Ideas About Cooking With Brown Liquor?

[Seanchai]

While I thoroughly enjoy wine, beer and the occasional vodka drink, I'm never been a big fan of hard liquor. Whether this was due to the communal shots of Jameson and Irish Mist I took part in while working in one of DC's Irish pubs or because of a very unfortunate college incident involving tequila and squad cars, I can not say. Nevertheless, my friends from the pub have given me numerous bottles of Irish whiskey (just basic Jameson or Bushmills) as holiday gifts over the years and they are just collecting dust in a cabinent.

Lately I''ve had the belated brainstorm of trying to cook with it. I'm not looking for recipes here but rather basic ideas about what are some creative (and safe) ways to use the "water of life". What does whiskey pair well with? Can you use it in braising the odd cut of meat, etc.? Is there such a thing as whiskey soup ? Any contributions would be much appreciated.

[Waitman]

I make a quite tasty, I don't know, "beurre marron?" sauce that I serve with grilled or roasted pork and a warm slaw made with red cabbage, apples and red onions.

Cook a pretty good dollop of whisky (more than you'd think -- like at least a cup, maybe two) and some stock down until it's basically a gooey glaze and finish with butter. I do it with Scotch, I've seen it done with Bourbon, and so I'm sure it could be done with Jamesons. It seems to pair very well with pork.

If you do the slaw thing, just slice everything thin and throw it in a pot with some red wine vinegar or -- even better -- grocery-store quality balsamic, some of the stock, and a little sugar.

[mktye]

One of my favorite recipes for apple crisp calls for it to be served with a whiskey-enhanced whipped cream. A delicious combo.

[blakegwinn]

Soak berries in a few tablespoons for a couple of hours with a a sprinkle of sugar and some chopped mint or citrrus zest or something than mix a splash into some cool whip for a topping. This is one of my favorite, easiest and healthiest desserts. I usually use cognac or bourbon but I am sure jamesons would work just fine

Whiskey also makes for a good pan sauce. Whenever you make pork chops or pork loin or even chicken just deglaze the pan with the whiskey, let it reduce than add a dollop of butter, salt and pepper to taste and some chopped herb if you want. (sorry waitman didn't see yours above!!) And from personal experience be sure not to let it spill over the edge while shaking the pan and ignite. Bad idea....

I could definitely see throwing some into the braising of a pork shoulder. My dad use to make BBQ pork in the crock pot, braise it all day during the winter and I think a cup or two of whiskey would be right at home in that pot along with traditional BBQ ingredients. I don't think you would lose that much in using Jamesons instead of the more appropriate bourbon especiially if you have loads of Jamesons to get rid of.

As far as soup goes I think my uncle Joe had a great recipe for a jameson gazpacho. 2 cups jameson, 1/2 cup of water, 8 ice cuubes and blend. He use to eat a bowl of this every morning and usually a few bowls at night before bed. Actually I think he usually took this in a thermos to work for lunch also....

And how can you not love throwing some in your coffee?

[ol_ironstomach]

As far as soup goes I think my uncle Joe had a great recipe for a jameson gazpacho. 2 cups jameson, 1/2 cup of water, 8 ice cuubes and blend.

Truly a wise culinarian, your uncle Joe. Rosa Mexicano wouldn't suck ventworm nut nearly as much if they'd adopted his gazpacho recipe...

[rvanrens]

A former landlady of mine used to use to use my oven to make her X-Mas ham...it was pretty simple.

Take a Virginia country ham. Cut off the nasty bits. Place in a deep roasting pan or dutch over. Add whisky until it cover the ham. Place in oven at 300 degrees for, oh, about 10 hours.

Amazing. Abso-focking-lutely amazing. Transcendant, even. I mean, wow.

The only drawback was that I had to live with the thing while it cooked - that wasn't all that pleasant. It could smell better.

Rob