This drink is a take on a traditional Whisky Sour cocktail but uses a cocktail-making technique called fat-washing to create a brown butter-infused bourbon.

Fat washing is the process of infusing the flavors from a fat such as bacon or in this case, brown butter, into alcohol. The basic technique is quite easy:

  1. Steep the fat in the base sprit for at least 1 hour. It helps if the ingredients are slightly warm. Also, mixing with a fork or whisk helps aerate the mixture and transfer the flavors. I use two sticks of butter (1 cup of fat) for every 750ml of alcohol.
  2. Transfer the mixture to the freezer. The fat will solidify and rise to the top of the container. The alcohol, which has a lower freezing point, will remain a liquid.
  3. Strain the alcohol through a mesh strainer, cheesecloth, and/or coffee filter. This step will remove any remaining bits of brown butter. Using a coffee filter will give you the clearest liquid but may take an hour or two. If clarity of the resulting alcohol is not a concern, use a mesh strainer lined with cheesecloth if you have it.

To make the cocktail:

  • 2 oz Brown Butter Bourbon
  • 3/4 oz Simple Syrup (1:1 Sugar/Water Ratio)
  • 3/4 oz Lemon Juice

Shake w/ ice in a shaker tin and double strain using a hawthorne strainer and fine mesh strainer into a rocks glass with ice.

You can also try this fat-washing method with other combinations of fats and spirits. Here are a few suggestions:

  • Tequila and Chorizo
  • Bourbon and Bacon Fat
  • Butter and Rum
  • Cocoa Butter and Vodka
  • Browned Beef Fat (i.e. from cooking ground beef) and Vodka – for use in a Bloody Mary

Check out more on The Gastronomer YouTube Channel.

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