“Artisanal American olive oils were on the market; small-batch bourbons, too,” the article quotes Mr. Jamie, who was a chef at the time. “And it hit us: soy sauce. No one in America was making small-batch soy sauce.”

According the article by John T. Edge, Jamie’s soy sauce “boasts an impeccable Kentucky pedigree. He buys soybeans that have not been genetically modified and soft red winter wheat from a downstate farmer whose family has been plowing Kentucky land since before the Civil War.”

Relying on limestone-filtered water from a nearby spring, he boils the beans, roasts the wheat and ferments the sauce in a converted factory in Louisville before aging it in old whiskey barrels from Buffalo Trace Distillery and the Woodford Reserve Distillery.

Priced at $5 for a five-ounce bottle, Bluegrass Soy Sauce is sold with a batch and bottle number hand-lettered on the label, just like the best small-batch bourbons. The sauce is available at various Kentucky retailers and through its website.

In the article, Edward Lee, chef owner of Louisville’s acclaimed 610 Magnolia restaurant, describes Jamie’s soy sauce as “more pungent, more smoky, more flavorful” than other brands in this country. “Kikkoman is like liquid salt,” he says. “This stuff has more aromatics, more umami. What he’s done is make soy sauce into an American product, something more aggressively flavored. We use it sparingly, but we use it.”

Bluegrass Soy Sauce is one of the latest additions to the Bourbon Barrel Foods line up. Jamie utilizes charred staves salvaged from spent bourbon barrels to perfume a range of spices and condiments with a Kentucky-distinct flavor. Other products crafted at Jamie’s Louisville-based company include smoked paprikas, peppers and sea salts, sweet sorghums, bourbon vanilla sugar, and condiments like Worcestershire sauce.

by David Dominé, The Bluegrass Peasant

The menu for the Second Annual Kentucky Farm Dinner includes a wide variety of items served buffet-style. To focus attention on the provenance of his ingredients, Denham will classify his dishes according to what part of the farm they come from. Showcased as “From the Garden” are tomato cucumber salad, sliced watermelon, heirloom tomatoes and lemon cheese, braised greens, white beans and bacon, potato salad, succotash, slaw and homemade cornbread. “From the Pond” come freshwater Kentucky prawns, and “From the Pasture” come grass-fed beef, roast turkey, and a whole roasted pig. For their “Sweet Endings,” guests will be treated to homemade pumpkin pie, fresh berry cobbler, and transparent pie.

If you can’t make the Second Annual Kentucky Farm Dinner, you can still get a sampling of Denham’s earth-friendly fare at Park Place on Main, located at 401 East Main Street at Slugger Field. Hours of operation are Tuesday through Saturday 5 to 10 p.m. Private parties can be arranged for special hours. To make reservations, call (502) 515-0172.

Now available from Bourbon Barrel Foods are two ingredients sure to delight bakers and chefs looking to add a special something to pies, cookies and holiday cocktails. The products are Bourbon Vanilla Sugar and Bourbon Barrel Aged Vanilla Extract, both flavored with genuine Madagascar Bourbon vanilla beans. The vanilla is a Madagascar Bourbon vanilla extract aged for 6 months in bourbon barrels, a process that imparts rich tones of oak and caramel. The sugar – natural raw cane sugar – is available in a 12-ounce jar for $6.95 and the vanilla goes for $8.95 for a 4-ounce bottle. Both products can be purchased along with other Bourbon Barrel Foods favorites at the company’s website.

Although they are staple items in many bakery items, raw cane sugar and vanilla extract can also add an unexpected twist to sweet cocktails. Use a bit a vanilla to moisten the rim of the glass and then add a bit of sparkle by pressing it into the sugar to coat.

by David Dominé, The Bluegrass Peasant

As American as apple pie? Actually, apple pie comes from England.

And here’s something else to ponder as you fire up the grill and light the sparklers for the Fourth of July this year: Is that cherished family recipe that grandma hauls out for special celebrations an Old World favorite or an actual American classic? In the kitchen, names can sometimes be deceiving.

In immigrant-laden America, it comes as little surprise that a national cuisine has evolved as a blend of the old with the new. While many dishes can trace their roots back to the homeland, others have arisen as ethnic byproducts inside this country. Fortune cookies, for example, occurred as the culinary brainchild of Chinese cooks on the West Coast. By the same token, the average tourist from the U.S. in Italy would be hard-pressed to find grandma’s spaghetti and meatballs – or the topping-rich pizza so popular with Americans, for that matter.

Don’t expect to find corned beef and cabbage if you travel to Ireland, either, because that St. Patrick’s Day favorite emerged as a specialty among Irish-Americans. And, just to show that appearances can be deceiving, French fries are considered the national specialty of Belgium, not France. In fact, even if the moniker suggests otherwise, some time-honored favorites actually count as true-blooded American originals and not imports from the old country. Here are three recipes for red-white-and-blue classics from the Bluegrass Peasant that show that sometimes it’s not all in the name.

