CHAPTER TWO
WINTER

For bourbon distilleries, winter is an important time of the year. As the weather cools, the temperature drops in the storage warehouses, allowing the bourbon to contract in the barrels. During the warm weather, the bourbon has expanded and pushed its way into the burned wood of the barrel. So now in cold weather, the bourbon contracts and pulls with it, from the barrel, color and flavor that will stay with the bourbon until it is consumed. For the bourbon drinker in winter, this whiskey provides relief from the cold by dropping the body’s temperature, a phenomenon perceived by humans as a warming sensation.

KENTUCKY BOURBON PANCAKES

One of the great memories of winter is body-warming hot food, such as pancakes fresh off the griddle on a winter morning. The following pancakes were created by Chef Tony Efstratiadis as a dessert, but try them for breakfast too. They were featured in Nancy Miller’s Secrets of Louisville Chefs Cookbook, volume 2.1

4 SERVINGS

  1. Stir the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt into a mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together the bourbon, eggs, buttermilk, and vanilla. Add the dry mixture to the wet mixture and whisk together until the ingredients are just mixed. Let the batter rest for 10 to 15 minutes. In the meantime, coat a griddle with nonstick spray and heat it to 400 degrees, or apply melted butter after it is hot.

  2. Pour about 1/3 cup batter for each pancake onto the griddle and cook until bubbles appear, about 5 minutes. Flip the pancake and cook it on the other side until golden brown. Serve with maple syrup or Blueberry Kentucky Bourbon Pancake Syrup (see the next recipe).

BLUEBERRY KENTUCKY BOURBON PANCAKE SYRUP

What are pancakes without syrup? Here is a syrup recipe I found in the book Gourmet Cooking with Old Crow, by Emanuel Greenberg.2 The recipe originally called for Old Crow bourbon, the bourbon of choice of Ulysses S. Grant, Union general and president of the United States; U.S. senator Henry Clay of Kentucky; and writers Mark Twain and Hunter S. Thompson.

YIELD: 3 CUPS

Place the syrup, butter, and cinnamon in a saucepan and bring to a simmer. Add the bourbon and simmer for 30 seconds. Add the blueberries and simmer for 1 minute longer. Allow the syrup to cool a bit before serving.

KENTUCKY BOURBON FRENCH TOAST

Another breakfast food that goes well with syrup is called pain perdu (lost bread) in France, “Poor knights of Windsor” in Great Britain, and French toast in the United States. In my first sous-chef position, where I was in charge of the breakfast menu, our French toast was “Brioche French Toast.” Brioche is an egg-and-butter bread; it was dipped in an egg-cream mixture and then fried in clarified butter. Most diners could not finish the dish because it was so rich. Here is my version of French toast.

4 SERVINGS

Mix the milk, eggs, sugar, bourbon, and cinnamon together. Melt butter on a hot griddle. Dip the bread in the batter. Place the battered bread on the griddle and cook until the first side begins to turn golden brown. Flip the French toast and continue to cook until the other side is golden brown too. Serve with butter, berries, and/or syrup.

HOT BUTTERED KENTUCKY BOURBON OATMEAL

Another classic breakfast for cold mornings is oatmeal. Although oatmeal is noted as a cholesterol-lowering food, the butter and cream in this recipe negate any gains you might see by eating the oatmeal. Instead of cream and butter, you can substitute skim milk if you are on a heart-healthy diet.

Stir into the oatmeal the butter, brown sugar, and bourbon. Add the cream, salt, and more brown sugar to taste.

NOTE:

This recipe will work best if the oatmeal has been cooked a little longer than usual to develop a nutty, thick oatmeal.

BLACK BEAN AND KENTUCKY BOURBON SOUP

This recipe for black bean and bourbon soup comes from Panache, a French restaurant in Indianapolis. According to Joan S. Todd’s Taste of Indianapolis: Recipes from the City’s Best Restaurant Kitchens, published in 1996, the chefowner of Panache was Richard Cottance and this black bean and bourbon soup was one of the featured items on his menu.3

4 SERVINGS

Soup

Garnishes

  1. Sweat the onions, carrots, and celery in a large saucepan, covered, over very low heat until the vegetables are tender but not browned. Add the garlic, cumin, oregano, and cayenne. Cook 4 to 5 minutes. Add the 1 cup of black beans and the chicken stock, and bring the combination to a boil; reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.

