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• Serves many
• About 5hrs of time

To do something for parties, specifically Super Bowl parties, I had an idea: combine one of my favorite foods from where I grew up with one of my favorite foods I discovered when I moved out to Cleveland.

Pierogi.

Birria.

It seemed like the perfect idea: little dumplings stuffed with spicy beef and a bit of cheese, dipped in a chili consumé after being fried in rendered beef fat instead of butter. Served with pickled red onions instead of butter-fried onions. Squeeze of lime, some sour cream, a bit of cilantro and a nice margarita made with bourbon instead of tequila.

In many ways, this is the perfect party food.

However, In one specific way… mad respect to all the Eastern European grandmothers out there because even after researching pierogi dough, taking multiple stabs at it and cursing my own Bohemian blood for falling short on magic, I could not get the dough to work.

The first batch tore too easily and didn’t stretch very well.

The second batch shrank back in on itself.

The third batch was too sticky/wet and “corrected” into a starchy ball I would rather bowl with than eat.

The fourth batch required more flour, and the only thing I had on-hand was the double-ought I keep around for pizzas and flatbreads… which made me want to take a double-ought to my kitchen because the gluten was WAY too much for a dumpling, though it would make a convincing chow fun noodle if I wanted to view a rolling pin as something other than an instrument of self-lobotomization at that point.

I’ve attached the most successful batch of dough I tried so someone with more knowledge can let me know EVERYTHING I did wrong.

What I will try next time (if it ever comes) is cake flour built up with a tablespoon of essential gluten. Maybe that’ll give me what I want, and if not I’ll throw it at geese because I already have a tenuous peace with those foul creatures.

I was three. One bit me and I instinctually choked it in retaliation with tears streaming down my face while other parents quickly turned their children away.

My dad, on the other hand, laughed… at least until it became obvious I was committed to enacting revenge against a member of semi-domesticated wildlife at the city park with an audience.

What is birria?

Think of it as spicy shredded beef.

It’s traditionally made with goat meat (which is phenomenal), but people typically associate it with beef now because it’s widely available and more appetizing to people with [modern] palates.

Most recipes recommend beef chuck, which is a solid pick. Chuck is a relatively inexpensive cut of beef that slow-cooks well and has a good amount of fat for flavor.

Personally, I like to use stew meat because it’s even cheaper and loaded with the kind of connective scrap that lends itself to slow cooking. It’s also lower in fat, which allows me to add what I want for flavor to bring the Birria closer to a goat-funk traditional flavor.

Here’s the deal: you’re an adult, so pick up six pounds of cheap beef. Chuck. Stew. Top round. An assortment of beef cuts from the discount bin. Short ribs. It all works.

One thing to be aware of is if your meat has bones, you’re going to want to skim the foamy bits regularly. It’ll taste even better, but it’s a little more work.

I’m using stew beef in this recipe, so I’m going to add some fat. Chuck is about 20% fat. Stew meat is usually around 5-7%. In six pounds of meat, that’s a big difference in the amount of fat (and lack of flavor) you’re going to get out of it.

This isn’t a bad thing. It’s just something to be aware of and correct for (or tolerate if you want to keep it lean).

I have to throw something back in there… and for me it’s camel hump tallow. If that’s weird (and I understand why it would it), weird fat isn’t your only option. There’s nothing wrong with just using beef fat. Be brave and experiment to find your own take on it.

Turn it into a breakfast food with a riff on machaca and get your fat from a poached egg or two.

Add it to duck-fried potatoes as a topping with a little queso and pico de gallo.

Add an unexpected Indian flair and use some ghee.

My point is that an entrée is just a bunch of one kind of stuff with smaller portions of other stuff around it. Anything can be the headliner and anything can be the backup dancers. It’s up to you to choreograph that and that’s why cooking is fun.

Unless you’re making pierogi dough for the first time.

• Needs
  • A 10qt stockpot, though a Dutch oven is highly recommended.
  • To strain out the bits to make the consume, I like to triple strain it through a colander and two metal sieves because I like a really clean broth. Use what you have: there’s no wrong way to do it and everything but the skins of the garlic and bay leaves are going to be turned to mush by the time the beef is done cooking.
• Wants
  • An electric kettle full of boiling water: it’ll shave 10-15min off whatever I’m making that needs a lot of water to be boiled.
  • SuperBag for straining. It speeds things up and leaves great compost behind.
  • A stand mixer with the paddle attached to shred the beef later. I’ve always found something hilarious about putting unexpected items in a stand mixer and walking away.

