Heard of fat-washed cocktails? This Louisville spot uses brisket, avocado in its drinks

Cocktail menus have long mentioned mixing, infusing or shaking, but here’s a new term popping up in the Louisville area: Fat-washing.

You can find a sesame oil-washed bourbon drink and a brown butter-washed Scotch beverage at Barn8, 10500 US-42, Goshen.

Cured Restaurant and Salumeria, 637 E Main St., offers a fat-washed Old Fashioned using Buffalo Trace washed with a type of cured pork.

But what does this technique mean? (Hint: It’s different from how you’d wash your car or dishes.)

Peerless Distilling Co., 120 N 10th St., offers a recipe for a fat-washed Old Fashioned on its website.

“To fat-wash Bourbon, add fat of choice (i.e. melted butter, bacon fat) to a spirit at room temperature,” reads the instructions. “Let the mixture sit for a few hours before chilling until the fat solidifies and can easily be skimmed off. The spirit retains the flavors of the fat even after you've done the skimming.”

Hannah Ross, bar manager at Noche Mexican BBQ, describes a similar process for how she prepares the Highlands spot’s new fat-washed cocktails.

One creation, called Uncle Brisket’s Last Stand at the Noche Corral, is inspired by Noche’s smoked brisket, which is cooked in-house for 18 hours. Ross places a pan under the brisket to catch any fat drippings.

She then strains the fat and combines it with Uncle Nearest 1856, the aged Tennessee whiskey of choice for the drink.

“I let that infuse for about 24 hours and freeze it,” she said. “All the fat solidifies, and you can get the whiskey out without having that oily fat still attached to it.”

It’s complete with stave-infused demerara, angostura, and a smoked orange.

Another cocktail on the menu uses avocado washed with Copper & Kings immature brandy, Flor de Cana dark, Grand Marnier, avocado pit orgeat syrup, and lime.

Ross said both cocktails have been popular since their recent debut.

“The trend has been popping up over the last year or longer,” she said of fat-washing. “It adds a bit of complexity and a softer mouth-feel to cocktails, which I think is nice.”

We featured Noche’s fat-washed drinks, plus a grilled shrimp taco, in the latest installment of our video series, “Best Thing I Ate This Week. Follow along each week by visiting Instagram.com/courierjournal.

Reach food reporter Amanda Hancock at [email protected]. 

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Louisville bars fat-washed cocktails: Noche Mexican BBQ, Barn8, Cured