As I walked into the whiskey tasting, a man with a big laugh, a big hat, and a whiskey bottle in his pocket caught my attention. Oh, please, I thought, please be Dave Pickerell. That would be perfect. He was and it was. Not many distillers get their start dreaming about working in a cement factory, but I think it’s safe to say that Dave is not the typical distiller. He wanted to be chemical engineer at age 5 to answer his burning questions about the factories that lined the streets of his hometown outside of Dayton, Ohio. That led him to become the first in his family to go to college, then grad school, where he discovered his gift for the chemistry of distilling and earned the nickname “Thermo God.” To that age-old question of whether bacon belongs in chocolate chip cookies, I say yes. Yes it does. For a food pairing to go with Whistle Pig rye, I was – naturally – trying to find a recipe for bacon cookies. I came across one that was oatmeal, raisin, and bacon from Bon Appétit. But why would one use raisins when chocolate exists? Once you start looking, there are a surprising amount of bacon chocolate chip cookie recipes out there, but most require a half cup of bacon fat. If that makes you go “yum,” well that’s interesting. I only like to see my baking fat in certain forms, like butter. And I liked the oatmeal idea. So I went with the first recipe, substituted chocolate for the raisins, and substituted 3 tablespoons of bourbon for the vanilla. The result? Bacon bourbon oatmeal chocolate cookies. A nice pairing with Whistle Pig. A nice pairing with life. |
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November 2017
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