Let’s get into it.

• The Birria
  • 6lbs of meat, either chuck or stew meat
    • If using stew meat, have some (preferably animal) rendered fat to add later.
  • 3oz Cleveland Whiskey Black Reserve Bourbon
  • 2 Spanish Onions (I like them because they’re a little sweet)
  • 1 garlic bulb with the top and outer skin removed to expose the actual cloves of garlic.
  • 1 giant carrot cut into quarters
  • Bay leaves. Use as much as you like. Some people really like them, but I prefer sage over bay leaves… but I’m also a 9er’s fan. More than 3 ought to do it.
  • 5 guajillo chilis, stems cut off and de-seeded.
  • 3 ancho chilis, prepared as above.
  • Optional: 5 arbol chilis (if you want to bring some assertive heat), prepared as above.
  • 5 tbsp Beef Better Than Bullion
  • 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar (not traditional, but I love it)
  • 1 tbsp chili powder
  • 1 tbsp ground cumin
  • 1 tbsp salt
  • 1 tsp oregano
  • 1 tsp parsley
  • Enough water to cover the meat
  • OPTIONS: cayenne pepper and Maggi sauce.

Place your Dutch oven over a medium-high burner and let it come up to temp. Don’t add any fat yet as by the time the oven is hot enough to brown meat the fat will be scorched and disgusting.

While it’s heating up, cube up your meat. If you’re using stew meat, it’s already good to go.

Put on some Manu Chau and your best pair of caballero snakeskin orthotics.

Add your fat of choice for browning. I like peanut or avocado oil because it has a high smoke point, though you can realistically use anything you want as long as you keep the heat under the oil’s threshold.

Let it come up to a shimmer (no smoke) and add your meat in batches to brown it. This is somewhat optional: it’ll be shredded later, but the extra hit of complexity from getting a sear on at least one side of the meat is a good idea. More sides browned now, more flavor later.

While your meat is browning, start a kettle of water to get it boiling and remove the stems and seeds of the chilis. If you’re spicing it up, glove up. It’s too easy to forget to wash your hands completely after handling the hot stuff and end up gassing yourself on accident. It’s hilarious to everyone else, though, so handle yourself as you will.

Once you’re ready to rip, cover the meat with the boiling water from the kettle and allow it to come to a boil before reducing heat to a simmer. Go ahead and toss in your seasoning, spices, chilis, and salt.

For bouillon, I prefer beef or lamb. Some recipes call for chicken. If you have access to it, use lamb bouillon (it’s an English thing you can find on Amazon… and awesome). Don’t be stingy with it as most of your salt and overall flavor will be coming from it.

Also don’t bother stirring: convection finds a way, just watch your heat and prep the following while you’re waiting for it to come up to temp.

Cut your Spanish onions in half, remove the dry paper skin, root and stem. Toss it in.

Cut the top off your garlic bulb and toss it in. Don’t worry about peeling it, just take the outer paper off and rinse it to make sure you’re not adding a dash or Monsanto. The garlic will dissolve and you’ll strain out the rest later.

Cut your big carrot in quarters and toss them in. This will also turn to mush and you don’t need to waste time finding the bigger chunks later.

Once everything is added and it comes to a boil and you bring it to a simmer, put the lid on your Dutch oven and set your timer for 30 minutes and prep your

• Pierogi Dough
  • 500g AP flour
  • 2 large eggs
  • ½ cup 2% milk
  • ½ cup buttermilk
  • 1 tbsp melted butter
  • 6g salt (different salts have different densities)
  • OPTION: 1 tsp drastic malt. This helps the browning process of dough, giving it a satisfying crust without making it like a shingle.

If you’re kneading by hand, sift your flour and all dry ingredients into a mixing bowl and mix your wet ingredients separately. Combine everything and mix until shaggy. Wrap it up in plastic and set aside to allow time to take care of the autolysing for you. The moisture will let the gluten do what gluten does without a lot of the elbow grease.

If you have some things to work out, beat it up until smooth.

Me? I like stand mixers or bread machines because while I want to make friends with doughs, I prefer them cooked… like geese, now that I think about it.

Regardless your method, wrap your completed dough in plastic and set in the fridge to rest and relax.

