Bourbon balls not your thing? Try a Derby Pie instead, a fudge-sweet chocolate and nut confection invented at Prospect, Kentucky's Melrose Inn. Traditionally served around Derby time, the treat typically calls for walnuts or pecans and a splash of Kentucky bourbon. The Inn's former owners, the Kerns, have been trying to protect its rights to the name "Derby Pie" by filing various lawsuits over the years - even Bon Appetit was no match for the Kerns, losing the right to print recipes using the name in 1987. So if you're looking for a good recipe you may need to try searching "chocolate chess pie" or "Kentucky bourbon pie" or "Thoroughbred pie" instead.

Epicurious has a nice-looking one, for a "chocolate pecan chess pie." I'm planning on making two a little later, to take to a Derby party this afternoon. Now, all I need is a giant hat...

Lisa, over at My Own Sweet Thyme, has a lovely post with a recipe about her aunt's "brownie pie" - supposedly her aunt once worked for the Kerns and was afraid of being sued!

Did you know that there's an official Kentucky Derby recipe for the Mint Julep? This is the drink that you down as you watch the horsies fly by. It also helps if you wear a big hat.

It's called The Early Times Mint Julep, because it uses Early Times Kentucky Whiskey. You probably don't have Silver Julep cups at home, so I'd use something else.

Also after the jump is a video on how to make an alternate version of the Mint Julep.

I can honestly say I've never had hot egg nog. I've had egg nog-flavored hot drinks at places like Borders, and I wonder if this is similar at all (probably not).

This recipe over at FineLiving.com comes from the 70s book The Nashville Cookbook. I've always avoided making my own egg nog because it always seemed too difficult (yes, yes, I like egg nog from the store), but this recipe doesn't seem too hard at all. I see Martha Stewart making her eggnog every year on TV. I wonder if she's ever had this?

I've always been a huge fan of the cranberry (did you know that in the next week, Americans will consume 80 million pounds of cranberries?). Every year I make many loaves of a cranberry bread that I pulled off the back cover a children's book when I was just a kid. However, until recently, I had never had fresh, homemade cranberry sauce. This is mostly because my mother is deeply loyal to the canned stuff (which I will be the first to admit is very tasty) and so only permits that on her Thanksgiving table.

I finally broke down recently and made a batch of fresh cranberry sauce, and let me tell you, it was delicious. I had no idea it could be so wonderful (I've been eating the leftovers with applesauce and cottage in the mornings for breakfast lately). The recipe I used was a very simple one that I found here. Spurred on by that success, I found another cranberry sauce recipe that caught my eye and I think it's the one I'm going to turn to on Thanksgiving. It's a recipe for Bourbon Cranberry Sauce and was posted by Nicole over at Farm to Philly. Because what could be better than the combination of tart cranberries, sugar and a bit of booze!

Wild Turkey American Honey Liqueur is 35.5% abv. / 71 proof and is made with honey and Wild Turkey bourbon. The color is a medium to dark gold. I am not a fan of most of the Wild Turkey products, but was intrigued by this bourbon and honey liqueur. So when I saw it on sale really cheap at the New Hampshire State liquor store I said "what the heck" and picked up a bottle.

The aroma is slightly sharp and sour/sweet and tangy. You can sense the presence of bourbon under some very strange top notes that are camphor like, and salty, and of hot and volatile machine oils. The more I tried to smell the liqueur, the less I smelled anything, until my nose went numb. Then I had a difficult time discerning the aroma at all. I never had my nose go blind before and I wasn't sure I actually wanted to taste it, but I got up my nerve and proceeded on.

The taste was a lot like the aroma, and not very pleasant at all. I kept taking sips trying to find something to like in this liqueur, but could find nothing to like at all. My tongue got as numb as my nose had earlier, and although I am a glutton for punishment I finally had enough of this and poured out the rest of the glass. I don't believe that I actually paid for this stuff. I'd give it away but that would be mean. I rarely write about bad things and prefer to think that I like to make recommendations for products that I like or that sound interesting, but I felt I had to warn other unsuspecting folks about this stuff. When I try to put my thoughts on this into one word, what comes to mind is VILE.

