Blogs : Wine and Drinks

How to Make Meat-Infused Liquor

Bacon-infused bourbon is all the rage at fancy cocktail bars these days, and you can buy bacon-infused vodka at the market now. You may be tempted to try to make meat-infused liquor yourself. But note that you shouldn’t just put the bacon fat right in the drink, because that would make it really gross and oily. Instead, you can use a process called “fat washing,” which extracts the smoky, savory flavor, but leaves behind the oil. Simply add the fat to the liquor, let it sit for a few hours, freeze it, skim off the fat (which rises to the top during freezing), and then strain the resulting liquid to extract any remaining meat bits. Read about it on Chowhound.

However, know that the results can be pretty subtle. You may want to infuse your booze with other spices to simulate more of the cured meat flavor you’re seeking. Evan Zimmerman of Portland’s Laurelhurst Market makes a mean chorizo margarita. He first infuses tequila with the spices used to make chorizo (paprika, cinnamon, chiles, salt, pepper, and sugar) before fat washing, in this case with bacon. He also makes a foie gras–infused Armagnac.

“The result is a lot more delicate than it sounds,” says Zimmerman. “[The fat-infused booze] adds a subtle, meaty note.”

Posted by Lessley Anderson | 0 comments
Tagged with: meat, cocktail, fat washing, laurelhurst market, chorizo, margarita, food and cooking, restaurants and bars, wine and drinks, infused liquor

Trend-O-Meter Says: Infused Vodka Is Out (6/12/09)

Vodka “infused” with everything from raspberry to chile peppers served as a brainless cocktail base for much of the early 2000s. It wasn’t a good thing: Most of it tasted like Jolly Rancher candy.

Thankfully it is out, out, out, in large part due to bartenders at high-end cocktail bars like Pegu Club refusing to touch it with a 10-foot swizzle stick, and in part to the waning interest in all things formerly described as metrosexual. New infused-vodka-esque products (that is, neutral, unaged spirits containing flavoring) are rebranding. Case in point: VeeV Açaí Spirit is sold as a liqueur, and it lists açaí as its main ingredient but does not say it’s infused with it. Square One Botanical is described as follows: “Square One Botanical isn’t a flavored vodka. With its broad range of botanicals and high proof, Square One Botanical takes us beyond our vodka heritage to a new category of specialty spirit.” Graphic designers are hard at work on a new symbol, which will replace the “category formerly known as infused vodka” and make all this a lot easier to understand.

See more food trends, or tell us what trends you’re spotting.

Image source: Flickr member Elin B under Creative Commons

Posted by Lessley Anderson | 1 comment
Tagged with: trendometer, food trends, vodka, cocktail, products, infused vodka, alcohol, liquor, wine and drinks

Trend-O-Meter Says: Pabst Blue Ribbon, Still Goin' Strong (6/10/09)

Every major city in the USA now has a gastropub serving Duvel and chicken-liver pâté, but to quote Dennis Hopper’s oxygen-mask-wearing Frank Booth in the movie Blue Velvet: “Fuck that shit! Pabst Blue Ribbon!”

The never-stops-being-cool PBR has been spotted: Stuffed into the mouth of a roast suckling pig in tall boy form by the chefs at Fatty Crab, NYC, during the Cochon555 pig cook-off (they won); at fancy beer-focused restaurants, like San Francisco’s Monk’s Kettle, to keep it real; sipped by old-school graffiti writers Lava One and Shadow, who came out to watch Manfred Kirchheimer’s 1981 cult classic Stations of the Elevated at the Maysles Cinema and Film Institute in Harlem; and on tap at LA’s the Power House.

“Four and a half years ago, when my partner and I took this over, and we put Pabst on tap, NOBODY was doing it,” says Power House part-owner Jim Kalin. “Everybody would laugh! Now you go everywhere and everyone has Pabst.” As BeerAdvocate reviewer BasementBrewerSF says, “it is the best of the worst.”

See more food trends, or tell us what trends you’re spotting.

Image source: Flickr member mollypop under Creative Commons

Posted by Lessley Anderson | 4 comments
Tagged with: food trends, trendometer, pbr, pabst blue ribbon, beer, lager, restaurants and bars, wine and drinks

New Finds: Cult Mole Bitters, Now Available

Bittermens has been making its signature Xocolatl Mole Bitters (classic bitter base flavors with deep chocolate and spice notes) for a while, but hasn’t been selling them at retail. It has been putting them in the hands of fancy bartenders. Cocktail recipes on the Bittermens site include stuff like The Right hand by Michael McIlroy of Milk and Honey, which is made with aged rum, Carpano Antica, mole bitters, and Campari. But now the company has teamed up with the German small-batch bitter maker the Bitter Truth to start selling them. You can preorder now, with shipping due to start at the end of June.

Bittermens Xocolatl Mole Bitters, about $15

Posted by Roxanne Webber | 1 comment
Tagged with: new finds, bittermens xocolatl mole bitters, the bitter truth, products, restaurants and bars, wine and drinks

New Finds: Mead That's a Cut Above the Renaissance Faire

Mead is experiencing a boomlet among the artisanal brewing community. This naturally sparkling treat from Heidrun, a Meadery in Arcata, California, is made using carrot blossom honey from Madras, Oregon. It’s wonderfully effervescent and crisp, with none of the clumsy sweetness I expected from mead, and a wonderfully woodsy almost chestnut-honey-esque funk on the finish.

Heidrun Madras Carrot Blossom Mead, $18

Posted by Lessley Anderson | 2 comments
Tagged with: chocolate, mead, shortbread, chai, new finds, wine and drinks