When the first 30min timer goes off, pull your chilis and put them in a blender with a bit of broth. Show no mercy: make them a bright red paste. Try a little bit of it.

Is it offensively hot? Leave it alone.

Is it not offensively hot? Add a little cayenne pepper to it, blend it again, try it again.

What is offensively hot? That depends on the person.

I have a pretty high tolerance for heat, so I judge what will be offensively hot to others when heat hits the very back of the roof of my mouth. If you’re a wimp, don’t worry about it: this is a traditionally spicy dish to cover up the flavor of meat that’s perhaps a bit to far past its prime. Make it the way it’s good to you.

If you’re more mild than wild, go with all ancho chilis and cut the amount by 50%. Just serve with a hot sauce buffet so your friends can punish themselves if the mood strikes and they’re not staying the night.

Add your murder paste (or verbal assault paste if you’re a mild fella) back to the pot, stir it up, and set your timer for the next 40 minutes.

We’re going to prepare the single most delicious condiment no refrigerator should EVER go without:

• Bourbon Pickled Red Onions
  • Red onions: how much you make depends on how cool you are as cool is directly proportional to pickled vegetable consumption.
  • Peeled and smashed garlic cloves
  • Water and Apple cider vinegar in a 1:1 ratio.
    • I like apple cider vinegar for pickled onions because it’s a cuddly acid as opposed to an aggressive one like white vinegar. Either will do.
  • 35g of cane sugar per cup of water
  • 20g salt per cup of water. I like smoked salt because it’s delicious, but totally optional.
  • ½ tbsp Cleveland Whiskey Black Reserve Bourbon per cups of water to give it a little vanilla and oak like barreled pickles, plus the alcohol will help tie the room together.
  • 1 tsp peppercorns per 2 cups of water
  • OPTIONS: nutmeg, fresh dill, fresh cilantro, cleaned jalapeño picks, carrot picks

If you like spicy stuff, cut up a jalapeño or two after getting rid of the seeds and throw it in the jar. Same goes for carrots. All delicious additions to pickled red onions.

Combine everything except the onions, peppercorns, and garlic in a saucepan and bring it to a boil.

Stir it up. Sometimes the salt and sugar don’t dissolve easily. If that’s the case, add a little more water.

While you’re waiting to stink your house up with the vapors of flavor’s best friend, peel your red onions and give them a casual julienne.

What’s a casual julienne? Think of it as vegetable prep meets Bumble: get your cuts as uniform as possible, but don’t stress. At the end of the day, we’re talking pickled garnish here. Do the best you can while getting some knife reps in for cosplaying Chef Keller when people are looking.

To avoid the waterworks, you can wear a pair of swimming goggles if you have them around. If you’re not the SCUBA Steve type, just sharpen your knife: sharp knives save eyes.

Before you fill your jars with onions, add a few peppercorns and a clove or two of peeled garlic. If you want to dill it up, add some fresh dill now. I also like fresh cilantro.

But if you want to get truly weird, add a pinch of freshly grated nutmeg. Thank me later.

Once your hot stink juice comes to a boil, remove from the heat and fill your onion jars. Screw those lids on and set them upside down in the sink. If there’s a lot of air (onions will release gas when they’re heated), open them up and keep filling until there’s very little air or your run out of pickling juice.

Let them come to room temp (about an hour) and refrigerate. They’ll keep for 2-3 weeks.

Your timer goes off. Stir your pot.

Set your timer for another 40 minutes.

Pull your dough and make pierogi wrappers out of them. A method I found that kind of worked was pinching off about 15g of dough, smashing it onto a well-floured counter, cutting board or Sil-Mat, and roll them out. I like to keep a uniform height when rolling things out by using a couple of BBQ skewers as guides (I also use them to guide my cuts when prepping Hasselback potatoes because “just baking” starches doesn’t do it for me).

From there, I stretched with my fingers into the closest thing to a circle I had maintained patience for after making multiple versions of dough on a Monday night.

Some people use premade wonton wrappers for their pierogis: go for it. After trying to get the dough right, I understand taking this shortcut and won’t judge anyone for taking a shortcut.

Stir your pot every 40 minutes until the beef easily shreds and is stupid tender. This can be 3-4 hours depending on the cut you picked, the size you cut it, and how much connective tissue there is to break down.

Once you’re done (either with your dough or with your dough), relax and get ready to get to skimming it off the top of the broth.

