Christmas List - Four Roses

Nothing like a good shindig at holiday time and this looks like the real deal. Silver, candles, pecans, and eggnog from a whopping punch bowl. Not exactly sure why Mr. Ritzy is dishing up a fresh cup when there are no less than 11 filled and waiting, but oh well. You do have to admire his spiffy dress - cravat, white carnation, just the right amount of sleeve peeking from under that tailored suit jacket. Yes, just the sort of party I'd like to crash.

Bourbon-Glazed Turkey

If you've read my blog, you’ll know that I've always had a love of cooking. This culinary affair has led to a relationship with the holidays that ranges somewhere between love and absolute frustration. Like it or not, every American cook has been brought up to believe that their holiday meals should offer up the bounty of the land, sea, and air (or at least the corresponding aisles of the supermarket); surpass the top restaurants on the Michelin list for taste; and look better than a spread in Martha Stewart’s magazine.

Aside from the year I set the centerpiece on fire, I've had a pretty good track record, but the thought of cooking a twenty five pound bird is always a little daunting. So, I figured instead of my usual magazine captures of the meals of the 30’s and 40’s I would share what I consider to be the ultimate recipe for Thanksgiving turkey. This bird comes out with a crispy, sweet glazed skin and moist meat and it goes great with just about anything.

Bourbon-Glazed Turkey

2C Butter at Room Temperature (divided)

1T Poultry Seasoning

½C Light Brown Sugar

½C Honey

½C Apple Cider

½C Wild Turkey Bourbon

Salt and Black Pepper to taste

Take half of the butter and combine with poultry seasoning until well mixed. Carefully separate the turkey’s skin from the breast meat and rub liberally with the butter/poultry seasoning mix. Salt and pepper the turkey, including inside the cavity, and place in your preheated oven.

While your turkey is baking, go ahead and prepare the glaze. Melt the butter over medium heat in a heavy, 1 to 2 quart pot. When the butter begins to foam, add the brown sugar and honey and stir until the sugar is melted and the mixture resembles syrup. Remove the pot from the flame and add cider and bourbon (failure to do so can result in a flare-up, loss of eyebrows, and a heck of a story to tell the firemen). Return the pot to the burner and heat while stirring until the glaze just begins to boil, then remove from the heat and allow the glaze to cool.

Around fifteen minutes before the turkey is done, brush with half the glaze. When the turkey is done, remove it from the oven and brush on the remaining glaze. Let cool fifteen to twenty five minutes before carving.

National Bourbon Heritage Month

Welcome to National Bourbon Heritage month. There’s nothing like getting sauced before marching out in the woods armed with a shotgun to hunt forty-five pound rabbits! Something about this guy just screams Elmer Fudd and it suggests an alternate reason for the hapless hunter’s speech impediment. The G&W ad is from the November 1937 issue of Life Magazine and I think it features the least realistic rabbit I've ever seen sort of Bugs or Roger.

What makes any particular whiskey bourbon? Well, according to the Fed:

• Produced in the United States
• The grain used in its manufacturing must be at least 51% corn
• It must be aged in new, charred-oak barrels
• It must be distilled to no more than 160 (U.S.) proof (80% alcohol by volume)
• Though there isn’t any defined period for aging bourbon, it must placed into the barrel for the aging process at no more than 125 proof (62.5% alcohol by volume)
• It must be bottled at 80 proof or more (40% alcohol by volume)

The history of bourbon is as convoluted and confused as the dirt roads that wind through the hollows and hills of Kentucky from which the spirit is reputed to originate. The first distillers in Kentucky arrived in Bardstown in the 1770s and most historians agree that by 1783 when Louisville was founded some of the area’s earliest inhabitants had already started distilling whiskey. In the eastern reaches of Old Bourbon County exports of corn whiskey became widely known as “Bourbon”, a name that stuck. At some point the barrels used for aging bourbon were charred, something often accredited to Baptist preacher Elijah Craig, and now the practice of aging bourbon in charred oak barrels has become an earmark of good bourbon whiskey.

So, raise a glass of oak, smoked cornfields, and cold limestone springs and take a moment to sit in the year’s aging sunlight. Soon enough everything will be sleet and snow, but for the moment the mellow fire of summer burns inside and everything is softened.