I have been infusing vodkas as many of you know. I have made Ginger vodka, Vanilla vodka, Pomegranate vodka, Pomelo vodka, Cucumber vodka, Lemongrass Vodka, Buddha’s Hand Vodka (this is still infusing) – but the most daring, strangest, and potentially most awesome vodka infusion? Bacon!

Of course all of this infusing isn’t just because I like vodka, and certainly not because I am a loopy drunkard as my eldest boy tells anyone who will listen. [Honestly, I don’t even really like the taste of alcohol, and my kid is just exaggerating, he hasn’t really ever seen an actual live drunk person in his life so he doesn’t have the slightest idea what that really is but it is always swell to have him pronounce me so in front of different random folks *sigh*]. Anyway – I am preparing all these various infusions for a martini tasting party I am throwing sometime this quarter – definitely before May –so there is a method to my alcohol infused madness. Sort of. So. Where was I? Oh yes, Bacon!

I love Bacon. Love it. i had purchased a bacon-salt deluxe pack (6 flavors of bacon salt and some bacon lip balm) and I thought – HEY! I could rim a martini glass with this and make some kind of awesome dirty martini. Then I read about this nutball making Bacon infused vodka, and well I knew I HAD to try it. So I did, and what follows is the entire month-long process, illustrated, from a platter of bacon to a glass of BLT martini. I admit the middle stages kind of creeped me out a bit, but the end result, well, read/view on.

Step one. Bacon. Vodka. Awesome Funnel. Container.

 

All of the ingredients
laid out on the kitchen table.

 

 

 

 

I used these great 360 Vodka Bottles they have this wonderful stopper enclosure lid and a nice look to them.

 

 

The greatest funnel set known to man. KitchenAid funnels with flexible silicon nozzles – they are super-awesome!

 

 

 

 

Now the cooked Bacon goes into the bottle, piece by piece, until the whole pound of bacon is inside.

Now the funnel, and then the vodka, topping the bacon-filled bottle off

The vodka and bacon filled bottle is all ready to go into a dark and cool place for at least three weeks to infuse.

And there is sits. And sits. And sits. I would take it and shake it about every couple of days or so. And get a bit grossed out, the bacon fat separated out and congealed at the top of the bottle, and clouded up the vodka in the bottle pretty good. It didn’t look appetizing. At all.

Ick right? I was afraid to open it. The picture at left is the bacon infusion at two weeks. I was sure that it would just reek of rancid bacon and I would be most unhappy. Everything I had read on the interwebs said leave it to infuse for at least three weeks. So I did. And then I got busy and left it in for another week. I started the infusion on 2/21 so I thought it would be good to decant the vodka after 30 days which coincided with my one day off for several weeks (because of rehearsals for two shows and work and other such things). So, Saturday 3/21 arrived. I got my courage up and brought out the Vodka, and planned out my next steps. I realized that putting the vodka to infuse into a small-mouthed bottle wasn’t the wisest thing I had ever done. I was going to have to decant it. Then somehow remove the bacon in the bottle, then clean the bottle cause of all the congealed fat. My plan – take the bacony vodka concoction and pop it in the freezer to get the bacon fat and solids to congeal. Then I would filter it out through coffee-filters and a ricer-sieve.

The bottle after 30 days didn’t look all that different from the grossness that was it after 14 days. Cloudier maybe but the same congealed fat, and pale icky looking bacon. But would it be rancid? Only one way to find out: Pop the cap and remove the bacon fat plug in the neck. Eeesh.

I was pleasantly surprised (and relieved) to open the bottle and not be hit by revolting odors – it smelled of bacon. I scooped out the plug of bacon fat and set it aside. [yes I took a picture of that too].

Gross. I then decanted the vodka into another 360 bottle, leaving the vodka-soaked bacon behind.

