A splash of meat for your cocktails

Published 8:17 am Monday, October 4, 2010

First you cook the bacon, remove the fat and tear it into pieces. It sounds like the start of a nice breakfast, but it’s actually the first part of mixologist Adam Seger’s Baconcello recipe. The next step is steeping the bacon in vodka for 72 hours.

Bacon-infused spirits and other so-called “carnivorous cocktails” are quirky options on the menus of some cutting-edge bars these days, and with the introduction in the spring of a mass-produced product called Bakon Vodka, flesh-flavored spirits are beginning to nudge their way into the mainstream drinking scene.

Seger, general manager, mixologist and sommelier of Chicago bar/restaurant Nacional 27, is part of a multitasking breed of barkeep that likes to incorporate culinary techniques into drinks. Bacon is the most popular meat-in-a-glass, but Seger has also made a ham-and-cheese cocktail, while renowned mixologist Todd Thrasher has experimented with foie gras and lamb.

In Thrasher’s BLT cocktail a huge ice cube, made with lettuce water, anchors a glass rimmed with bacon salt. Clear tomato water and bacon-infused vodka are mixed and poured over the lettuce cube.

Thrasher also makes an off-the-menu special called “MacGriddle,” which tastes like a McGriddle from McDonald’s. This one mixes the bacon vodka with cream, maple syrup, a whole egg and confectioner’s sugar. Smith warned us, “It coats your palate” and he was right: It’s very sweet and good as a one-off dessert drink.

The new commercial product Bakon Vodka, launched by three friends in Seattle, seems as far from the barroom experimentations of Adam Seger and Todd Thrasher as artisanal bacon is to a jar of Bacon Bits. The most obvious reason? Bakon isn’t made with real bacon.

Because Bakon’s bacon-ness is chemically induced, it comes off far more smoky and strong than the bar infusions. Bakon Vodka currently sells by mail order at www.drinkupny.com for $29.99.

“It tasted like vodka with a liquid smoke rather than an infusion you do with a high-quality protein,” said Seger, the mixologist from Chicago.

“In Washington we’re starting to see repeat sales to the same customers, and we’re seeing bars put it on their permanent menus — so we know it’s more than just a novelty purchase,” said Sven Linden, one of its creators.

“If you drink like you eat, you can have some amazing things happen,” Thrasher said.