Well, there's two words I never thought I'd see in the same name of a drink, "hickory" and "lemonade."

This drink over at AOL Food seems to combine the best of a summer barbecue and the refreshing offerings at a kid's lemonade stand! Not sure how easy it is to get smoked cherries where you are (I never heard of them before this, except when describing wine), but it's a main ingredient. Recipe after the jump.

Granted, this isn't actually a Mardi Gras cocktail per se, however the ingredients are meant to give a nod to the South nonetheless. I actually stumbled upon it one day while looking for a Mint Julep recipe - this is just a slight variation of the original. It's now on my rotation of drinks to serve at a party because it always garners such positive response. Adjust the ingredients to suit your own personal taste, if desired.

Minted Bourbon
1 1/2 oz bourbon
1 oz sugar syrup (recipe can be found here)
2 tsp fresh-squeezed lemon juice
2-3 sprigs of fresh mint
Sparkling water or soda
Crushed ice

Muddle mint leaves with lemon juice. Add simple syrup, bourbon, and ice. Shake or stir until well mixed. Strain into a tall glass over ice, and top with sparkling water or soda. Garnish with mint leaves or a lemon wedge.

Fall and winter are my favorite seasons, and one of the reasons is because I love the idea of sitting on my couch, in front of a roaring fire, reading, while cupping a hot drink in my hand. OK, so I don't have a fireplace, so it's usually the television. But still, a cold night and a warm drink is something I cherish.

That drink is usually a hot cup of tea. I've never been big on hot alcoholic drinks. Not because I don't like them, but because I can't be bothered with making something hot. But with the weather turning cold (finally!), the recipe after the jump, The Kathy Madison, is something I'll try, even though I'm not a big bourbon fan. Maybe the apple cider and ginger will overpower it enough for me.

We've seen mint juleps here on Slashfood before. There's a mint julep flavored soda and the 132nd Kentucky Derby will serving ooh-la-la $1,000 mint juleps on Derby Day. If you'll be betting on watching the races from home, you can mix up a proper mint julep at your own home bar. But first, a little bit of historical trivia, or trivial history.

The mint julep, though most popularly associated with the Kentucky Derby, wasn't invented by some bartender mixing drinks track-side. The cocktail was first appeared officially in 1803 when it was described as a "dram of spirituous liquor that has mint in it, taken by Virginians in the morning." However, the mint julep's history may go back even a century before that to the early 1700s. Mint juleps today are made with Bourbon, but the first mint juleps were likely made with rye whiskey or rum (in which case, doesn't that make it a mojito?!?!).

To make a mint julep, start with a silver cup, which is frosted over. If you don't have a silver cup, a regular tumbler is fine. Some recipes call for a simple syrup, and others have mint leaves muddled with granulated sugar. If you're using granulated sugar, muddle fresh mint leaves in the bottom of the glass with 1 tsp. sugar. Add crushed ice, the pour in 3 oz. Bourbon.

If you plan ahead, you can prepare the simple-syrup version of the mint julep. Bring equal parts sugar and water to a boil and completely dissolve sugar. Add a handful of mint leaves to the syrup, then chill syrup overnight. To make the mint juleps, place crushed ice in glass, add 1 Tbsp. of the chilled mint syrup, and pour in 2 oz. Bourbon.

Thanks to the blogosphere I learn something new every day. Today's fun fact: The District of Columbia, has overtaken the state of Wisconsin as the top brandy consumer per capita.

Pardon my ingorance, but I had no idea Wisconsites were so fond of the nectarlike distilled wine. Apparently it's been a staple of Friday night fish fries in the wintry state for years. Though I can see the need to sip such a warming libation on a cold Wisconsin evening, I can't imagine how brandy grew to become so popular there. Some theorize that a large number of German-Americans were exposed to brandy when they attended the 1893 World's Fair in Cincinnati.

