By Richard Thomas In my Kentucky born-and-bred mind, baked beans seasoned with two of the South’s classic ingredients, bacon and bourbon, are the classic fixing (side dish) for any barbecue. The easiest way to go about making bourbon baked beans is to take a can of high quality, name brand baked beans with bacon, add bourbon, and heat it up ...

By Richard Thomas Steak and whiskey are one of my favorite dining combinations. After a hearty steak dinner, nothing hits the digestive spot better than a tumbler of whiskey (except perhaps a snifter of it), and one of the factors I employ to judge the quality of a steakhouse is what bourbon and/or scotch line the bar shelves. When you ...

By Richard Thomas When beer-makers started introducing bourbon pumpkin spice ale several years ago, I was ecstatic, combining as it did three of my favorite things: dark beer, bourbon whiskey and the flavor of pumpkin pie. The idea of making a bourbon-flavored pumpkin pie didn’t occur to me at that time, because like most Americans I bought my pumpkin pies ...

By Richard Thomas Bourbon pork chili is an idea I came up with for October and November chili parties, born of the need to come up with variations on old fashioned chili con carne. My recipe is a variant of the Cincinnati-style chili recipe my Mother taught me, and the differences stem from three ideas: Turkey chili is common enough, ...

By Richard Thomas With its combination of sweetness and charred smokiness, bourbon was made for pork. That should come as no surprise to any student of Southern culture, since pork was the staple meat Old South. Think about southern hams, southern sausages and the barbecue of North Carolina and Tennessee, or the myriad recipes for pork-flavored soups and stewed greens. ...