Bourbon Gets Sauced

From the barrel to the bowl, bourbon finds a home in savory sauces.

By Melanie Wolkoff

Bourbon’s qualities as a libation are legendary, but we all know bourbon is capable of much more. While this corn-based whiskey, named for Bourbon County, Ky., might more commonly be used in sweet cooking applications, its savory capabilities shouldn’t be overlooked. In fact, bourbon can play the secret-ingredient role in sauces and marinades. You’ll find cooking with just a touch of bourbon intensifies flavors and imparts its own notes of vanilla, nut, oak and smoke.

“Cooking with bourbon adds excitement to your dishes,” writes Sandra Davis in That Special Touch (Special Touch Publishing, 1990). “It imparts a woody, nutty taste.” Davis composes a bourbon peach sauce using peach preserves, brown sugar, marmalade, nutmeg and one half cup of Maker’s Mark. Her brown pecan sauce melds together butter, pecans, Maker’s Mark and chopped spearmint.

“Many think there’s room for bourbon only in a couple of places,” says Ouita Michel, executive chef/owner of Holly Hill Inn in Midway, Ky., who initially thought of bourbon being used only in dessert applications. She began cooking with it more, and discovered bourbon’s various flavor undertones. Today she incorporates it in many of her sauces. For one of her more popular dishes, she combines seared scallops with shallots, garlic and cherry tomatoes sautéed in Woodford Reserve. She adds crème fraîche, tarragon and salt, and serves it with sweet-corn polenta and Jarlsberg cheese.

“The bourbon takes other flavors and becomes its own sauce,” she says. “When you flame the pan, the residual sugars and caramel from the oak barrels come out and balance together with the crème fraiche. It creates a full, fruity flavor in the front.”

A diehard spirits aficionado, Jan Jorgensen, executive chef/owner of Two Chefs in Miami, collects rare and unique spirits, many of which he incorporates in his cooking. Bourbon “finds” nestle in Jorgensen’s marinades. A coffee/bourbon/brown-sugar reduction becomes a glaze for rib eyes. Around Thanksgiving, Jorgensen can’t resist glazing yams with a syrup/sugar/bourbon mixture.

“Bourbon often becomes my sauce foundation,” he says.

Jorgensen prefers using bourbon because, he says, out of all the whiskies, it’s the sweetest. “It never should taste like you poured in a shot of whiskey,” he says. “After you burn out the alcohol, all that’s left behind is sweetness. Bourbon lends itself to sweet flavors, and you get flavor notes of cinnamon, orange and cloves.” Jorgensen lists ginger, citrus, pickling spices and black pepper as ingredients that pair well with bourbon.

Feeling hot, hot, hot

With its Kentucky heritage, bourbon may seem mismatched with Latino applications, but that’s quite to the contrary, says executive chef Anthony Lamas. Since Kentucky is responsible for producing 95% of the world’s bourbon, according to the Kentucky Distillers Association based in Springfield, Ky., Lamas found the right stomping ground when he opened Seviche in Louisville. He knew diners wanted to see bourbon in his dishes, so he began experimenting.

“It’s amazing how hot bourbon is now. It’s the new spirit,” says Lamas, who discovered that bourbon displays similarities to rum, a constant ingredient in Latino cooking. “Bourbon’s caramel flavor reminds me of rum, which Puerto Ricans and Cubans have cooked with for years. It works the same by bringing out the sweetness in ingredients, but provides a different mouth taste, one that is slightly spicy.”

Lamas felt so confident about marrying bourbon with Latino preparations that he created a dinner at the James Beard House featuring it in many sauce components. Starters included a spicy lamb/picadillo empanada with Serrano-chile/bourbon/mint mojo, which Lamas describes as a “Latin pesto”; ahi-tuna ceviche with coconut, ginger and pineapple/bourbon/soy broth; and beef-tenderloin satay with a roasted-tomato/bourbon barbecue sauce. His courses included spinach and roasted pear with black walnuts, strawberries, Capriole goat cheese and balsamic/mustard/bourbon vinaigrette; pan-seared diver scallops with Woodford Reserve and Sheltowee Farm mushrooms; and manchego cheese toast and tomato/sweet-corn butter.

Adobo Niman Ranch pork tenderloin with a Woodford Reserve/chipotle/orange demi-glace and Indiana-sweet-corn salsa was the entrée. For the demi-glace, he combined a quarter cup of bourbon, chopped onion, garlic, a can of chipotle chiles in adobo sauce, crushed tomato, ketchup, rice-wine vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, paprika, chile powder, orange concentrate, honey and salt over medium-high heat for five minutes, then strained.