This is easy enough while your pot is under heat: use a ladle and tilt the Dutch oven… then scoop it into a separate bowl. You want to save this to fry up your pierogis in (instead of the traditional butter). You can also fry up some eggs or potatoes in it… or knife a sliver onto a resting steak if you want to get cheeky.

Remove the chunks of beef and veggies and bay leaves. Get as many of these out as possible so you don’t clog everything up later.

Load your beef into a large bowl (or stand mixer) so you can shred it while you strain the consumé. If you used stew meat, now’s the time to add in some fat. You can use a neutral oil (though I don’t recommend it), beef tallow (really good), lard (fun) or my preference: rendered camel hump fat.

No joke. It sounds gross and it kind of is, in an indescribable kind of goat-adjacent funk sort of way.

Pick your fat and add a maximum of 5% the total pre-cooked weight of stew meat you picked up while it’s being shredded. This is a lot less fat than something like chuck, but remember that you boil the hell out of the beef and scoop the rendered grease off the top of the broth before shredding.

You don’t need a lot of additional fat.

Also taste for seasoning and add salt occasionally until you get to “almost there.”

When you’re almost there for your own palate, you’re there for someone else’s.

• Almost There

Pour the stew/broth through a colander first, then through your metal sieves.

This is when a Superbag justifies its cost: it makes things so easy to strain quickly and thoroughly.

Either way, don’t worry about being left with a perfectly clear consumé. Close is good enough at home.

The funny thing is the beef won’t be spicy, but taste your consumé with a piece of bread: it’s all there, along with extraordinary beef richness.

Season your consumé if needed. If you’re finding the liquid is missing something, I’d stray away from salt and pick up a bottle of Maggi. It’s an animo/salt sauce that’s soy-adjacent.

Maggi adds a lot of meaty umami to whatever it touches. Go slow with it and make sure your Birria liquid is hot (temperature, not spice) to make sure you’re not seasoning too much. I always like to season as close to serving temperature as possible.

• Making the Pierogis
  • Mexican blend shredded cheese or any super-melty flavorful cheese.

Grab your Mexican cheese blend and your big bowl-o-beef. Load up a wrapper with a bit of meat and a bit of cheese, seal them up, pinch the edges with a fork or dumpling sealer (also known as a fork).

If you want to freeze these for later, do so now. Lay them out on a cookie sheet and place it uncovered in the freezer until frozen. Load them in a bag after that and they should keep for a couple months.

The consumé will keep for a similar amount of time as well.

Heat up a large frying pan (preferably cast iron for heat retention) and get half of your consumé up to temp (not quite simmering).

Add some of the reserved fat (or just fat if you kept it lean) to the pan and fry up your pierogis. When they come out of the pan (they should be thoroughly browned), dip them into the consumé to allow them to soak up a little of the good stuff.

Set them on a strainer (cooling rack works well) so they dry off and transfer them to an oven set at low warming temperature until it’s time to dig in at a medium pace.

• Serving

You should have a small crockpot going with the leftover consumé for dipping the Birria pierogis in before eating. The extra hit of spice is welcome, so set it out there with some small bowls and a ladle for your guests to serve themselves.

Set out some garnishes like lime wedges, sour cream, hot sauce, fresh cilantro, diced white onion, the pickled red onions, guacamole, queso fresco crumbles, etc.

Now demand a strong drink be made for you and settle into a comfortable chair for the game: your work here is done.

The post Birria Pierogies with Bourbon Pickled Red Onions  appeared first on Cleveland Whiskey.

2023 is just around the corner and it’s a big year for Cleveland Whiskey. It will mark 10 years since our first bottles went out to the market and Black Reserve was born. As our 10-year anniversary approaches, we want to celebrate the effort that led us here and prepare for a year of celebration. A year that deserves something special. Today we are announcing the release of the 10th Anniversary Edition of Black Reserve.

When the first bottles of Black Reserve were sent out to the state of Ohio, we had no idea what the feedback was going to be. Bourbon critics called us “heretics” because of our technology-driven process. One thing that separates us from other distilleries is our willingness to accept those disses and continue to make that technology better than what we made 6 months ago, which was better than what we made the year before, and so on. Our whiskeys have earned 134 medals from spirits competitions around the world. We must be doing something right.