  2. Puree the combination in a food processor until fairly smooth, and then return it to the pan. Add the ½ cup of reserved beans and heat to a simmer. Season with salt and black pepper to taste. Serve in heated bowls, adding to each bowl 1 tablespoon bourbon, 1 tablespoon sour cream, diced tomatoes, and a sprig of fresh cilantro.

PORK TENDERLOIN IN SPICED APPLE KENTUCKY BOURBON SAUCE

Pork and apple are a classic combination that every chef learns early in his or her career. Here the apple is in the form of juice, flavored and thickened to form a sauce for the pork. This recipe, which comes from A Love Affair with Southern Cooking, by Jean Anderson,4 could easily be served with sweet potatoes (also traditionally combined with pork and bourbon) or with a rice pilaf.

6 SERVINGS

  1. Rub the pork with the pepper and place in a medium roasting pan. Mix the mustard, apple juice, and bourbon until smooth. Brush the pork with the mixture and let stand for 30 minutes at room temperature. While it rests, preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Baste the pork with the bourbon mixture again, and place the pork in the preheated oven for 45 minutes or until the pork reaches an internal temperature of 150 degrees.

  2. To make the sauce: Deglaze the roasting pan with the remaining bourbon mixture; then pour the deglazing mixture into a saucepan and boil for 2 minutes. Stir in the 1¼ cups chicken broth and the half-and-half. Mix the ½ cup broth with the flour and salt, add the flour mixture to the saucepan, and mix. Cook over medium heat until the mixture thickens.

  3. Slice the pork and serve with mashed potatoes and the apple-bourbon sauce.

CHICKEN KENTUCKIANA

This recipe is named for Metro Louisville and its surroundings, including an area across the Ohio River in Indiana. Indiana is one of the states besides Kentucky where bourbon was traditionally produced. The recipe, which comes from Nancy Miller’s book Secrets of Louisville Chefs,5 makes a dish that is wonderful with rice or mashed potatoes.

6 SERVINGS

  1. Coat the chicken breasts with the flour and set aside while you heat the oil in a pan over medium-high heat. Sauté the chicken in the oil for about 3 to 4 minutes on each side; the crust should be golden brown. Set the chicken aside.

  2. Heat the butter in the same pan. Sauté the shallots for 1 minute; then add the mushrooms and sauté for 1 additional minute. Remove the pan from the stove and carefully add the bourbon. Return the pan to the heat (don’t be surprised if the bourbon flames). Add the cream, spinach, thyme, and pepper and mix well. Simmer the mixture for 2 minutes. Add the browned chicken breasts to the bourbon-cream sauce, bring to a high simmer, and cook for an additional 5 minutes. Season with salt and serve over rice or with mashed potatoes.

CHICKEN WITH MUSTARD HONEY KENTUCKY BOURBON SAUCE

This is a simple dish to prepare and can be served with corn, pasta, rice, or potatoes and any other vegetable that you might have available.

6 SERVINGS

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Salt and pepper the chicken to taste and bake the chicken until the juices run clear.

  2. To make the sauce: Mix the honey, mustard, bourbon, and mustard seeds. Serve the chicken over rice with the sauce on top.

KENTUCKY BOURBON ACORN SQUASH

A great side dish with Chicken with Mustard Honey Kentucky Bourbon Sauce is acorn squash. This squash recipe can be baked alongside the chicken in the same oven.

SERVES 6

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Remove the seeds from the squash halves and discard the seeds. Sprinkle the squashes with salt to taste. Place in each cavity ½ tablespoon of the butter and 1 tablespoon of the brown sugar. Bake the halves for 30 minutes.

  2. Remove the squashes from the oven; place 1 tablespoon of bourbon in each half and dust with the cinnamon. Cover with foil and return to oven for another 30 minutes.

ASIAN KENTUCKY BOURBON-MARINATED CHICKEN

Asian cuisine is one of the places where bourbon use is emerging. The next two recipes were created by Chef Tom Smith, a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America who has served both as a private chef and as the executive chef of award-winning restaurants.

4 SERVINGS

Marinade

Chicken

  1. To make the marinade: Heat the vegetable oil quickly, and cook the ginger, scallion, and garlic in it until aromatic, approximately 10 seconds. Add the bourbon and allow it to flame. Add the brown sugar and cook until the sugar is dissolved. Add the soy sauce, pineapple juice, and pepper; combine; cool.

