Everything tastes better with bacon it is said. Well vodka certainly does and here’s how.
It is essential to use the best bacon you can find. Certainly not the watery supermarket sort. Preferably you’re after fat-thick wood-smoked streaky. You’ll need at least 500 gm.
Cook it in a wide open cast iron pan on a low heat. You are trying to render the fat out. Keep going until the bacon crisps but do not allow the fat to burn. Remove, allowing any excess fat to drip back into the pan, and pat dry with kitchen roll. Once cooled set aside in the fridge wrapped in fresh paper towels.
Put the cool fat from the pan into a 1 litre Mason or Kilner jar and add a 75 ml bottle of high strength vodka. Add a deseeded habanero chilli pepper. Seal and keep in a warm room for 4-5 days then put in the freezer overnight.
The fat in the liquid will rise to the top and solidify. Tap a small hole through the fat and very slowly pour the liquid out, a little at a time, sieving through fine coffee filters, regularity changing them as they become clogged. Repeat a few times then put the liquid back in the cleaned jar, return to the freezer overnight and do it all again. Taste it. It can not be oily or repeat again.
Store in the freezer. Use in Bloody Mary, Caesar Mary or Bacon Martini. Garnish with a slither of the original reserved bacon.