CEO and Founder, Tom Lix, said: “In a way, I’m surprised at ten years it went by fast, yes we’ve accomplished a lot, and when I look ahead, I expect that we will accomplish exponentially more.” That is the culture at Clevland Whiskey. We are makers. We innovate. We are creative. Sometimes it’s a little messy and unconventional but in the end, we make good whiskey and do the right thing.

In addition to releasing a 10th Anniversary Edition of Black Reserve and 87, we expect we will be moving our distillery operations into our new distillery in early 2023. The construction process has been long and difficult but credit to our CEO and Founder, Tom Lix, for his never-ending resilience to move Clevland Whiskey forward to a facility that will allow us to expand capacity and increase the amount and frequency of our research and development efforts. And ultimately build a brand home and distillery destination experience for Cleveland Whiskey. “Despite my optimism, things tend to always take longer, cost more, and always more complicated, the key is perseverance, you can’t let the roadblocks stop you. It’s like everything, you get knocked down, you get back up, it’s all perseverance.

Moving into the distillery in the flats will be a great kick-off to the next decade. Along the way, we will continue growing and expanding. We envision Cleveland Whiskey becoming an exceptional destination in Cleveland. With our new distillery construction moving along nicely, that seems very achievable and the people who have been with us from the start know we will do everything we can to deliver on that. Our fans, investors, and the city have really shaped who we are as a company. In closing, Tom said, “One of my biggest surprises is how well we’ve been received by Cleveland. Every time we do an Open House when people come up to me and tell me ‘Hey, thank you for doing this, thank you for doing this for Cleveland.’ Wow! I think that’s a big deal.”

Thank you all for the first ten years and stay with us to see what the next ten years will hold. Cheers, everybody.

The post 10th Anniversary Edition Black Reserve appeared first on Cleveland Whiskey.

An Open House at Cleveland Whiskey featuring a single-barrel release of Honey Barrel Bourbon offered at Barrel Strength.

This single barrel is an extra-special distillery-only offering. We didn’t know how special when the whole process started, but this is the third release. Honey Barrel-finished bourbons are rare. This bourbon rested patiently in a barrel that previously aged honey. Not just any honey, local honey from Akron Honey.  Wesley from Akron Honey Company has been harvesting urban honey in Akron for more than 6 years. His motto is ‘it’s all about the flavor’ and that is something we share.

Flavor Rules.

After an introduction was made, we embarked on a flavor journey–starting with Honey aging in a freshly emptied bourbon barrel yielding bourbon barrel-aged Akron Honey. Then we refilled that barrel with our bourbon to get quite literally our own take on a Honey Barrel. It is something out of old-bourbon lore. It is the quintessential ideal bourbon barrel. We present this bourbon non-chill filtered and bottled at barrel strength to preserve as much of the natural honey and bourbon character as possible.

Get Tickets Now!

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Bourbon Chicken Street Tacos

Happy Cinco De Mayo! Are you looking for a new dish that is a little different than the norm? Let’s taco bout it then!

It also happens to be Taco Tuesday! Not that you needed any extra motivation to make tacos on Cinco De Mayo. We like to do things our own way here. These tacos are not your normal tacos, you’ll see that once you take that first bite. Bourbon is who we are and what we do. Which is why we like to use it in everything if you haven’t noticed.

Seriously though, stop taking the easy way out when it comes to making tacos. Do something a little crazy and celebrate the Fifth of May with these Bourbon Chicken Street Tacos. They can get a little messy but if you can’t handle a messy taco then maybe you shouldn’t be celebrating in the first place. The messier the better, that’s what we say!

Black Reserve Bourbon, Apple juice, chicken broth….those are only a few of the key components of making the chicken so flavorful and juicy. You won’t be able to get these off your mind, my mouth is watering just writing about them right now.

Sweet corn, cheese, onion, Pico, Jalapenos, the list goes on and on of possible toppings. You can either use Corn or Flour tortillas. Customize it with your favorites and enjoy!

Stay tuned next week for something special that will make you want to cook these tacos up again!

You Will Need:

• 1.5 pounds ground chicken
• Garlic salt
• Pepper
• 2 cloves garlic minced
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 cup apple juice
• 1/4 cup  Black Reserve bourbon
• 1/3 cup chicken broth
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup ketchup
• 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
• 2/3 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 1 tablespoon corn starch
• 6″ Corn or Flour Tortillas

Toppings: Choose your favorites. This is what we used.

