Kentucky Bourbon Steak

[Guest **DONOTDELETE**]

While dining at the Talbert Tavern Mike Veach and I both ordered the Kentucky Bourbon Steak. After consuming the delicious meal both Mike and I tried to guess which bourbon was used. I don't remember what we gussed but we were both wrong. It was Jim Beam Marinade. Vickie went out and promptly bought two bottels.

Tonight we had Kentucky Bourbon Rib Eyes. First dump a liberal amount of marinade over the steaks and refrigerate overnight. The next day fire up your charcoal grill. For real wood flavor a gas grill just won't do. We had bought some wood chips made from used bourbon barrels and soaked them in water. After draining dump these on the fire after your charcoal is good and hot and glowing orange. Put your cooking grill in place and put on the steaks. Cook to your desired level of doneness. Eat with gusto!

Linn Spencer

Have Shotglass. Will Travel.

[kitzg]

You lucky dog!

[Guest **DONOTDELETE**]

Linn,

The steaks sound great. I suggest we make up a big pan of bourbon baked beans and grill some steaks the next Bourbon Festival.

Mike Veach

[Guest **DONOTDELETE**]

Capital idea Mike! We'll have to send you some money to get the steaks and marinade and put them in the 'fridge. After the Heritage Panel we'll crank up the grill. Maybe Booker will be trying to find a way to sneak into our party.

Linn Spencer

Have Shotglass. Will Travel.

[Guest **DONOTDELETE**]

Linn,

If we are going to make a party out of this then we need to sautee' some mushrooms with butter (NO MARGARINE!!!!) and bourbon as well and end the meal with some Bread Pudding with caramel Bourbon sauce.

Mike Veach

[cowdery]

Or as Henry Watterson ended his famous Mint Julep recipe, "now throw out all that crap and drink the bourbon."

--Chuck Cowdery

[Guest **DONOTDELETE**]

Sounds delicious indeed! To use margarine would be like using a Canadian blend.

Real butter & bourbon only please.

Linn Spencer

Have Shotglass. Will Travel.

[Guest **DONOTDELETE**]

Linn,

I did this with mushrooms, onions and bell pepper and thought it was quite good to have with a steak. I used Very Old Barton B in B and it did actually catch fire a time or two while on the grill but that was fine.

Mike Veach

[Guest **DONOTDELETE**]

Chuck,

Marse Henry had a lot to say about bourbon and was a great opponent to prohibition. He even ordered a case of Old Charter on the eve of prohibition to see him through the dry years that were to follow.

Mike Veach

[bobbyc]

Mike I guess Henry must have thought the Volstead act would be corrected right away to only need a case of Old Charter!

I am trying my hand at developing my own Bourbon steak recipe( Not much to do on a rainy Kentucky afternoon, and even less that I have time to write about it.) I have 2 containers 1 with mesquite chips the other with hickory soaking in Cabin Still and water ( because it was cheap) . I will have to fine tune the hickory I'm afraid because I used limbs and I think I should have used a piece of the first cut of the log, that's where staves come from to make the barrells. I should have got it in the fall instead of now . I guess I could look for a seasoned piece in the wood pile. ( If you think this is too much detail , I soak black walnuts for months for the bourbon balls I make.) I have a beginning marinade for the steaks . We'll see what happens. I found several recipes for such but some included using prepared mustard . That doesn't appeal to me. Although it may be very good.

Bobby Cox

[ratcheer]

Bobby, using hickory limbs for cooking is just as good, if not better than, chunks from logs.

I used to have the same idea you do because I so often saw split hickory logs stacked up outside good barbeque restaurants. But a few years back, I was invited to a 4th of July barbeque out on the country (near Talladega). The old farmers were cooking a whole fresh ham. I was mildly amused when I saw them using green hickory limbs for the smoking, thinking they were way off base. Boy, was I wrong! It was absolutely the best hickory smoked meat I have ever tasted, before or since.

Tim

[bobbyc]

That's pretty cool to know . I just finished eating a steak I used some of the hickory and some mesquite. I don't think it could have been any better.

Here is the marinade:

10 tbls bourbon

3 tbls worchestershire sauce

3 tbls catalina salad dressing

1/2 ts juice from marishino cherries( I think I'll try 1 ts next time.)

Dash of crushed red pepper

a couple twists of black pepper from a peppermill.

I used 4 New York Strips But I feel pretty sure Tbones or Ribeyes even Sirlion would be fine.

I put it all in a gallon ziplock for 4 hours ( it will probably be overnite next time)

when I placed the meat on the grill ,weber of course, I put half the marinade on the tops and the rest when I turned them over. The big surprise was the flavor imparted in the fat . I used the Cabin Still bourbon that I used on the wood ,not the best in the world but I'm not going to go too pricey on the stuff I cook with . Although I did use some VanWinkle 10YO 107 in my bourbon balls last year. I have a friend whose Dad uses a fifth of 7 YO Beam for his hickory chips It seemed extravagant to me but if you look at it like your going to burn a couple hundred dollars in Tbones and Ribeyes it doesn't seem like much.

I cook a country ham each year at Christmas but have never tried a fresh one . May have to look into that.

Bobby Cox