One Of The Best Bourbons For Cooking And Baking Comes From Our Favorite Kentucky Bourbon Brand

When cooking or baking with bourbon, flavor is everything. After all, it's why we add it to our barbecue sauces, pancake syrups, and meat marinades. Therefore, it's important to choose a bourbon with good flavor qualities, following the wine rule — you don't want to use the cheapest option, but you also don't want to spend a fortune on a top-shelf label. 

That's why many chefs, including Timothy J. Galloway from Old Bourbon County Kitchen in Lexington, Kentucky, recommend one from the label that Tasting Table rated number one out of 25 popular Kentucky bourbons: Buffalo Trace Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey. The flagship whiskey from the famed Franklin County distillery is not only a great value for the money; its balanced flavor profile adds versatility in the kitchen for cooking and baking, as well as a good quality alcohol that won't leave an undesired taste in your food. 

Galloway describes this whiskey as "a full body bourbon packed with vanilla, molasses, brown sugar, strong oat taste, with subtle fruity and liquorish notes." Its sweet notes of caramel, candied fruit, and toffee work perfectly to bring out the natural sweetness in ingredients like butter and cream, so it's ideal when making "cakes, custards, compotes, and glazes or frostings." That sweetness, together with its subtle notes of smoke and wood, makes it a great candidate for savory marinades and glazes for meats, especially those meant for the grill, or add it to a sweet and tangy BBQ sauce to finish up your pork spare ribs.

Following the directives of that wine rule, why would you use something in your favorite recipes that you won't enjoy drinking? Buffalo Trace is a lovely, mild bourbon with beautiful, nuanced flavors and a lower proof, great to mix in cocktails or sip on its own. In fact, those same characteristics make it one of the best bourbons to choose for baking, as its low alcohol content won't require a lengthy cooking time to burn off the alcohol, which means it will work a treat when making caramel and ganache. It also works as a flavoring in pies like pecan and pumpkin, in chocolate cakes and frostings, and even in desserts where caramelized fruit takes center stage. Think bananas foster and pineapple upside-down cake.

When it comes to savory dishes, there are lots of opportunities to use your Buffalo Trace. According to Chef Robert Lopez, who is in charge of the official food and beverage menus for the Kentucky Derby, you can make an entire steak dinner using bourbon as an ingredient in every dish. To make the marinade, "mix the bourbon with ingredients like soy sauce, garlic, and brown sugar to tenderize the steak and infuse it with flavor," he says. After searing the steak, he recommends deglazing the pan with more bourbon, beef broth, and seasonings, then reducing it to a thick sauce to drizzle over the steak. 

Buffalo Trace will also enhance your side dishes — add a splash when making glazed carrots, for instance, or use it to elevate a side of roasted Brussels sprouts. Pour yourself a little taste over ice while you cook, too. That way, you will know the flavor you are infusing into your favorite dishes.