• Sweet corn
• Mexican shredded cheese
• Black Beans
• Jalapenos
• Pico de Gallo
• Cilantro
• Onion
• Lime Juice

Instructions:

1. Season the ground chicken with garlic salt and pepper.
2. Cook in a large skillet until completely cooked. Remove from the pan.
3. Add the garlic and cook for 20 seconds.
4. Add the water, apple juice, Black Reserve bourbon, chicken broth, soy sauce, Ketchup, apple cider vinegar, brown sugar, onion powder, ground ginger, and red pepper flakes.
5. Bring to a boil. Dissolve the corn starch in a small amount of water and add to the pan. Stir thoroughly.
6. Add chicken back to the pan and cook on medium for 15 minutes. Turn down to low to keep warm after 15 minutes are done.
7. Put a spoonful of chicken in a tortilla and build your street taco.

The post Bourbon Chicken Street Tacos appeared first on Cleveland Whiskey.

Bourbon Honey Mustard

Everyone has that one condiment that they like to put on everything. Whatever it is, move it aside! Introducing Bourbon Honey Mustard, your new do-it-all condiment. We tried it on pretzels and a juicy burger and yes, it is as good as advertised! Mustard goes on everything: these are just two examples of ways to enjoy. Whatever you decide to put it on, just know, you will more than likely go back for more. Use your imagination while deciding on what you’re going to pair with the Bourbon Honey Mustard. There are no wrong answers here.

We used Woeber’s Hot and Spicy Mustard. Woeber Mustard is a local company out of Springfield, OH. As a local business here in Cleveland, we love to support local businesses around Ohio, and you should too! It tastes a little bit better when you know you are supporting your neighbor.

Just think about what all your friends and family will say when you bring this the next time, we can enjoy get-togethers. It is not your typical hummus spread, veggie tray, chips, and dip or whatever boring appetizer you can think of. You will be the talk of the party, for a good reason! When that does happen, be sure to give a shoutout to your favorite whiskey company, Cleveland Whiskey!

The best part is it is so easy to make! You don’t have to slave away in the kitchen for two hours to enjoy. Grab your favorite mustard, Black Cherry Wood Bourbon and you are about ready to go.

You Will Need:

• 1 cup of your favorite mustard
• 2 Tablespoons of Black Cherry Wood Bourbon
• 2 oz Honey

Instructions:

1. Blend well
2. Store in refrigerator
3. Enjoy on everything

The post Bourbon Honey Mustard appeared first on Cleveland Whiskey.

Bourbon Pickleback Mac n Cheese

Northeast Ohio is the home of meat and cheese. It’s what we do, and any trip to the West Side Market will verify it. Produce? It’s relegated to the semi-outdoor pavilion where celery and beet greens are whipped in your direction by vendors in a way that is either good sales tactics of flagellation to cleanse you before entering the shrine of all things moo, cluck, and oink.

It made sense, then, to whip up a dish that celebrates our great love for meats, cheeses, alcohol, and cardiologists: mac and cheese. This is inspired by one of my favorite meals at Woodstock, the smoked Turkey apple brie sandwich, and one of my favorite chasers for it: the Pickleback.

You Will Need:
– A large enameled cast iron pot
– Stockpot
– Whisk
– Pasta strainer
– Multiple oven-safe bowls
– Cheese grater (if you got block cheese)

The Mac Ingredients:

• 2 cups rotini noodles
• 2 tbsp Irish salted butter, plus a bit to wipe the inside of your oven-safe bowls
• 1 lb Smoked Turkey, chopped
• 4 oz chopped prosciutto
• 1 can of rinsed fire-roasted corn (or make your own)
• 1/2 cup chopped pickles
• 1/2 cup chopped green onion
• 1 tbsp Hot Sauce
• 1/4-1/2 cup crushed potato chips
• Optional: 4 slices of Provolone

The Mac Instructions:

1. In the stockpot, cook the pasta in saltwater following the package instructions
2. Strain the pasta
3. In the pasta stockpot, add the butter, turkey, prosciutto, fire-roasted corn, chopped pickles, green onion, and hot sauce.
4. STIR IT UP
5. Add prepared pasta
6. Set aside

The Cheese Ingredients: Cheese Sauce

• 1/2 lb Gruyere cheese, shredded
• 1/2 lb Havarti Cheese, shredded
• 1/2 lb Colby Jack Cheese, shredded
• 2 tbsp corn starch
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled, smashed and diced
• 1/2 cup scallion, diced
• 1 cup Rosé
• 1 1/2 oz Cleveland Whiskey Smokin’ Bourbon
• 1 oz pickle juice
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard
• Coarse salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
• A pinch or two of nutmeg

