Bacon-Infused Scotch

Bacon is all the rage, some might even say it's passé. Being a staple of morning dining across this country, I scoff at that notion. Bacon is here to stay.

I'll eat bacon in just about anything. My friend Oakley, knowing about my love for both bacon and scotch, mentioned she was making bacon bourbon after our volunteering stint at the OC Foodie Fest. I'd never heard of such a thing but it sounded fantastic. Bacon-flavored alcohol! The problem is, I don't keep bourbon in the house. I wouldn't even know what a decent bourbon tastes like (a visit to Kentucky will need to be had). But I do love its foreign cousin scotch. So much so that friends have taken it upon themselves to gift me random bottles for birthdays. These are the types of gifts you must accept graciously and politely.

But finally, I found a remedy for the glut of harsh spirits haunting my liquor cabinet: bacon! There was one particularly rough scotch that a well-meaning man brought to me on a first date many years ago. Sitting on the shelf for a few additional years had done nothing to mellow its punch. So it was the perfect test.

Oakley's recipe was simple: add bacon fat to a bottle of liquor, let sit, freeze, then fish the fat out a day later. The result was a much smoother, less harsh alcohol.

I wouldn't try this with the higher-end scotch. You don't mess with a good thing. But it's a great recipe for the more run-of-the-mill varieties.

Bacon-Infused Scotch

3-4 strips fatty bacon
1 tablespoon freshly rendered bacon fat
1 bottle of scotch

1. Fry up the bacon. Save a tablespoon of bacon fat. Eat the bacon. (If 3-4 strips doesn't give you a full tablespoon, fry some more!)

2. Pour the scotch into a clean, wide-mouth container. You don't want to put the bacon fat in the alcohol's original bottle because some might get stuck in there, which leads to floating fat globules and that's not pretty.

3. Let the mixture marinate overnight.

4. The next morning, stash the mixture in the freezer. Scotch doesn't freeze, but the fat will. After a few hours, the fat will be solid, making it very easy to fish out. Even easier if you used a wide-mouth container.

5. Strain the alcohol back into its original bottle.

Your scotch is now ready to drink. Mmm.