Bacon Fat-Washed Old Fashioned

Before you start

This is a savory old fashioned built on bourbon that has been fat-washed with bacon. The best-known version is the Benton's Old Fashioned, created by Don Lee at PDT in New York in the late 2000s. Warm, liquid bacon fat is stirred into bourbon and left to infuse. The mixture is then frozen so the fat turns solid and can be lifted off, leaving bourbon that tastes faintly smoky and rich, with a fuller texture.

Fat-washing takes time but very little effort. Use well-cooked, smoky bacon and strain the fat carefully. Maple syrup is the classic sweetener because maple and bacon already pair well, but use it sparingly. The bitters and orange peel keep the drink from feeling heavy.

Ingredients

• Bacon-washed bourbon4 strips (about 115 g) thick-cut smoked bacon
• 375 ml (12½ oz) bourbon — about 45% ABV
• Each cocktail60 ml (2 oz) bacon-washed bourbon
• 7 ml (¼ oz) pure maple syrup — dark, robust grade
• 2 dashes Angostura bitters
• 1 large ice cube
• 1 wide strip orange peel

Method

1. Cook the bacon in a skillet over medium heat for 8 to 10 minutes, until crisp and the fat has fully rendered. Lift out the bacon to enjoy separately.
2. Strain the hot fat through a fine strainer lined with a coffee filter into a heatproof cup. Measure 22 ml (¾ oz); let it cool for a few minutes so it is warm and liquid, not sizzling.
3. Pour the bourbon into the wide jar and stir in the warm fat. Seal and leave at room temperature for 4 hours, shaking it every hour.
4. Move the jar to the freezer for at least 2 hours, or overnight. The fat will rise and set into a solid disk on top.
5. Break through the fat disk with a spoon and lift it out. Pour the cold bourbon through a fine strainer lined with a fresh coffee filter into a clean bottle. Re-filter if you see any cloudy specks.
6. For each drink, stir 60 ml of the washed bourbon with the maple syrup and bitters over ice for 20 to 25 seconds.
7. Strain over a large cube in a rocks glass. Express the orange peel over the drink and drop it in.

Tips for success

• A wide container gives more surface contact during infusion and makes the fat disk easier to remove.
• Wait for the filter to drip on its own rather than pressing it. Squeezing pushes fat through and clouds the bourbon.
• Smoked bacon gives a stronger flavor than unsmoked; cut the infusion to 2 hours if your bacon is very smoky.

Substitutions

Bourbon

Rye whiskey gives a spicier, drier result. Aged rum turns it into a sweet, savory tiki-style base.

Maple syrup

Rich demerara syrup works at the same measure. It adds molasses notes in place of maple.

Bacon fat

Browned butter makes a nutty, popcorn-like bourbon using the same method and ratio.

Troubleshooting

The bourbon looks greasy or has fat droplets

It was not cold enough when strained, or the filter was skipped. Return it to the freezer for an hour and filter again.

Bacon flavor is barely there

Use more fat (up to 30 ml for 375 ml bourbon) or a smokier bacon, and infuse a full 4 hours.

The drink tastes salty

Some bacon fat carries a lot of salt. Use less fat next time, or add a few extra drops of maple to the drink.

Storage

Keep the strained, fat-washed bourbon in a sealed bottle in the refrigerator and use it within about a month for the best flavor. Discard it if it smells rancid. Cooked bacon should be refrigerated within 2 hours.

Safety notes

Each drink contains about 60 ml of 45% ABV bourbon, roughly 1.5 U.S. standard drinks (one standard drink is about 14 g of pure alcohol). Hot bacon fat burns; let it cool before adding it to the spirit, and keep the bottle away from the stove. Serve only to adults of legal drinking age, and never drink and drive.