OH MY!

I’m not sure if I should be thrilled or worried when friends send me interesting bourbon cocktails. I’m going with thrilled. Positive thoughts and all that jazz.

 So when my friend Isaiah sent me a text telling me he had a Brown Butter Old Fashioned I was at once intrigued and thirsty. Life however had other ideas, so I put the drink in the mental rolodex – do people even ‘get’ that reference anymore?

Did I mention brown butter? Who doesn’t love brown butter? I mean really, anyone? Bueller. Bueller. Bueller.

If I’m being truthful, I eat popcorn for the butter and salt. But I digress. Back to the Brown Butter Old Fashioned – I had to think on how it was made: a syrup or maybe a wash. If I made it into a wash, then it might turn out like the bacon wash; and that WAS delicious. Given how tasty that was, I went with the wash.

With the recipe forming in my mind, I went to the lab (my kitchen) to begin putting it together. Before I assembled the cocktail, I tasted my brown butter washed bourbon neat – interesting flavor. I used salted butter for my wash with Bulleit bourbon. I definitely tasted the salt, and the lower proof didn’t overwhelm the buttery goodness. I’m not sure I could drink an entire glass of it neat; but a sip or two was kind of nice.

The finished drink is tasty, albeit sweet. I added simple syrup, and while I didn’t add a lot, it was still sweet. A higher proof may have tamped some of the sweetness, but it also may have overwhelmed the wash. Adding a couple of drops of chocolate bitters evened out the cocktail and created some depth. Not as sweet, subtle layers. I like.

BONUS – I had the left-over butter from the wash that was bursting with bourbon flavor. I lathered it on some French bread, cut a wedge of cheese and had my cocktail. Dinner was served. And it was delicious.

Recipe

Cheers!

 ~Kimberly Elise
#2BrownGirls
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