Bacon Infused Vodka

750 ml vodka

six strips bacon

Cook the bacon until crisp. Drain grease. Infuse in vodka for one to several weeks.

If the resulting infusion is greasy, try freezing it. That should make the grease for solid pieces, which can then be filtered out.

Definitely worth experimenting with.

Bacon-Chocolate Shot

1 part bacon infused vodka

1 part chocolate vodka

salted rim (optional)

Pour the bacon vodka first. When you pour in the cocolate vodka, it will sink below the bacon. This is not a drink for sipping - you really need to mix the two flavors to make this work.

A couple of years ago my ex-brother-in-law gave me a bacon-chocolate bar for Christmas. It was good, but mostly my reaction was that it could have been a lot better. Then, last summer, state fairs across the country introduced America to thick-cut, chocolate-dipped bacon chunks. As a Minnesotan of some girth, that just felt self-destructive. Which of course did not stop me.

The bacon-chocolate shot is a drink that is greater than the sum of its parts. The bacon infused vodka on its own is somewhat greasy and salty and has little to mask the vodka burn in the back of your throat. And the chocolate vodka alone is sort of muddy and syrupy (I could probably improve on that). But when combined these two are like some sort of superhero team in which each member's skills cannot be fully appreciated without the other.

Letters from Readers

Occasionally we take time respond to a few of the many letters we receive from readers. Today's letters are from Pennsylvania and from Brooklyn.

Dear Ray,

Mmm. That is the most delish blog on the web. I hope you find ways to work pork and pork products into yer vodkablog. Cuz vodka and pork are essentially the food of the gods.

-Ego in Park Slope

Dear Ego,

I remember when I was in college there was a house that was rumored to have a bottle of "pork schnapps". I never actually saw it, and assume it was a homemade concoction that gained mythical status only because no one dared drink it and it stayed there on the cinder-block-and-stolen-lumber shelves.

Just for you, Ego, I plan to go to the grocery store this afternoon to buy some Nueske's bacon to make some bacon-infused vodka. I promise to share the results.

A friend recently suggested pastrami vodka. Too bad I can't find any REALLY GOOD pastrami in Minnesota. I believe Katz's has a slogan that says "Send a pastrama to your boy for good karma". I'm just sayin'.

Dear Ray,

We've got spirits. Yes, we do. We've got spirits. How 'bout you?

-Eamus in Pittsburgh

Dear Eamus,

I'll cut to the chase here: We've got more.