Back in the spring, when I first encountered the smoky, fiery, spreadable Calabrian salami called nduja at London’s Borough Market and posted on it (on April Fool’s Day, no less), I had no idea that nduja fever would sweep American meatheads and that my posts on trying to recreate this salami would become the most frequently viewed of all I’ve written. Apparently, you don’t have to taste the real thing to catch nduja fever; its regional nickname, as “the Red Nutella,” is enough to enflame the imagination.

The biggest obstacle I faced in reproducing what I had tasted is that I don’t have access to any of the Calabrian peppers that traditionally go into this salami. Seeds from Italy had already sold out of Calabrian peppers for the season, and Scott over at Sausage Debauchery is the only one to have tracked down some concentrato di peperoncini with peppers from Calabria at a reasonable price – almost a kilo for a little more than $10 – but I have yet to see a can of it! (Hint, hint. If he can’t send me a mail order address, maybe we’ll just have to do Christmas early this year, and mail him some goodies from the clubhouse in exchange for some cans of fire concentrate.)

In the meantime, I am working on perfecting a secret weapon of my own to turn up the heat.

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A great time was had by all last night, and I was truly impressed by the variety and the creativity of the drinks that people came up with to feature the bacon-infused vodka (BIV) I had concocted.

Peter came up with an inspired combination of unfiltered sake and BIV, with just a dusting of freshly ground black pepper. The floral, ever so slightly sweet taste of the sake combined seamlessly with the BIV. Although several thought they recognized the smell, no one could name Peter’s secret ingredient until he revealed it.

Suzanne was game and made a dirty martini with BIV and vermouth, served with a blue-cheese-stuffed green olive. We decided this is the drink for those who really want their BIV to come through nice and clear.

It turned out no one had made a Bloody Mary mix for the BIV because it just seemed too obvious. But it was so obvious that we all thought we should try it. (And of course by then we had already had a couple cocktails under our belts.) So we got ahold of some mix, which Matt doctored up, and sure enough, the BIV made a nice, fatty-tasting Bloody Mary. Just the thing to roll out for your next Sunday brunch!

Finally, Matt came up with the most outrageous and surprisingly successful combination: BIV and Baileys, served warmed. Just what you need to light up your winter evenings. Many, many thanks to Kim for the one she took for the team, sucking up all the sample versions Matt mixed up at home, perfecting this recipe. Now we know what to expect at this year’s winter beach party.

So despite the many reservations that people harbored about bacon-infused vodka, we put away more than half the bottle and enjoyed many good laughs at the expense of our hapless governor, who has done just an outstanding job at making the rest of us look so normal and sane!  Don’t you think, for my contributions to baconology, I deserve to be appointed to that vacant Senate seat?

When our good friends Kathy and Patrick lived here in Urbana, they hosted a series of fabulous cocktail parties. For some reason my memory is a little hazy on this point, but I seem to remember that they got up to #8, so I’m naming this gathering Cocktail 9 in their honor. Patrick, I’m even going to wear the black dinner jacket that I somehow picked up at one of your parties.

Sometime in the late afternoon, we’ll start trying out all the cocktail recipes members have submitted for bacon-infused vodka. Our new member Carlos will be in town that day, and he has generously offered to bring his portable bar and mix up a different selection of cocktails that might prove more potable. After the cocktail hour (or two), we’ll plan on sitting down to a potluck dinner. So bring yourself, bring what you need to mix up your cocktail contest recipe, and bring some food to share. I’m sure there will also be a selection of This Little Piggy offerings to sample.

around 5pm ’til whenever, 405 North Garfield Avenue, Champaign

Attention all you amateur mixologists! A pound of pulled pork will go to whichever one of you comes up with the best cocktail recipe featuring–drumroll, please–bacon-infused vodka!

When I told Doug at the Neil Street Piccadilly store what I needed the vodka for, he gave me a long, appraising look before announcing, “You’re. Totally. Fucking. Nuts. You know that, don’t you?” But making bacon-infused vodka is an arcane and elaborate art, known only to cognoscenti who can google “bacon vodka.”

So that you can appreciate the extreme lengths to which I will go and the exacting pains I will take to investigate any phenomenon having to do with porky goodness, however remote, I include full color photographs of the intricate process:

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