  2. To prepare the chicken: Place the chicken breast strips in a small nonreactive container (glass, ceramic, plastic, or stainless steel). Divide the marinade in half, and pour half over the chicken, reserving the other half; marinate, refrigerated, for 2 hours. Remove the chicken from the marinade and pat dry.

  3. Whip the egg whites and dredge the chicken in them to coat. Sprinkle the 2 tablespoons cornstarch over the chicken and toss to coat. Heat the ¼ cup vegetable oil in a wok or large sauté pan until very hot. Quickly stir-fry the ginger, garlic, and scallions until aromatic. Add the chicken and stir-fry until the chicken turns white and firms. Add the pineapple and heat through. Add the reserved marinade and toss to coat. Make a slurry by adding equal parts cornstarch and water in a small bowl. Once the two are mixed together, add the cornstarch slurry to the pan and cook until the sauce is thickened. Serve over the rice.

ASIAN STRAWBERRY KENTUCKY BOURBON SHRIMP

In this recipe, Smith exploits what seems at first glance like an unlikely flavor combination but creates a culinary delight.

4 SERVINGS

Season the shrimp with the salt and pepper. Toss the shrimp in the egg whites to coat, and sprinkle with cornstarch to coat. Toast the pecans in a 350-degree oven for 5 minutes. Heat the oil in a wok or large sauté pan until very hot. Add the shrimp and stir-fry until cooked (they will turn pink when done). Add the bourbon and flame. Add the strawberries, apple, honeydew melon, and cantaloupe and heat through. Reduce heat to medium, add the mayonnaise and condensed milk, toss together, and heat through. Adjust seasonings. Serve over the rice and garnish with the chopped pecans.

KENTUCKY BOURBON BEEF TENDERLOIN

Beef tenderloin is very lean and very tender. This recipe combines ingredients to form a sweet and sour sauce for the meat. The addition of a baked sweet potato complements the sweet flavors of the sauce, while a baked white potato helps foil the sweet and sour flavors.

6 SERVINGS

Combine the bourbon, brown sugar, soy sauce, cilantro, lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, water, and thyme to make a marinade. Cut the beef tenderloin into two-inch slices and pour the marinade over them. Allow the beef to marinate, refrigerated, for at least 2 hours (for best results, marinate for up to 6 hours). Turn it at least every hour to allow equal marinating for each piece. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and cook the tenderloin in the oven until done (the meat should be pink inside), about 20 minutes. Cut into serving-size pieces.

WINDSOR MINCEMEAT

This is an adaptation of a recipe used by Swiss chef Gabriel Tschumi for the British royal family in the early twentieth century. It is taken from his book Royal Chef: Recollections of Life in Royal Households from Queen Victoria to Queen Mary. Because the original Windsor mincemeat recipe was a huge undertaking yielding 675 pounds of mincemeat, I scaled it back considerably. I also replaced brandy with bourbon and made a few other ingredient substitutions. Tschumi wrote that this mincemeat was served at Windsor Castle each Christmas during Queen Victoria’s reign.

In the Old Bardstown Bourbon Cookbook, published by the Willett Distilling Company in 1967, you may find recipes for mincemeat cake, mincemeat pumpkin pie, and mincemeat cookies, in addition to mincemeat pie.

YIELD: 8 POUNDS OR 16 CUPS

NOTE:

Leftover mincemeat may be frozen in three-cup units for later use.

Pass the currants, orange peel, lemon peel, citron, cinnamon, allspice, cloves, nutmeg, white sugar, turbinado sugar, ground beef, beef suet, and apples through a coarse sausage grinder. Mix in a very large bowl. After mixing, stir in the lemon juice and bourbon. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. For each pie, place 3 cups of mincemeat in a 9-inch piecrust, top with another piecrust, and bake until the top crust is golden brown.

KENTUCKY BOURBON PASTRY

Pie pastry can be made before or after the filling is made. When the dough is made before the filling, it can be stored as a ball in the refrigerator. Here is a simple recipe for pie dough that can be used with the mincemeat pie.