As for brandy's popularity in D.C., who can say? I always thought the U.S. capital was more of a bastion of Scotch and bourbon.

[via: DCist]

The 18th (I think) round of Sugar High Friday is being hosted by Chandra of Lick The Spoon. The theme is one not unfamiliar to us here at Slashfood: cooking with booze. The official title is "Candy is Dandy...But Liquor is Quicker." My contribution is a sweet potato pie with bourbon, topped with pecans and maple syrup. The recipe comes from Alton Brown and his episode of Good Eats dedicated to sweet potatoes. A transcript of the episode, including the pie recipe, is available through the Good Eats Fan Page. That recipe doesn't include bourbon, but I happened to have a bottle of Baker's on the shelf, and, well, you know, it seemed like a good idea. Since this was the first time I made this recipe (or sweet potato pie, for that matter), I didn't want to tinker with it too much, so I only used two tablespoons of bourbon, around half a shot. It could probably have used a little more, as the bourbon flavor is rather faint. Still, it's one of the best sweet potato pies I've tasted. I'm not ashamed to say that the crust was store-bought. I'm still an amateur in the baking department, and, since I always manage to make a huge mess anyway, I figured I'd make it easier on myself. Truth be told, I still managed to scorch a pot and dirty an extra pie pan. But that's all in the past now. What I'm left with is my favorite type of pie, and a killer version at that.

[Photo: Nick Vagnoni]

I like bourbon and I like beer, and through the years my tastes in both have grown quite rarefied. Sure I drink Jim Beam, but I'm much more apt to order up a Blanton's. And as for beer, I'll settle for a crisp lager, but I prefer a complex Belgian any day. Now brewers are combining bourbon and beer to make what sound to me to be some top-flight beers. What could be better?

These brews are aged in used bourbon barrels for anywhere from three months to a year. The charred wooden barrels impart flavor (i.e. caramel, vanilla, molasses, etc.)  to beer in much the same way they give Kentucky's signature spirit its distinctive flavor. These so-called beerbons run the gamut from rich, intense stouts such as Bourbon County Stout and  Founders Kentucky Breakfast Bourbon Aged Stout to lighter brews, like Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale. All I know is gotta try me some, and right soon. 

With St. Patrick's Day looming up ahead of us it's time to think - not about corned beef and cabbage and beer, which combined has always struck me as a gastric disaster waiting to happen - but rather about the real Irish diet, which is, of course, whiskey and a dash of water.

Everywhere I go I encounter confusion amongst the good and drunk people of this country as to what is the difference between Irish whiskey and "regular" whiskey. They also don't seem to know that bourbon is a whiskey, and yet whiskey is not always bourbon. And, here's an interesting one, Jack Daniels is NOT bourbon, because it's made in Tennessee. So I thought before you go embarrassing yourself in front of all those fireman and police at the bar this Friday, I'd share my encyclopedic knowledge of the subject.

Let's start with Scotch, just to get it out of the way. Coming as it does from Scotland, it's distilled from "malt" (sprouted barley, dried in a drum) and flavored with burnt peat moss as part of its distilling process, which since that moss is not to be found elsewhere makes Scotch its distinctive smoky self. 

 

I’ve already eschewed egg nog as a too thick, too. A lot of folks love the sweet, creamy, egg-y stuff, but I find it a little too thick too drink.

I have no problem eating ice cream and other custard-based desserts, which is basically what egg nog is. Made of eggs and cream, egg nog can be used for a very sweet, rum-spiked French toast. (Or Bourbon-spiked, depending on what’s in your eggnog – and if you’re drinking the virgin stuff, well, I’m sorry).

Eggnog French Toast

Slice day old bread into 1½ “ thick slices.

For every 2 c. of eggnog, add an additional 1 whole egg and mix.

Soak bread in eggnog mixture for a few minutes. You can also let it soak overnight which makes a super soft and gooey French toast.

Melt butter in saute pan. Fry eggnog-soaked bread in butter on both sides.

Serve dusted with powdered sugar, or warm maple syrup, or cranberry compote.