You remember in grade school when you first learned about plate tectonics and how all of the continents shifted about emerging from one single land called pangea? After i learned about that I spent weeks looking at maps and thinking about how obvious it was that south america and africa fit together. Well that is how i felt the first time i encountered bourbon and pecans. The woody flavor of the pecans and the caramel-y smokey flavors of the bourbon fit together so well it was a wonder i hadn’t thought to put them together before.

After a recent trip to Death & Co in new york i tried one of their Buffalo Soldiers, which is a pretty simple recipe as shown here at Cocktail Buzz. The drink is great but the most exciting part of the recipe is the pecan bourbon which can have a lot of interesting uses.

The recipe on cocktail buzz is a good start though it sounds a little like it was just discussed over the bar with some pretty vague measurements like cover the nuts with cayenne. I can speak from experience that you do not want to cover the nuts with cayenne or you will end up with a very spicy concoction. Here’s the version that seemed to work best for me:

Pecan Infused Bourbon 750 ml Buffalo Trace Bourbon

2 cups Pecans

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

1/4 tsp Cayenne

Directions

Soak the pecans in water for 30 minutes and then drain the water out. Lay the nuts out on a baking sheet and sprinkle the salt, pepper and cayenne over the nuts and the place the tray in the oven for at 300. This brings out some of the oils in the nuts and helps the nuts absorb the flavor of the spices. Remove after 20 minutes and let cool. Then place all of the nuts in a bell jar and fill to top with Bourbon. Seal and store for 1 week stirring or shaking each day. When done strain back into the empty bourbon bottle and store in the refrigerator.