The liquid still had a lot of solids in it as you can see. It was a cloudy amber color (it actually looks quite a lot like West African Palmwine). It had a really nice bacon smell. I fished the bacon out of the first bottle and set it aside. I tried  a small piece of it – yuk! It was spicy but not at all salty and was just strange. I ended up putting the bacon out on the back porch for the various animals that come and forage (we have a family of raccoons and a family of possums that eat up all the catfood in the night). I actually didn’t think anyone would touch the stuff but in the morning it was all gone. I imagine there are some hungover critters sleeping it off today. Anyway, here is what all that looked like.

The vodka went into the freezer overnight. I really needed the fats to separate out. The night in the freezer did the trick and the next day after music rehearsal I went to work with my coffee filter/ricer sieve filtration system. I found that a double layer of cheap coffee filters worked the best – more than that and the liquid drained far too slowly, less and the fats still got through.

The top view of the coffee filter in the ricer, filled with ice cold vodka and bacon fat.  This was actually the bottom third of the container and there was a lot of bacon fat all congealed at that part. The first two thirds of the container was pretty clear of fats and only needed two passes through the filter. This bottom sludge took two more passes.

 

 

Drip, Drip, Drip. This took a bit longer than I expected – but the results of the filtration were well worth it. I ended up with a beautiful clear golden liquid.

 

 

 

Gorgeous isn’t it? It has a lovely bouquet of freshly cooked bacon no acridity at all. The taste? Full of bacon flavor with a spicy kick. It was actually really really good. I was shocked and thrilled!

Now – to the cocktail itself. I found an interesting recipe for a BLT martini on the interwebs which included romaine lettuce juice – that was the one for me. I am not a Bloody Mary or tomato juice fan – but for this meaty vodka I thought this would be just the thing. I juiced some Romaine Lettuce hearts (pulsed ‘em in the food processor with a tablespoon of plain vodka) and then ran the resulting pulp through cheesecloth. Voila! Green Lettuce Juice!

Romaine Lettuce Juice

For drink (1 oz)

 

 

 

Now to assemble the rest of the ingredients:

Bacon Infused Vodka (2 oz)

    Tomato Juice! (6 oz)

 

 

 

 

 

Tabasco Sauce (1 dash)

 

 

 

 

Salt and Pepper (To taste)

I used Sicilian Sea Salt and freshly ground peppercorns because I am pretentious like that. I am sure Morton’s and McCormick’s would work just fine.

 

 

 

Original Flavor Bacon Salt
(to rim the glasses)

 

 

 

 

After all of the filtering of the vodka, I was left with about two tablespoons or so of silky vodka infused bacon fat in the filter. What to do with that? Why, use it as the base to adhere the bacon salt to the the rim of the glass of course! Duh!

 

I just used a small smidge of fat around the mouth of the glass. Then I dipped the glass in the BaconSalt and put the glasses in the freezer to chill.

 

It made a really nice coating around the glass!

 

 

 

While I was waiting for everything to chill, I decided to throw together a caprese salad to have with the cocktails. I used some marinated mozzarella balls, fresh tomatoes, and fresh Thai basil I picked up at the local Asian Market (Kia Lee) to make curry later in the week. I prefer Thai basil to Italian -  I think the flavor is more subtle and the leaves are more attractive. So there. Anyway. I made some toasted pita rounds to go with the salad and act as the “bread” for the BLT cocktail. I also sliced up some Romaine Lettuce heart spears to act as a garnish for the drink. I suppose you could also use celery for that –but the lettuce seemed more in keeping with the BLT theme. Here’s the salad:

Pretty, right?

 

 

 

 

Now for the drink!

It turned out looking so cool. I used these great glasses I got about 25 years ago from Japan. They are these cool thin oval glasses and they were just perfect for this.

And here’s the drink and the salad all together.

The cocktail was awesome – the initial taste was of tomato and a splash of the lettuce flavor – and then the bacon flavor kicked in and left a spicy wallop at the end. It was really great. The salad complemented the drink really well, although I probably would have been fine with just a bunch of the pita rounds. I am not a big fan of tomato juice so I am going to be thinking of what other drinks I can make with the Bacon Vodka since it is so good. Maybe something with maple syrup flavors? Hmm…ponder ponder. Share any ideas you may have!