“The demi-glace is more like a barbecue sauce,” he says. “Bourbon is strong enough to go with the chiles. The glace is spicy and sweet. For this dish it stayed with Latin flavors and stayed with Kentucky.”

The Bourbon Trail

For more bourbon information, contact the following distillers:

Buffalo Trace
(800) 654-8471
www.buffalotrace.com

Four Roses
(502) 839-3436
www.fourroses.us

Heaven Hill Distilleries
(502) 337-1000
www.heavenhill.com

Jim Beam
(502) 543-9877
www.jimbeam.com

Maker’s Mark Distillery
(270) 865-2099
www.makersmark.com

Wild Turkey
(502) 839-4544
www.wildturkeybourbon.com

Woodford Reserve
(859) 879-1812
www.woodfordreserve.com

Match made in culinary heaven

Thad Gillies, chef/owner of Logan in Ann Arbor, Mich., also sees a marriage between pork and bourbon. “It’s a natural combo,” he says. “It cures really well. The meat has such good flavor.”

In his newly opened restaurant, Gillies serves bourbon pork tenderloin, which he marinates for at least 24 hours in bourbon, Spanish paprika, honey and Dijon mustard. He serves it with a potato gratin, poached pears and an herbed pork reduction.

“For the dish, bourbon is used in two parts—in the marinade and as a component of the pork sauce, which is comprised of ground-up pieces of bourbon-deglazed pork tenderloin,” he says.

Gillies uses 4 ounces of bourbon for four pork tenderloins. “This was our first go-around with a bourbon sauce,” he says. “I wanted to upgrade my pork dish. I found a marinade recipe I liked, and changed it a bit. This is our most popular item. It’s blowing the doors off.”

Gillies finds cooking with bourbon leaves behind a smoky taste. “You don’t necessarily know that it’s there,” he says. “It adds synergy, and really infuses itself in the pork. It keeps the meat moist and tender.”

South meets East

Michel finds bourbon suited for soy sauce and Asian applications. “Soy sauce and bourbon share similar characteristics,” she says. “Both are aged in barrels. Instead of the sweetness you get with bourbon, soy sauce is salty.”

Bourbon Cooking Tips

“Less-expensive bourbon that has not been aged will make your sauce thin instead of deep and complex.” — Ouita Michel

“You can overwhelm a dish with too much liquor. Through trial and error, learn how to balance the flavors.” — Anthony Lamas

“Experiment with different brands of bourbon, and see what results. It all depends on what flavors your tongue picks up.” — Peng S. Looi

“When you cook anything containing bourbon at 172° F or higher, it loses its alcoholic content. If you want the spirits to linger, add bourbon last.” — Sandra Davis

“When cooking, it’s important to taste to make sure the bourbon’s under control. You don’t want your food to taste like a shot of bourbon was poured on top of it.” — Jan Jorgensen

Peng S. Looi, chef/owner of Asiatique and August Moon Chinese Bistro, both in Louisville, Ky., says not only does bourbon work well in Asian applications, but it’s an obvious choice. “Bourbon works with traditional Asian flavors,” says Looi. “It complements and caramelizes flavors. At the end of each bite is a smoky flavor and aroma.”

A combination of mango, pineapple, guava juice, orange juice, grapefruit juice and sugar cooked over medium heat and reduced begins Looi’s citrus reduction. He then purées the mixture, returns it to the saucepan and adds 1 to 2 ounces of bourbon. He continues cooking, and seasons with salt and pepper. He serves the sauce atop basa fillets.

Braised lamb shank befriends bourbon in Looi’s espresso/soy sauce/Woodford Reserve sauce. He saute’s curry leaves, rosemary, peppercorns, star anise, pepper, ginger and garlic. Then he adds vegetable stock, bourbon, soy and oyster sauce. He reduces it, and strains the sauce, after which he adds more bourbon, espresso and sugar.

Looi has found another use for bourbon: steaming fish in it instead of sake. That’s not all. “Asian cooking uses rice wine, brandy or Scotch, which bourbon can easily substitute,” he says.

Jorgensen also substitutes bourbon for brandy. “I make pepper steak using bourbon instead of brandy. It makes such a rich broth,” he says.

While it looks as though bourbon can match just about any ingredient, that’s not the case. Lamas recommends staying away from delicate fishes and ceviche, but encourages marinating shrimp in it.

Likewise, Jorgensen avoids pairing bourbon-based sauces with seafood. “I’m not into fishes too much,” he says. “Maybe swordfish, but no white fishes, such as halibut or sole.”

Melanie Wolkoff is based in Louisville, Ky.