2 PIECRUSTS

Sift the flour and salt together. Cut the butter into cubes and work the cubes of butter into the flour with your fingers or a pastry blender until the flour-butter mixture resembles cornmeal. Add the bourbon gradually, working it into the flour until the dough forms a ball. Do not overwork the dough. Wrap the dough ball in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for at least 10 minutes; on a lightly floured surface, roll out piecrusts. Line a 9-inch pie pan with half of the dough. Add Windsor Mincemeat or other filling (about 3 cups of filling). Roll the other half of the dough into a circle to serve as the top crust. Cut vents in the top crust.

BUCKINGHAM PALACE PLUM PUDDING

Chef Tschumi reports that plum pudding was another Windsor tradition, served every year during his tenure there. Pudding was banned by the Puritans in England from 1664 to 1714, but King George I reintroduced it to the British Christmas table. By the Victorian era, pudding had become a well-established tradition, and Queen Elizabeth II still gives each staff person a plum pudding for Christmas. Americans may not realize that a British pudding is more like a cake than like a Jell-O pudding. Also, the plum in plum pudding refers to raisins. This recipe, like the mincemeat recipe, has been scaled way down from the original Tschumi recipe.

YIELD: 5 (2-POUND) PUDDINGS

  1. Mix together the flour, sugar, currants, raisins, citrus peel, beef suet, and allspice in a very large bowl. Stir in the beaten eggs, then the beer, then the bourbon.

  2. Divide the pudding into five equal portions of approximately 2 pounds each. Wrap each portion in a piece of cheesecloth dusted with flour and tie at the top with string, leaving string ends of at least 8 inches. Bring water to a simmer in a pot with handles. Tie the string ends of the wrapped pudding to the pot handles so that the pudding is suspended in the water and does not touch the bottom of the pot. Simmer uncovered for 8 hours, adding additional water to the pot as needed to cover the pudding.

KENTUCKY COLONEL BOURBON BALLS

Bourbon balls are a classic winter confection. In The Art of Southern Cooking, Mildred Evans Warren creates a bourbon ball that does not utilize old cake as some recipes do.6 Instead she combines pecans, butter, and confectioners’ sugar with bourbon and covers the sweet treat with chocolate. She names it after the Kentucky Colonels.

8 SERVINGS

  1. Soak the 1 cup of pecans in bourbon for several hours. Mix the sugar, butter, and vanilla until creamy. Drain the pecans, reserving the bourbon liquid that remains; mix the liquid into the sugar mixture.

  2. Roll the sugar mixture into marble-sized balls around the pecan halves. Chill the balls in the refrigerator for 1 hour.

  3. Melt the chocolate and add the paraffin. Dip the cooled balls into the melted chocolate; use a fork to retrieve the balls from the melted chocolate mixture. Top each ball with a pecan half and allow to dry.

KENTUCKY BOURBON BALLS

These bourbon balls contain graham cracker crumbs. Graham crackers were developed in 1829 by a Presbyterian minister, the Reverend Sylvester Graham, who was a vegetarian teetotaler and preached that a bland diet of mostly fruits, vegetables, and high-fiber grains would help people avoid “impure thoughts.” If he were alive today, Graham would be proud to know that he has been very influential in the vegan movement and lifestyle; however he would be horrified to learn that rich confections such as piecrust, s’mores, and these bourbon balls are created utilizing the cracker named for him.

YIELD: ABOUT 48 BALLS

Combine the graham cracker crumbs, confectioners’ sugar, vanilla, pecans, and cocoa and mix well. Add the honey and bourbon and mix well. Shape into ¾-inch balls and coat in the superfine sugar. Store in an airtight container until ready to serve.

KENTUCKY BOURBON BREAD PUDDING WITH KENTUCKY BOURBON SAUCE 1

One of the great uses for stale French bread is bread pudding. This recipe is based on one featured in Nancy Miller’s book Secrets of Louisville Chefs. 7 Both the pudding and the sauce should be served warm.

12 SERVINGS

Pudding

Sauce

  1. To make the pudding: Soak the raisins in the ½ cup bourbon in a small bowl for 1 hour. In a large bowl, dissolve the sugar in the warm water. Drain the raisins, reserving the bourbon for use in the sauce. Stir together the half-and-half, melted butter, raisins, nutmeg, and eggs. Stir the bread in. Let this mixture sit for 45 minutes. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and grease a 9 x 13-inch pan. Pour the pudding into the pan and bake about 35 minutes or until golden brown. Serve with the bourbon sauce.