Italian Cream Cake

Although chefs from Milan to Sicily have concocted rich pastries with cream, nuts and fruits for centuries, don’t expect to find anything like this dense, buttery pecan-studded layer cake in any bakery in Italy. In the early 1900s Italian Cream Cake – simple layers of sponge with custard and whipped cream sometimes garnished with candied fruit and nuts – most likely evolved in this country from zuppa inglese, an Italian take on the English trifle. However, a later southern-style makeover completely transformed the original with the addition of pecans, shredded coconut and a decadent cream-cheese icing. Reports suggest that the first published recipe of the dessert in its modern incarnation appeared sometime in the Eisenhower years, and it has since become an American culinary classic with several variations on the post-war-years original.

Those with a sweet tooth have grown to love this southern favorite so much that bakers around the country have reported a steady increase in demands for Italian cream wedding cakes. Last year, People magazine selected a wedding concoction featuring Italian cream cake made by Louisville chef Leah Stewart of the Gallery House as one of the best in the nation.

RECIPE

1 cup softened butter
2 cups sugar
5 egg yolks
2 cups cake flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon iodized salt
1 ½ cups buttermilk
½ cup bourbon
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ cup coconut
½ cup finely chopped pecans
5 egg whites, stiffly beaten

Icing:

2 (8-ounce) packages of cream cheese, softened
4 tablespoons softened butter
4 cups confectioner’s sugar
½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 tablespoons bourbon
chopped pecans for garnish
shredded coconut for garnish

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter and add sugar. Once the mixture is pale yellow and fluffy, add egg yolks one at a time and beat well. Sift together soda, flour and salt and add to creamed mixture alternately with buttermilk mixed with bourbon and vanilla. Add coconut and nuts. Fold in egg whites. Pour into 3 greased and floured cake pans and bake for 25 minutes on a center rack. Remove and cool the cakes, then turn out of the pans. For the icing, beat cream cheese with the butter until smooth; add sugar, vanilla and mix well. For best results, chill the icing for at least an hour before frosting the entire cake. Garnish the sides with chopped pecans and sprinkle the top with coconut.

Bluegrass Swiss Steak

Put the images of snow-capped peaks and Alpine pastures out of your head the next time you get a hankering for Swiss steak. Although Germanic variants of this hearty braised-beef dish go back several centuries, the Swiss in the name actually refers to the process that butchers use to perforate and tenderize tougher cuts of meat.

Today, many variations abound, but an early definition from the American Heritage Dictionary simply described the dish as “a round steak pounded with flour and braised with stock and vegetables.” A generous dose of bourbon and the sweetness of sorghum add a distinct Kentucky flavor to this popular dish, which gets some extra seasoning from a variety of condiments from Bourbon Barrel Foods. Served with buttery mashed potatoes and steamed green beans, this Bluegrass update can be served any time of year.

RECIPE

6 medium cube steaks (about 2 pounds)
1 teaspoon Bourbon Smoked Sea Salt
1 teaspoon Bourbon Smoked Sea Black Pepper
1 teaspoon Bourbon Smoked Paprika
All-purpose flour, for dusting
1/3 cup olive oil
2 large cloves garlic, minced
1 (28 ounce) can diced tomatoes
1 medium onion, cut in half and sliced
1 medium green bell pepper, cut into strips
2 tablespoons Bourbon Barrel Aged Worcestershire Sauce
2 tablespoons Kentucky Sweet Sorghum
1 cup bourbon
1 cup beef broth
1 cup tomato ketchup

Generously season the steaks with salt, ground pepper and paprika. Coat meat with flour and brown both sides in olive oil heated in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. (You may need to do this in batches.) Add garlic, tomatoes, onion, bell pepper, Worcestershire sauce, sorghum, bourbon, broth and ketchup to the meat. Cover and simmer over low heat until meat is tender (about 2 hours), adding broth if necessary. Uncover during the last 30 minutes of cooking to allow the sauce to thicken. Season with additional salt and pepper to taste and enjoy. Serves 6.

German Chocolate Cake

If you stop by one of Louisville’s authentic German restaurants such as the Gasthaus, don’t expect to find this American picnic favorite on the dessert menu. If you want something really German for dessert, stick with the Black Forest torte or the apple strudel. Annemarie Greipel has been making the real thing since 1993 when her family opened the eatery just off of Brownsboro Road.

German in name only, this great American dessert with its chocolaty layers and caramel-coconut-pecan icing owes its creation not to the Teutons, but the Texans. Sam German, an employee of the Massachusetts-based Baker’s Chocolate Company, created a less bitter variety of chocolate in 1852, and the product went on to bear his name: German’s Sweet Chocolate. In 1957, a recipe for German’s Chocolate Cake appeared in a Dallas newspaper, and mouth-watering pictures popularized the dessert throughout the country. Either a misprint or popular assumption led to the dropping of the apostrophe –s, paving the way for Germany’s claim to fame. At least in this country.

