Drinks

Cuffs and Buttons

A homemade version of Southern Comfort

By Jonathan Miles

April/May 2014

Photo: Johnny Autry

Ingredients

    • 1 750-ml bottle of higher-proof bourbon

    • 1 inch vanilla bean, split

    • 1 inch cinnamon stick

    • 4 cloves

    • 18 dried cherries

    • 1 dried apricot, halved

    • 1/4 orange, chunked

    • 1/4 lemon, chunked

    • 3/4 cup honey

    • 1/3 cup peach brandy

Preparation

  1. Pour bourbon into a sealable wide-mouth container, such as a quart-size mason jar. Add vanilla bean, cinnamon, cloves, cherries, apricot, orange, and lemon, and steep, covered, for 5 days to a week.

  2. Strain liquid through a fine-mesh sieve, then return it to the jar and discard the fruits and spices. Warm honey in a small saucepan over low heat, adding a few tablespoons of water to help liquefy. Add the honey and peach brandy to the infused bourbon. (You can adjust the sweetness level by adding more honey or more bourbon, and the alcohol level by adding water.)

  3. Serve neat or over ice.

Recipe from The Picayune’s Creole Cook Book

Jonathan Miles, a Garden & Gun contributing editor, has been the magazine’s books columnist since 2012. He is the author of three novels, including Anatomy of a Miracle, which was a finalist for the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Award in Fiction. A former resident of Oxford, Mississippi, he is currently Writer-in-Residence at the Solebury School in New Hope, Pennsylvania.

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