  2. To make the sauce: Combine the honey, butter, bourbon, and vanilla in a small saucepan. Heat until warmed.

KENTUCKY BOURBON SAUCE 2

Here is an alternative bourbon sauce to try with the bread pudding, made from leftovers from the Kentucky Colonel bourbon balls. This sauce adds a chocolate flavor. I found the recipe in Kentucky’s Best: Fifty Years of Great Recipes, by Linda Allison-Lewis.8

4 SERVINGS

Slowly melt the bourbon balls with the milk in a pot on the stove or in the microwave. Stir the mixture until the bourbon balls and milk melt together. Do not allow the mixture to boil.

KENTUCKY BOURBON FRUITCAKE

A good fruitcake is a part of the southern Christmas ritual. In the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth, fruitcakes were prepared early in the year, because it was believed that the cake would improve as it aged and as more bourbon flavor was deposited into it over the months. Some thought the best fruitcakes were those made the previous year and reinforced every four weeks with another shot of bourbon. Today we are more careful about food safety, but still a fruitcake that is kept cool will be safe for up to a year. If you are willing to invest the time and effort needed to make a fruitcake, here is a good recipe.

SERVES 16

  1. Chop and mix together the raisins, currants, citron, almonds, pecans, orange juice, and orange zest. Dredge these ingredients with 2 tablespoons of the flour; set aside.

  2. Line a ring mold cake pan with wax paper; cut the paper to fit the bottom and use strips to line the sides. Rub the paper with the 2 tablespoons of butter and lightly sprinkle the buttered paper with 2 tablespoons of the flour. Set the pan aside and preheat the oven to 250 degrees.

  3. Beat the 1 cup of butter with an electric mixer until creamy. Add the sugar and beat until very light in texture and color. Add the egg yolks and beat until fluffy; then fold in the stiff egg whites. Add the cane syrup. Add the 2 cups of flour little by little to the cake mixture, beating after each addition. Add the bourbon and beat well. Add the allspice, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, and nutmeg; then add the fruit and nut mixture and beat well again. Pour the mixture into the prepared ring mold and cover it with aluminum foil.

  4. Place a pan of water in the oven along with the ring mold. Bake the cake for 4 hours or until a toothpick comes out clean. Uncover the cake for the last 30 minutes of baking. Allow the cake to cool completely; then wrap it and store it in a cool place. Every four weeks, pour ¼ cup of bourbon over the cake (the cake will keep for up to a year). Serve the fruitcake in very thin slices.

KENTUCKY BOURBON-PECAN CRÈME BRÛLÉE WITH CHOCOLATE SAUCE

Chef Dean Fearing, who is called the father of southwest cuisine and is known for his long service to the Mansion on Turtle Creek in Dallas, Texas, is a Kentucky native. He honors Kentucky by incorporating in his cookbook Southwest Cuisine: Blending Asia and the Americas several recipes from Kentucky cuisine. And he uses bourbon in several of his recipes. This Fearing recipe has been adapted for the home cook.9

6 SERVINGS

Crème Brûlée

Chocolate Sauce

Caramel Glaze

  1. To make the Crème Brûlée: Combine the egg yolks with the sugar, cream, vanilla, and bourbon in a saucepan. Heat the mixture, stirring constantly, until it is barely warm to the touch. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Boil water on the stove, and pour the boiling water into a 9 x 13-inch pan to a ½-inch depth. Distribute the pecans among six ramekins or custard bowls, and pour the cream mixture over the pecans. Place the cream-filled ramekins in the pan partially filled with hot water. Bake 30 minutes or until the custard is set. Remove the ramekins from the pan. When they are cool, chill them in the refrigerator.

  2. To make the chocolate sauce: Place the chocolate chips in a medium bowl. Combine the cream, milk, sugar, and butter in a saucepan over medium heat and bring the mixture to a boil. When it boils, pour it over the chocolate chips and stir until the chocolate is melted and smooth. Keep warm until served.

  3. To make the Caramel Glaze: Mix the sugar and brown sugar. Remove the ramekins from the refrigerator and top them with equal parts of the sugar mixture. Use a blowtorch to melt the sugars; then drizzle the chocolate sauce on top. Caution: the blowtorch will be very hot and can cause severe burns.