When I was at Sap House Meadery a few weeks ago sampling mead and chatting with meadery co-owner Matt Trahan, I was telling him about the cocktails I've made with mead. The conversation progressed to my experimentations with beer and liquor infusions.





When all of a sudden a light bulb went off over my head. DING! Yup, just like that. Everyone stopped talking and looked around and Matt said, "What was that dinging noise?" Okay, that didn't really happen but I did have a revelation.





I don't like to experiment too much with mead because, frankly, it's expensive. If my experiment goes awry then I've just wasted $15 or $20 or more.





But when I got the idea to infuse bacon with Sap House's Sugar Maple Mead, well, it just had to be done.





So, I did it.

And, it was good!





The bacon adds a subtle smoky flavor that compliments the mead quite nicely.





I used a method very similar to on of the bacon bourbon infusions I did. The important difference being that mead freezes to a degree and you don't want that to happen.

Bacon Infused Sugar Maple Mead





1 Pound Bacon

1 Bottle Sap House Sugar Maple Mead





Cook a pound of bacon. Eat the bacon. Reserve the rendered fat.





Pour the hot fat to a one quart mason jar and allow to cool but not solidify. Try keep as much bacon debris out of the jar as possible but you don't have to be anal about it because it will get filtered out later.





When the fat is cool to the touch add the mead to the jar.





Seal the jar and place in the freezer for about an hour. Check it after an hour. You want the fat to solidify but the mead to remain in a liquid state, although it might get syrupy. If the fat is still soft then return to the freeze for another 10 or 15 minutes and check it again.





Place a funnel in a second container and line with a coffee filter. Place a clean knee high stocking or cheese cloth over that. I prefer a stocking because it's stretchy and holds in place.





Take the jar from the freezer, remove the lid and pour the mead through your double filtration system. You may need to poke the fat that has settled on the surface of the mead with a knife as it may have created a solid barrier.





Transfer to another jar or bottle for storage. I poured it back into the original mead bottle.





Serve chilled.



