock and disbelief as the Space Shuttle Columbia broke apart on re-entry. Again, it’s another sad day for the space program. Meaning no disrespect to those brave spacefarers who lost their lives, there were a couple positive achievements that also occurred.
January 31st marks the anniversary of the 1971 Apollo 14 launch, the third mission to land men on the moon. This anniversary coincides with the launch in 1961 (here it comes) that sent a chimpanzee named Ham into space! Is it a crazy excuse to feature this drink? Well, that’s not all! In addition to the space references, the tropical nature of this cocktail is represented in history by the TV show, Fantasy Island which first aired on January 28, 1978. Finally, this day is also Elijah Wood’s birthday. I know, Frodo was a hobbit, not a chimp, but it’s close enough.
Ok, enough with the goofy historical references—let’s get to the drink.
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 Randy explains how best to open a pomegranate and release the precious seeds within as well has how to use the juice from these seeds to make grenadine. Once you’ve made your own grenadine, there are several delicious recipes to try, including the Singapore Sling, Monkey Gland, and the Commodore Cocktail.
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 I was never a Gin & Tonic fan, but all of that changed last year when I read Jeffrey Morgenthaler’s post about making tonic from scratch. Of course, his wasn’t the first recipe to gain widespread attention. The resurgence of craft tonic is credited to Kevin Ludwig of Portland, Oregon whose recipe even appeared in the March/April 2007 issue of Imbibe Magazine. Having basically skipped over that recipe back then, I considered it an ingredient best left to gin drinkers, or someone who was more interested. Finally, after reading more about it and seeing craft tonic added to a cocktail I really enjoyed, I decided to give it a try.
Why make something that already exists?
When I first saw the Imbibe article, I was asking myself all sorts of questions. Can’t you simply buy tonic water at the store? It’s cheap enough, it’s crystal clear, and it’s essentially a commodity product–right? I mean, where can you really go with something so basic? Well, it turns out that the tonic water available today is truly a different product than it was originally. Commercial tonic is little more than bitter soda water, completely devoid of other flavor characteristics. I soon realized that making your own tonic isn’t about reproducing what is on the shelf already, but rather exploring cocktail history to create something refreshing, natural and delicious. I found that the Gin & Tonic can be transformed, or rather, revived. I still don’t order them at most bars, but now I most definitely make them at home!
The Bitter Truth About Tonic Water
Think about the name, tonic, for a moment and you conjure up images of old-time pharmacies or even bearded swindlers selling bottles of secret sauce as a medicinal cure-all. Actually, this is not far from the truth. The defining ingredient in tonic, besides water, is quinine. Quinine imparts the familiar bitter flavor in commercial tonic water, and although these days it’s added in a pure chemical form as a flavor component, this was not always the case.
Quinine is a natural alkaloid with true medicinal properties. It’s available over the counter by prescription in the US or in small quantities in tonic water. It is extracted from the bark of the cinchona plant, a small tree native to South America. Cinchona bark, long used by Peruvian natives as a muscle relaxant, is effective in the treatment and prevention of malaria and other afflictions. The locals would grind the bark into a powder and combine it with sweetened water to offset the bitter flavor—thus creating the world’s first tonic water. It has been used by Europeans since at least the early 1600′s as a cure for malaria and the bitterness eventually led British colonials in India to combine it with gin to offset the taste, creating the Gin & Tonic cocktail.
Although the sale of quinine is regulated by the FDA, cinchona bark is sometimes available at health food and nutrition stores. My interest here is not to extract a drug for home remedies, but to reproduce the bitter flavor that would have been present in a traditional tonic—the original ingredient that drove the Gin & Tonic to become such a popular cocktail. I can’t imagine the G&T in its current state rising alone to the prominent “goto” status it seems to enjoy. Something must have changed over the years, and it’s not the gin. I find it ironic that what started historically as a way to improve the consumption of tonic has evolved into a combination to soften the flavor of gin. Certainly, tradition has had a lot to do with its popularity, but gin drinkers (and haters) everywhere are completely missing out on everything good that is possible with a craft Gin & Tonic.
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