It’s Thanksgiving Day here in the U.S. and I’m spending it with the In-Laws. I’ll make this short since I should be in the kitchen. My wife is feeling adventurous and is making a pumpkin pie and bourbon pecan pie completely from scratch. She is using a Paula Dean recipe. A word of warning though. The recipe on the site says “2 tablespoons good quality bourbon.” In the cook book, one of the tablespoons is for the cook. If you use both in the pie, it will not set properly and you will have a runny pie on your hands. Becky is using Basil Hayden’s for the pie this year (based on Richard’s suggestion). We’ve used Buffalo Trace and Four Roses Single Barrel at various times. We’ll see if it makes a difference.
While rummaging through my In-Laws liquor cabinet, I found a strange little bottle of bourbon. It’s labeled “Walker’s DeLuxe Straight Bourbon Whiskey – Aged 8 Years”. The strangest part of the label though is where it is distilled: Peoria, Illinois. I found a somewhat useful thread on straightbourbon.com. It seems that the Peoria distillery closed in 1979. The whiskey is still pretty good. It’s a little sweet and some of the alcohol has evaporated, but it is very drinkable. All around, a nice find.
Have a happy and safe Thanksgiving everyone.
-Matt
The Hiram Walker distillery in Peoria, IL was the largest one in the world. It was purchsed by ADM in 1982. Peoria also at one time produced more whiskey within its city limits than any other city in the world.
At one time, Peoria had 87 distilleries and was the single-largest tax revenue generator for the US government.