Fred Thompson - Bourbon: 50 Rousing Recipes for a Classic American Spirit

IN MEMORY OF MY DAD,
E.M. "TOMMY" THOMPSON, WHO LOVED
HIS JACK DANIEL'S OLD NO. 7.
I MISS YOU.

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Copyright 2010 by Fred Thompson
Photographs copyright 2010 by Brian Hagiwara

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Thompson, Fred, 1953

Bourbon : 50 rousing recipes for a classic American spirit / Fred Thompson.
p. cm.
Includes index.

ISBN 978-1-55832-400-8 (alk. paper)
1. Cocktails. 2. Whiskey. I. Title.
TX951.T48136 2010
641.2'52-dc22

2009027603

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Book design by Elizabeth Van Itallie
Photography by Brian Hagiwara
Prop & food styling by Bret Baughman

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"SIP IT AND DREAMIT IS A DREAM ITSELF.
SIP IT AND SAY THERE IS NO SOLACE FOR THE SOUL, NO TONIC FOR
THE BODY LIKE OLD BOURBON WHISKEY."

J. Soule Smith's "Ode to the Mint Julep," written in the 1890s

Bourbon is truly an American spirit. Only in the limestone rock formations of central Kentucky and north-central Tennessee can the water be thus flavored: As it filters through the stone, it grabs just the right chemical balance to make the distillers' yeast robust and vibrant, which produces the dark-honey-golden fluid. Nirvana. Bourbon, named for Kentucky's old Bourbon County, and its close cousin Tennessee whiskey are related to the whiskey-making business in Ireland and Scotland only by generalities. Corn is the grain of choice for American whiskey, from which either a mash or a sour mash is made to kick off fermentation. But that color and smoky-sweet nose with hints of vanilla, caramel, and clove come from freshly charred white oak barrels and the length of time they are allowed to hold the liquor. In Tennessee, the whiskey takes one more step with a charcoal filtration, which some admirers of a man named Jack Daniel or George Dickel believe smoothes out the flavor.

Bourbon and Tennessee whiskey have strolled out of their Southern heritage and left their spiritual homes of Louisville, Bardstown, and Lynchburg to be enjoyed throughout the country. Like another Southern export, NASCAR, bourbon is exploding in consumption and demand. From New York City's hottest bars and restaurants to the hip Mission District of San Francisco is heard the lament "We can't keep bourbon in stock." Also heard: "Our bourbon cocktail sales are up 30 percent." With the reserve, small-batch, and single-barrel bourbons now becoming "top shelf," there is even more interest in bourbon.

Other factors have also created this demand, according to bartenders around the countrythe trend back to classic cocktails and bourbon's appeal with American foods. Barbecue (the noun), one of America's biggest food fascinations, is hard to pair with wine, but the smoky sweetness of bourbon and Tennessee whiskey plays on the palate in an enriching way that blends with rather than disturbs the food's essence. A little bourbon and ginger ale sits communally with fried chicken, too. America's newfound interest in Southern foods makes bourbon and Tennessee whiskey the perfect before, during, and after mealtime beverages. America's "native whiskey" seems to prepare your taste buds for big flavors. It is an outstanding pre-dinner quaff, even when followed by wine.

And can you even imagine listening to the blues with Scotch or vodka? America's signature music certainly deserves America's signature spirit.

Bourbon and Tennessee whiskey have even transcended the borders of our country. In 2007 America's spirits exports topped $1 billion, almost all of that bourbon and Tennessee whiskey. You can easily find Jack Daniel's and Maker's Mark in the grocery stores of Italy. They covet Jack Daniel's in Japan, and it is a welcome gift when doing business there, as I discovered a few years ago while on a consulting job in Tokyo. More than 100 countries import American whiskey, including Great Britain, Canada, Germany, Australia, and Japan. China, Vietnam, Brazil, and the old Eastern Bloc countries are new, fast-growing markets for our whiskey.

With small-batch and single-barrel varieties and the almost cult status of some bourbons, the legend continues to grow. Bourbon and Tennessee whiskey are American stories and spirits that deserve their place on the top shelf of our drinking repertoire.

If you definitively know who invented bourbon, then stand behind the last person in line who definitively knows who invented bourbon. Its beginnings seem to have been lost, or at least reworked through oral histories in the 1800s. Bill Samuels, the president of Maker's Mark distillery, considers the story of bourbon as one of a "series of happy accidents," and he's right. Much information is sketchy. Some of its history is probably best forgotten or simply has been forgotten because the subject (and its consumption) does tend to create a hazy memory. Much of this story is factual; much is "based on a true story," as they say in the movies.

In 1791, the newly formed Congress put a tax on whiskey production to help pay the debts that financed the Revolution. This raised the ire of the Scotch-Irish settlers in western Pennsylvania, which was the hub of whiskey production in America. They refused to pay, and the Whiskey Rebellion of 1791 to 1794 began. It also sounds like the beginning of moonshiners and their opposition to taxes. The uprising was so great that President George Washington had to send in a militia to bring peace. That, he found out, was not an easy task. To save face and avoid further troubles, Washington, himself a large whiskey producer at Mount Vernon, agreed to a deal that Virginia's Patrick Henry proposed. Since Kentucky, west of the Allegheny Mountains and a part of Virginia at the time, was exempt from federal law, an arrangement was made for those who were willing to move there. Years before, then-governor of Virginia Thomas Jefferson had offered settlers 60 acres of land in Kentucky if they would build a permanent home there and raise "native corn." Resurrecting this deal dampened the uprising and allowed Washington to expand population growth into that area.

I have yet to meet a family that could eat 60 acres' worth of corn. It's perishable and was too bulky to transport at that time in history. But if you turn it into whiskey ... Scotch-Irish immigrants, who were quite adept at distilling, bought in to the plan in droves. So whiskey became a creole of their native ways and our native grain, and bourbon was about to be born.

Most of the settlers set up house close to the land offices that the federal government had established to handle allocation of property. These offices were all located on the Limestone Shelf, a geographic area shaped like the upper half of an hourglass that takes up about 25 percent of today's western Kentucky and 5 percent of Tennessee. The water running through this shelf was and is high in calcium and low in iron, ideal for distilling whiskey and also an excellent drink for raising strong-boned thoroughbred horses. Almost every major bourbon producer in America today distills in the Limestone Shelf.