Iowa Distillery Is Breeding Special Pigs With A Hint Of Whiskey Flavor

(WQAD)

All you need to do in the food business to create buzz? Take one beloved item (bourbon) and add it to another (bacon) and voila, the world will fall at your feet, sliding in a puddle of its own drool. A distillery here in the U.S. is trying to do just that by breeding special, whiskey-flavored pigs.

While you might imagine a bunch of farmers sitting around a sty chanting, “Shots! Shots! Shots!” the reality isn’t nearly as fun: The Templeton Rye Distillery in Iowa instead feeds its 25 purebred Duroc pigs with dry distillery grain leftover from the whiskey-making process, reports WQAD (h/t to Quartz).

The hope is that the pork will have the same flavor as Templeton Rye, an idea that has all the whiskey-loving bacon fans out there likely salivating.

“We have a little motto here. My dad always told me, ‘Nothing good happens after 12 p.m.’ So, it seems like that’s when this idea was probably thought of — after we had a few drinks,” the distillery’s co-founder joked, adding that he hopes this idea can prove the motto wrong.

There’s already been enough interest from big name chefs across the country that the distillery is confident it’ll sell all 25. But if you’re hoping to get a taste, you’ll need to be a member of the Templeton Rye Bootleggers Society, which is holding a tasting at the end of June to see if whiskey bacon can be a real dream come true.

Iowa distillery raises pigs to taste like whiskey [WQAD]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist