Maple Bacon Pisco Sour

November 4, 2014
Drinks,Recipes

As many of you know, in August my wife gave birth to a beautiful, happy, healthy baby girl. Her name is Fiona, she’s the cutest thing in the world, and I’m in love. She went to IKEA at 2-weeks (mistake!), attended her first A’s game at 4-weeks, sat at her first bar at 6-weeks, enjoyed her first spa day at 8-weeks, and danced at her first wedding at 10-weeks. We made the decision to not share her photos on social media, but trust me, she’s adorbs . . . wait, did I just say adorbs in public? As many of you also know, the lovely Jessica Merchant of How Sweet Eats is due to have a baby in a few weeks too!! Of course Bev and Ashley, being the awesome friends that they are, organized this little virtual baby shower. Not just any baby shower, but rather an over the top, trashed up, neon, larger than life spread of tacos, pizza, burgers, salads, dessert, and of course cocktails. So please join me in celebrating this wonderful moment . . . Jessica, this one’s for you!

Maple Bacon Pisco Sour by HonestlyYUM

I knew immediately that my cocktail of choice would have to include bacon. The next step in this logic was to use a technique that I’ve tried only once before: fat-washing! I mean, what could be more indulgent than that?!! The idea is to infuse the flavors of a tasty fat (in this case bacon) into an alcohol. The alcohol is then put into the freezer, where the fat will solidify and but alcohol will not. Gotta love science! The fat is skimmed and strained (think gravy) and you’re left with fat-washed booze, perfect for any virtual baby shower. It’s really that easy!! Let’s begin . . .

Maple Bacon Pisco Sour by HonestlyYUM

Start by rendering some bacon fat. That’s right, this cocktail involves COOKING BACON! Once the bacon has finished cooking, carefully strain the bacon fat through a fine mesh strainer – preferably one that won’t melt when you pour hot bacon fat through it.

Maple Bacon Pisco Sour by HonestlyYUM

Transfer the pisco to a large freezer-safe widemouth jar. This is necessary in order to remove the solidified bacon fat later. Next, strain the warm bacon fat into the pisco, and give it a good stir. It is important to let the bacon fat cool down a bit for safety reasons. However, if it cools down to room temperature it will solidify, in which case simply heat it up again.

Maple Bacon Pisco Sour by HonestlyYUM

Once you’ve added the bacon fat, place the pisco in the freezer for 24 hours. This will solidify the bacon fat, thereby separating it from the pisco, which does not freeze. Remove the pisco from the freezer and skim the solidified bacon fat off the top. Pour the pisco through a fine mesh strainer to remove any remaining particles and you’re done! Smoky, salty, bacon-y pisco!

Maple Bacon Pisco Sour by HonestlyYUM

Now you’re ready to mix your cocktail. Add egg white, lemon juice and maple syrup to a shaker. Give those ingredients, and those ingredients alone (no ice) a dry shake for 10 seconds. This will help your egg white get extra foamy.

Maple Bacon Pisco Sour by HonestlyYUM

Next, fill your shaker with ice and add the bacon-infused pisco. Vigorously shake for 10 seconds then double strain into a chilled coupe glass. I was a bit worried that using a fat-washed spirit would kill my foamy egg white. If you’ve ever tried to make pavlovas, you may have learned that the hard way. But I was pleasantly surprised that I still achieved a thick frothy foam worthy of any pisco sour.

Maple Bacon Pisco Sour by HonestlyYUM

Instead of garnishing with the usual drops of bitters, I gave the foam a very slight mist of bitters with my atomizer instead. And there you have it – a hearty breakfast and elegant cocktail all in one. Congratulations again to the lovely Jessica and her growing family. Cheers!!

Maple Bacon Pisco Sour by HonestlyYUM

MAPLE BACON PISCO SOUR

Ingredients:

For the cocktail:

  • 2 oz bacon fat-washed pisco
  • 3/4 oz lemon juice
  • 1/2 oz maple syrup (grade B)
  • 1 egg white
  • Angostura bitters for garnish

For the bacon-fat-washed pisco:

  • 750 bottle of pisco (preferably aged)
  • 1 1/2 oz bacon fat (liquid volume)

Directions:

For the bacon-fat-washed pisco:

  • Cook 4-5 strips of bacon to render bacon fat. Pour liquid bacon fat through a fine mesh strainer into a heat proof glass jar and set aside to cool slightly.
  • Transfer pisco to a freezer-safe widemouth jar.
  • Strain the bacon fat into the jar of pisco.
  • Place the pisco in the freezer for 24 hours.
  • Remove the pisco from the freezer and skim the solidified bacon fat off the top.
  • Funnel the pisco through a fine mesh strainer back into the bottle.

For the cocktail:

  • Add egg white, lemon juice and maple syrup to a shaker. Dry shake without ice for 10 seconds.
  • Next, fill your shaker with ice and add the bacon-infused pisco. Vigorously shake for 10 seconds.
  • Double strain into a chilled coupe glass.
  • Garnish with a mist of Angostura bitters (optional).

How Sweet Final Graphic

More baby shower bites (and sips!) from around the web:

Trashed up Salads:

Trashed up Cocktails:

Trashed up Burgers:

Trashed up Tacos:

Trashed up Desserts:

Trashed up Pizza

(images by HonestlyYUM; groovy neon graphic by Ashley)

Conversation

This Maple Bacon Pisco Sour idea is super unique and amazing, super excited try this Pisco Sour idea. Thanks for sharing this one with us.

Super excited to try this Maple Bacon Pisco Sour , seems amazing. Thanks for sharing this one with us, will love to try this one.

Love this delicious Maple Bacon Pisco Sour, this one seems super delicious and amazing . Will love to try this unique recipe.

Love this Maple Bacon Pisco Sour, this one seems super delicious and unique. Super excited to try this amazing one . Thanks for sharing this one with us.

Love this Maple Bacon Pisco Sour, seems so delicious , will love to make this one . Thanks for sharing this one .

Love this Maple Bacon Pisco Sour seems so amazing , will love to mke this . Thanks for sharing this recipe.

This maple bacon pisco sour looks absolutely fantastic. Beautiful photos, too. I look forward to trying this.

Wow. These are amazing pictures. I love them, keep up the good work your’re doing here!

Gorgeous pictures. I made this maple bacon pisco sour for the super bowl party and it was a crowd favorite. I’m also gonna pin this post on my Pinterest board my followers will love it. Thanks for sharing, Todd!

OMG!!! This cocktail is screaming my name i cannot wait to try it!!!

Thanks for finally writing about > Maple Bacon Pisco
Sour Recipe by HonestlyYUM < Loved it!

What a delicious looking cocktail! I did something similar to this with browned butter and bourbon a while back. The process is so worth it… Looking forward to giving this ago post-January when baby #2 arrives 🙂

Oh, how I wish I could have a sip of this drink now! Pinned

Sounds delectable! But I’m really dieing for that cutting board, where did you get it?

Absolutely stunning! That second to last shot is like whoa (actually all of them are)… suddenly I’m very thirsty. 😉

Now that is a cocktail!
Jessica is a lucky person. You guys have done a beautiful job with this “virtual” baby shower..

Wow, many congrats all around!! To you, to Jessica and to Bev who has the best instagram of twin babies ever, haha!! The recipe looks amazing Todd… bacon fat?! Holy smokes, I need to try this. Great job!!!

This drink is INSANE. Fat-washing has to be the coolest name for a kitchen technique I’ve ever heard. I am so intrigued and enticed by this combo. Adore.

Heck, yes. I am all over this! Let’s get that baby out of Jessica’s belly so she can have one of these STAT!

YUM! This sounds delicious. I made bacon-infused vodka this year and it was great (hello bloody mary’s!). I can’t wait to try this out!!

This is definitely a recipe made for Jess!! Well done!! And thanks for participating! 🙂

Gosh, this looks sooooo good Todd!! You can’t go wrong with maple and bacon.

Love your photos and that glass! Mixology is the coolest 🙂

Whoa, that’s one heckuva party! These cocktails are pretty beyond words – how do you do it?!

My goodness! I’ll be running a race this coming weekend and I know exactly what I’ll be having post-race! I just happen to have some pisco in my liquor cabinet and, true to my Homer-name, there is always bacon in my ‘fridge. Really creative drink Todd. Thanks!

I’m so glad you did pisco, because I am a pisco sour fan (ok, I love all booze). But this was WAY more creative than going with the traditional bacon-bourbon pairing. Very nicely done!!!

i’ve never had a pisco sour…but i’m pretty sure i need to start with one made with bacon.

TODD!
THANK YOU!! you know me so well. now do I reeeeeally have to wait a few weeks to try this?! xoxo

Wow, that is quite the cocktail! Anything with bacon is fantastic. I’ll most definitely have to make this for my husband and I one night. Can’t wait to try! Thank you for sharing.

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