RECIPE

1 (4-oz.) package of Baker’s Sweetened Chocolate
½ cup boiling water
1 cup butter, softened
2 cups sugar
4 eggs, separated
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 ½ cups sifted cake flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
½ cup bourbon

Icing:

1 cup heavy cream
1 cup sweetened condensed milk
1 cup brown sugar
3 beaten egg yolks
½ cup unsalted butter
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup shredded coconut
1 cup coarsely chopped toasted pecans

Break the chocolate into pieces and mix it with the boiling water until completely dissolved. Let cool. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter and sugar until fluffy and pale yellow. Continue beating and add egg yolks one at a time until thoroughly combined. Add chocolate and vanilla and mix well. Sift together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Combine the milk and bourbon. To the butter-chocolate mixture, add half of the flour and then half of the milk, continuing to mix and scrape the sides of the bowl as you do so. Add the remaining milk and flour and mix on medium-high speed until smooth. Be careful not to over beat the batter. In a separate bowl, whip the egg whites at high speed until stiff peaks form. Slowly fold egg whites into the batter and pour into three greased and floured 9-inch round pans. Bake on a center rack for 30 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Remove from the oven and cool. Invert pans and turn out cakes.

Whisk together the milk, sugar and egg yolks in a saucepan over medium heat. Continue whisking and cook for 5 minutes or until the mixture thickens slightly. Add the butter, salt and vanilla and cook for another 5 minutes. Once the mixture has thickened more, remove from the heat, mix well and let cool. Once completely cooled, add coconut and pecans and mix well. Frost the cake and refrigerate for an hour before serving.

Oh, and about that Hungarian goulash… Unless it’s a rich stew-like concoction of beef chunks in a savory paprika braise, it’s most likely nothing like what you’d get in a Budapest bistro.

An exciting company recently celebrated the grand opening of its new shop and manufacturing facility in the Historic Butchertown Market at 1201 Story Ave. The open-to-the-public event included product tastings, tours of the facility and live music by the Kentucky Fried Pickin’ bluegrass band. Known as Bourbon Barrel Foods, the venture relies on previously used whiskey casks to impart Bluegrass flavor to a wide variety of spices, condiments and sauces.

Owner Matt Jamie sees the Butchertown Market location as a perfect fit for Bourbon Barrel Foods because it allows the company to share a retail presence with other local businesses and artists for a memorable shopping experience. “Our products are available in a number of stores, but we wanted to create a special place that celebrates Kentucky’s bourbon heritage,” he says. “Our shop features many nods to the bourbon industry including items salvaged from shuttered distilleries.”

Kentucky native and self-taught chef Jamie started the venture in 2006. He began his career in the food industry by cooking his way through school. He earned a degree in exercise science from the University of Louisville. When asked how he came up with the innovative – and tasty – idea to use spent whiskey barrels, he said it was inspired in part by California’s famed Napa Valley.

Read the rest after the jump…

“I wanted to create high-quality gourmet sauces and seasonings that reflect the rich heritage of Kentucky’s bourbon country,” he said.
In addition to using authentic local food items, he uses only the best ingredients from regional farmers and producers. Jamie uses the aged oak barrels to instill the products with nuanced flavors of bourbon and smoky wood.

“The barrels have so much to offer after the bourbon is emptied, and I’m happy to take whatever they have left and add it to my sauces and spices,” he said.

Adhering to a three-word philosophy that governs his approach to production (slow, small, simple), Jamie has developed a growing line of edible merchandise that “portrays the essence, mystic and style of Kentucky’s bourbon country.” Bourbon Barrel Aged Worcestershire Sauce, the first to join the ranks, combines all-natural, vegetarian Bluegrass ingredients with the sweetness of pure sorghum.

Charred barrel staves lend the subtle flavors that characterize the Bourbon Smoked Sea Salt, a natural salt domestically harvested from the Pacific, and woody flavors also define the Bourbon Smoked Paprika and the Bourbon Smoked Peppercorns. Jamie recently unveiled a new line of sorghums as well. Blueberry Sorghum, Kentucky Sweet Sorghum and Bourbon Vanilla Sorghum will bottle the earthy goodness of “Kentucky’s maple syrup,” inspiring a variety of uses in both sweet and savory dishes.

Most exciting of all, Jamie has started using Kentucky-grown soybeans to produce Bourbon Barrel Aged Soy Sauce, a meaty brew with undertones of charcoal and spice. “We are the only company in the country that makes its own soy sauce from scratch with locally grown soybeans,” he adds.

According to Jamie, the flavors imparted by his condiments are “unique, identifiable and full of southern charm,” and he sees endless options for products that pay homage to the Bluegrass State. “I think we’ve really hit on something here,” he says, confident that Bourbon Barrel Foods will evolve into a whole range of lifestyle products sold across the nation. “I enjoy making products that are representative of Kentucky and I love being even a small part of the bourbon industry.”

For more information,, call 877-307-6418. Tours are available by appointment.