Brown Butter Apple Baby— a Fat-Washed Christmas Cocktail

A cocktail recipe

I think we can all agree, after the year we’ve had, there’s only one next step we can bear to take. And it’s . . . Fat-Washing. It’s the only thing I have strength for, and I just discovered it over the weekend.

I will explain.

---

These are photos from my “bibliography” at the bottom of the post. Look at all the fun you could have with a little Fattiness!

---

It all started when my friend Meg came over for a Friday “second” Thanksgiving supper. —Always tastes better the next day, right?

For drinking inspo, she carried an antique bar menu from a long-closed joint in Burlington, Vermont, called The Monarch and Milkweed. One eye-catching cocktail was something called “The Gay Republican.”

“I had that one!” Meg said. “It’s the best one.”

“Well, let’s recreate it, I bet I can figure it out,” I said. “I am your Sherlock!”

Everything on this Monarch and Milkweed vintage menu looks great. And cheap. Meg says the “Black Strap On Coffee” was also delish. What a legacy!

---

I detected the “spiced brown butter” the M&M lists is referring a process they put the whisky through. The bartenders likely made gallons of fat-washed brandy and bourbon before they opened for the night!

The “apple honey” is another way of saying “Honey simple syrup with Christmas spices and lemon and apple cider.”

So, after a lot of experiments, I came up with this Naughty Christmas Kitten of a cocktail.

Omg, it’s good. The ole’ Monarch and Mothballs would be proud of me.

---

Cocktail: The Brown Butter Apple Baby

Recipe:

• 2 oz. Apple Brandy or Applejack fat-washed with brown butter*

• 3/4 oz. Amontillado Sherry

• 1/2 oz. Dry Orange Cointreau

• Between ½ ounce to 1 ounce of fresh apple cider. Do you want your drink more spirit-forward or a more apple-gaiety forward? This is the one ingredient you can add MORE of, at the end.

• 1 bar spoon of honey syrup flavored with winter spices**

• 2 dashes orange bitters

• 1 squeeze from half a medium lemon

Shake over ice and serve neat in cocktail glass.

—Garnish with crisp sage leaf sautéed in the pan remainder of brown butter

---

*Brown-Butter “Fat-washed” Brandy or Whisky

Recipe:

This is enough for (4) cocktails per the recipe above, that call for 2 oz of the liquor per serving. Multiply freely!

• 1 cup brandy or whisky

• 2-3 T. of unsalted butter

• 1 cinnamon stick

Cut the butter into 1 tablespoon pieces or less.

Melt on medium low heat in a pan where the bottom is silver or white, or light colored — it will help you clearly see the “brown” specks of the butter form.

Throw in your cinnamon stick from the beginning.

Start stirring immediately upon the butter melting, set an alarm for 5 minutes, and don’t stop for 5 minutes. Use a rubber spatula, it works the best.

Here’s what you’ll see: The butter will foam up. Then the foam will subside and tiny brown solids, like grains of sand, start to form at the bottom. KEEP STIRRING.

The aroma of the butter smells like nuts roasting.

As soon as that aroma reaches your nose, and most of the butter has turned that brown caramel color, remove pan from heat and turn the heat off.

If you are not certain, just follow your timer. That is why you must have it READY to start at 5 minutes the moment you are first melting your butter.

If you go too long, it will suddenly smell awful, burnt, and there’s no going back. You have to thoroughly clean the pan and begin fresh. Don’t feel bad. Once you fuck up this way, you’ll never do it again. Everyone learns this lesson.

Pour the brown butter into Pyrex glass measuring cup, or a mason glass jar.

Add a cup of whisky, and stir it throughly with a fork, so it’s completely mixed. Remove cinnamon stick.

Let it sit and cool a bit, to lukewarm. Then cover the measuring cup with Saran Wrap or foil, and put in freezer.

Ideally, you would leave the mixture in freezer overnight. However, my first batch, the mixture barely had 2 hours.

When you take it out, of course, the butter will have frozen to a “crust” on the top. Take out the easy pieces, and you’ll strain out the rest when you pour out the liquid into your cocktail measurement.

---

**Honey Syrup with Winter Spices

Recipe:

Pour ¼ cup of honey into a saucepan and an equal amount of water. To this mixture, before you turn on the stove, add:

• 5 peppercorns

• 5 whole cloves

• A pinch of ground cinnamon

You could also throw in one star anise.

Turn the heat on low, and mix the honey, water, and spices until they are all one liquid. It will no longer be thick like the original honey, it will be watery.

Stir occasionally. You don’t want it to boil, just barely come to a simmer and then turn it down. You want those flavors to meld.

Turn off the heat and let it sit for a few minutes to cool.

Once it’s cooled, you can pour it into an extra bottle, so you can easily pour it.

Treat it like simple syrup — it’s just a slightly different taste with the honey and spices.

---

More about Fat-Washing

• This is the recipe where how I figured out the browning/alcohol process: A Derby cocktail with a clear brown-butter-infusion protocol. Thank you!

• Best theoretical explanation: Though the name may evoke the idea of a greasy mess, fat washing refers to the process of infusing a fatty ingredient like butter or bacon grease into a spirit, then removing the fat after infusion by chilling and solidifying it. The process leaves behind only the flavor and aromatics of the ingredients, like the toasty, nutty milk compounds of browned butter in crisp apple brandy.

• A Cozy Boston example. The photo shows how you can merrily multiply as a punch. I’m definitely going to “fat-wash” a whole bottle of brandy for my Xmas party.

• New Orleans advice, always good.

• Great photos instructions, which are key if you’ve never browned butter before— and an Old-Fashioned variation.

  ---