The Cheese Instructions: Cheese Sauce

1. In a large mixing bowl, toss the shredded cheese with the cornstarch, coating it thoroughly.
2. Rub your enameled cast iron pot with the two smashed garlic cloves and toss them.
3. Turn the heat to medium, add no more than a tsp of olive oil (just enough to keep things from sticking), and let it heat up to a shine.
4. Toss in the diced scallion and garlic, add a pinch of salt and stir to prevent burning.
5. Once your aromatics are translucent, add the rosé and bring it to a simmer.
6. When the wine begins to simmer, add the Smokin’ Bourbon, pickle juice, and Dijon mustard and let it simmer for two minutes.
7. Reduce heat to low and SLOWLY add your cheese mixture, one handful at a time and whisk constantly. Do not use a spoon: you need a whisk for this and put that arm to work.
8. When your fondue is uniform and silky smooth, stir in a pinch or two of nutmeg and turn the heat down to its lowest setting.
9. Do not cover the fondue

The Mac n Cheese

1. Take your noodle salad and add it into the fondue, stirring and coating until it is totally combined and uniform.
2. Preheat your over to 350 degrees
3. Put Mac and Cheese in a casserole dish, cover the top with slices of provolone cheese, sprinkle on your ground-up potato chips, and put it in the oven until the crumbs brown and the pot is bubbling around the sides, usually around 15 minutes.
4. Garnish with chopped parsley, a bit of lemon zest, fresh ground pepper and salt to taste.
5. Optional: Add additional hot sauce to taste

The post Bourbon Pickleback Mac n Cheese appeared first on Cleveland Whiskey.

Bourbon Wings –  Da B.O.M.

by Kevin Orr

Bourbon wings? Oh yes. If you’ve never been to our distillery to take a tour or celebrate a special release’s open house, we’re located at East 25th and Payne, on the border of an area known as Cleveland’s AsiaTown.

I went to work on this recipe and pulled some inspiration from our neighborhood’s grocers and restaurants that represent the community… both as whiskey makers and proud Clevelanders.

My B.O.M. Sauce (Bourbon, Orange, Maple.) is just that: sauce. You can toss, dip, or coat to finish your bourbon wings. Let’s get started.

Tools You Need:

Stock pot
Medium saucepan
Small bowl
Small whisk
Large whisk
3 large bowls
2 cooling racks
Roasting pan or baking sheet

Protein

3 lb bag of frozen chicken wings

Brine the Chicken

Brine Ingredients
1 TBSP sesame seeds.
1 TBSP sesame oil
1 sweet onion, diced
3 cloves of garlic peeled, smashed, and roughly chopped. If you love garlic add more.
4 TBSP coarse salt. Don’t use table salt.
1 TBSP dried rosemary
2 Cups of water
3 TBSP or lime juice
1 pound of ice

Brine Preparation

1. Put your stockpot over medium-high heat and toss in your sesame seeds. Once you can smell them becoming fragrant. You don’t want them to burn.
2. Once a few wisps of smoke come off your fragrant seeds, add your sesame oil and stir to coat.
3. When you hear the seeds sizzling (maybe popping), add the diced onion and stir. Bump the heat up to high and add a pinch or two from the 4 TBSP of salt you have for the brine.
4. When the onions start to sweat (they’ll look wet and become fragrant), add the garlic and salt, stirring continuously. Garlic burns easily and tastes nasty when it does.
5. When your onions are translucent and garlic is aromatic, add the rosemary and stir for another 30 seconds. You just want to heat it up and get it smelly.
6. Add the water and rice vinegar (or lime juice) and bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer for 15 minutes, stirring until the salt is dissolved.
7. Remove from heat and add the pound of ice, cooling it for your chicken.

The Brining
Add the chicken to the pot once it has cooled and cover it up with plastic wrap, pushing the air bubbles out, and put in the refrigerator for about 18-30 hrs. There’s no hard rule to this, whatever works with your schedule works for the chicken. Just make sure you stir it up every few hours.

