Fat Washing with Bacon

Among life’s greatest pleasures, besides a glass of nice bourbon, is bacon. Fortunately for us, we have Jim Meehan’s Please Don’t Tell (PDT) to provide us a way to combine the two. Jim Meehan, now one of the world’s preeminent mixologists, started his bartending career serving us beers at State Street Brats in Madison back in the mid-1990s. He left for New York City in 2001, honing his skills at two landmark Big Apple bars: Gramercy Tavern and the Pegu Club.

Meehan struck out on his own and founded PDT, an East Village speakeasy whose famous entry is a phone booth in Crif’s hot dog joint. But that entrance is not the only thing that PDT is known for; Meehan’s speakeasy is where rising bar stars are born and modern cocktail classics are made.

One of those great PDT bartenders is Don Lee. Lee is America’s mad scientist of alcohol infusions, a true mixologist in the most literal definition of the word. He invented many of the great refined cocktails at PDT and at the same time perfected the jello shot and massaged marijuana into mezcal. Lee’s gift to the cocktail world, however, is fat washing bourbon, which we will show you how to do here.


Fat washing is the term used to describe the infusion of a fat into alcohol. Any fat can be attempted; about the time that Lee was fat washing bourbon in the late 2000s, we actually fat washed brown butter into rum to great acclaim here in the Firewater Lounge.

For Lee’s recipe, double-smoked bacon is necessary. Lee uses Benton’s. We are using Cedar Road double-smoked bacon from Iron Ridge, Wisconsin. First, cook a package of bacon the way you like it on a rack over a sheet pan in the oven. The rendered bacon fat will pool in the sheet pan during the cooking, three or so ounces will be produced. Eat the bacon for breakfast/lunch. Reserve an ounce of liquid bacon fat.

Get a 750 ml bottle of a bourbon you like. Pour it into a large mason jar along with the ounce of bacon fat. Keep the bourbon bottle for later. Cover the mason jar with a lid tightly and give it a shake. Set the jar on the counter and let infuse for four hours. Shake every once in a while.

After four hours, set your jar into the freezer. Wait two more hours until a rim of solidified fat appears on your bourbon. Then, take the jar out of the freezer, break the fat rim and pour the bourbon back out into its bottle through a coffee strainer. If you do not strain the bourbon, it will have tiny clumps of fat in it and have an oily texture. Voilà, bacon bourbon!

Here’s a cocktail to try.

Swine and Vine Cocktail
Holly’s Original

1 ½ ounces bacon bourbon (we used Forester’s)
1 ounce Carpano vermouth
½ ounce triple sec
1 dash of orange bitters

Add all ingredients into an iced vessel; stir until cold, about 40 revolutions. Let stand for a moment, while preparing an orange peel swath garnish. Pour drink into a small coupe. Squeeze the orange oil from the peel into the drink and rub the peel along the rim of the coupe. Drop peel into glass. Sláinte.