Cook the Chicken

You will need:
3 lbs brined chicken
2 TBSP red curry powder
½ TBSP coarse salt
2 tsp fresh ground black pepper
2 tsp five spice powder
½ tsp ground cayenne pepper

Chicken Preparation

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees
2. Pull your chicken from the brine and rinse thoroughly. The flavor is already in the meat, so if you don’t rinse it well, it’s going to be too salty.
3. Combine spices and rub onto the wings
4. Bake the wings for about 25 min, or until its internal temperature reaches 165 degrees
5. Pull the chicken and let it cool while you get everything else together and enjoy a preemptive Peking Sour.
6. Then another 5 min on broil to brown up the skin and make it crunchy

Make the Sauce

B.O.M. Sauce Ingredients
The zest of 1 fresh orange that’s been thoroughly cleaned.
1 Cup fresh orange juice, or high-quality store-bought stuff. It makes a difference.
3oz Maple Syrup (grade B is fine: if it’s real it’ll work)
1oz Lime Juice
2 TBSP soy sauce
At least 3 cloves of garlic peeled, smashed, and diced. No more than 6.
½ TSP ginger powder
¼ to ¾ tsp Red Chili Flakes
4 oz Cleveland Whiskey Black Reserve Bourbon
1 TBSP corn starch

Garnish Ingredients
Chopped green onions
OPTIONAL: The zest of 1 lemon

Sauce Preparation

1. Zest your orange before juicing it and set the zest aside.
2. Place your saucepan over low heat and the orange juice, maple syrup, lime juice, soy sauce, garlic, ginger, and chili flakes and let it come to barely a simmer for about 10 minutes.
3. Use your small whisk to mix the Cleveland Whiskey Black Reserve Bourbon and corn starch together to form a slurry in your small bowl, and keep mixing until it is completely uniform.
4. Add the slurry to the sauce slowly, whisking vigorously with your large whisk to prevent clumps. It can get real gross real quick if you go too fast or don’t whisk fast enough… or didn’t actually combine the corn starch and bourbon completely.
5. Stir the sauce and let it cook out for about 15 minutes. You may need to add a little water to keep the starch from thickening it too much over that time.
6. Remove from heat and stir in the orange zest and set aside.

The post Bourbon Wings – Da BOM appeared first on Cleveland Whiskey.

Underground Vinaigrette

This is another creation from Chef Scott Anderson, Chief Cook, Bottle Washer & Co-Owner of Community Garden Market in Shepherdstown, WV. This time, an insanely delicious and very easy-to-make Underground Vinaigrette. Highlighted by our Black Cherry Wood Finished Bourbon. There is nothing better than a refreshing salad on a hot summer day. Feel free to adjust the seasoning to your desired flavor profile but make sure you use quality ingredients, especially the mustard as that will bring it all together in an emulsion when mixed.

Instructions:

1. Combine all ingredients into a small bowl and whisk to incorporate until well blended.
2. Keep in the fridge for 30 minutes before using to allow flavors to marry and bring out the subtle flavor of the whiskey.
3. Makes about 3/4 of a cup of dressing and will last up to a week sealed in the fridge. Allow coming back to room temp before serving.

The post Underground Vinaigrette appeared first on Cleveland Whiskey.

Underground Bourbon BBQ Sauce

Tomorrow is National Barbecue Day! We are bringing the sauce with Chef Scott Anderson, Chief Cook, Bottle Washer & Co-Owner of Community Garden Market in Shepherdstown, WV. He created an incredible Underground Bourbon BBQ Sauce. It is so good, seriously it will become your new favorite!

This variation of a traditional thick and rich tomato-based BBQ sauce is fully developed by the addition of our Cleveland Underground® Bourbon Whiskey Finished with Black Cherry Wood. The crisp mellowness of the bourbon whiskey brings out the seasonings and the richness of natural black cherry wood in the finished sauce. We used it on a Pork Butt Blade Steak but we encourage you to use it for all of your BBQ needs this summer.

Instructions:

1. In a large non-stick saucepan over medium-low heat mix all the ingredients, except for the 1/4 cup of bourbon, and simmer for 30 minutes. Stir often so as not to burn.
2. Remove from heat and stir in the 1/4 cup of Bourbon Whiskey then return to heat, stirring for an additional 10 minutes.
3. Cool, and portion up in 4 pint-sized containers, cover, and store in the fridge. Good in the fridge for 4-6 weeks, but it will never last that long!

The post Underground Bourbon BBQ Sauce appeared first on Cleveland Whiskey.