Benton’s Old Fashioned
Benton’s Old Fashioned is 60ml of bacon fat-washed bourbon, 7.5ml of maple syrup and 2 dashes of Angostura bitters, stirred with ice and strained into a chilled rocks glass, with an orange twist. Roughly 2.4 UK units, taking the bourbon as 40% ABV. Don Lee created it for PDT in New York. Imbibe says it brought fat-washing to cocktails in 2007. The bourbon is infused with bacon fat before the drink is made, which takes about six hours and is done ahead. The drink contains pork fat, so it is not vegetarian.
Glassware: Rocks Glass
Garnish: Orange twist expressed over the drink as Imbibe garnishes it
Ingredients
60ml
The house preparation described above. Imbibe prints Benton’s bacon fat. Counted at 40% ABV, the strength of the bourbon it starts from.
1½oz (about 45ml)
Melted over low heat and mixed into the bourbon. Pork fat: not vegetarian.
Instructions
Make the washed bourbon ahead. Melt 1½oz (about 45ml) of bacon fat in a small pan over low heat, stirring until it has melted.
Pour the molten fat and 750ml of bourbon into a large non-reactive container and stir.
Cover and leave at room temperature for 4 hours, then freeze for 2 hours.
Lift the set fat off with a spoon, strain the bourbon through cheesecloth and bottle it.
To make the drink, chill a rocks glass and cut an orange twist.
Add 60ml of the washed bourbon, the maple syrup and the Angostura bitters to a mixing glass with ice.
Stir for 20 to 30 seconds, then strain into the chilled rocks glass.
Express the orange twist over the drink and use it as the garnish.
Source: its creator's published specification (Don Lee for PDT, New York, published at Imbibe (imbibemagazine.com/recipe/bentons-old-fashioned/); measures, method and garnish as printed there (2oz Benton’s bacon fat-washed bourbon, 1/4oz Vermont grade B maple syrup, 2 dashes Angostura, stirred, chilled rocks glass, orange twist; wash: 1 1/2oz bacon fat, 750ml bourbon, 4 hours at room temperature, 2 hours frozen, strained through cheesecloth). Not checked against the PDT Cocktail Book.). Last checked 1 November 2026.
Expert Tip
Make the washed bourbon the day before. The freezing step does the work, and the fat lifts off cleanly only when it is fully set. Measure the maple syrup. At 7.5ml it supports the smoke and does not sweeten the drink, and a heavier pour hides the bourbon. Tell guests what is in it. The drink reads as an ordinary Old Fashioned on a menu, and the pork is the point.
Behind the Benton’s Old Fashioned
Flavour Profile
The drink that brought fat-washing to the bar
Imbibe credits Don Lee with introducing fat-washing to the cocktail world in 2007, with this drink, at PDT in New York. It is an American breakfast idea: bacon and maple syrup in an Old Fashioned. Imbibe says it has been on the PDT menu ever since.
Imbibe prints the recipe under Lee’s name for PDT. We have not checked it against the PDT Cocktail Book, so the attribution here rests on the Imbibe recipe alone.
How the bourbon is washed
The wash is a house preparation, not a bottle you can buy. Imbibe’s method uses 750ml of bourbon and 1½oz (about 45ml) of bacon fat. Warm the fat in a small pan over low heat, stirring until it melts. Pour the molten fat and the bourbon into a large non-reactive container and stir.
Cover the container and leave it at room temperature for 4 hours, then freeze it for 2 hours. The fat sets solid on top. Lift it off with a spoon, strain the bourbon through cheesecloth and bottle it. Imbibe says the washed bourbon can be kept at room temperature.
The wash carries the smoky, savoury character of the bacon into the spirit while the fat itself is removed. A 750ml batch makes about 12 drinks at 60ml.
Pork fat and who can drink it
The washed bourbon is made with pork fat. Do not serve the drink to anyone who is vegetarian or vegan, or who avoids pork for religious or personal reasons, without telling them what is in it. Straining removes the fat, but the drink is still made from a pork product.
Where it sits among Old Fashioneds
Benton’s Old Fashioned beside three relatives
Benton’s Old Fashioned
- Base
- 60ml bacon fat-washed bourbon
- Sweetener
- 7.5ml maple syrup
- Bitters
- 2 dashes Angostura
- Twist
- Orange
Old Fashioned
- Base
- Bourbon or rye
- Sweetener
- Sugar or syrup
- Bitters
- Angostura
- Twist
- Orange
Maple Old Fashioned
- Base
- Bourbon
- Sweetener
- Maple syrup
- Bitters
- Bitters
- Twist
- Orange
Sazerac
- Base
- Rye
- Sweetener
- Sugar cube
- Bitters
- Peychaud’s
- Twist
- Lemon
| Drink | Base | Sweetener | Bitters | Twist |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Benton’s Old Fashioned | 60ml bacon fat-washed bourbon | 7.5ml maple syrup | 2 dashes Angostura | Orange |
| Old Fashioned | Bourbon or rye | Sugar or syrup | Angostura | Orange |
| Maple Old Fashioned | Bourbon | Maple syrup | Bitters | Orange |
| Sazerac | Rye | Sugar cube | Peychaud’s | Lemon |
The Old Fashioned and the Maple Old Fashioned share the structure. Here the change is in the spirit and not the sweetener.
Make it at home
The Spirit
Whiskey (Bourbon)Under the US standard 27 CFR 5.143, bourbon is an American whiskey whose mash is at least 51% corn, matured in fresh charred oak barrels and bottled at 40% ABV or higher, the figure our recipes use. The fresh charred wood gives it its vanilla, caramel and colour, and the corn gives a rounder, sweeter spirit than rye. It is the base of 26 of our recipes, more than any other whiskey.
More to explore
Frequently Asked Questions
Who created Benton’s Old Fashioned?
What is fat-washing?
Is Benton’s Old Fashioned vegetarian?
How strong is Benton’s Old Fashioned?
How long does the washed bourbon keep?
Can I use a different bourbon or sweetener?
Should it be served over ice?
Can I make it in a batch?
Sources.
Correct as of 1 November 2026.
- Imbibe, “Benton’s Old Fashioned” (recipe and wash method: Don Lee for PDT; 2oz washed bourbon, 1/4oz maple syrup, 2 dashes Angostura, stirred, rocks glass, orange twist; the 2007 fat-washing claim).
- NHS, “Calculating alcohol units” (the 14-units-a-week guidance and the units calculation).
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Old Fashioned
The IBA’s Old Fashioned is 45ml of bourbon or rye whiskey, one sugar cube, a few dashes of Angostura bitters and a few dashes of water; we use bourbon and two dashes. The sugar and bitters are muddled in a rocks glass until the cube dissolves, then ice goes in, the bourbon goes over it and the drink is stirred for 15 to 20 seconds. Orange peel is expressed over the top. About 1.9 UK units. Only the sugar and bitters are muddled: no orange flesh, no cherry. The recipe predates the name. The Oxford Companion says that when a newspaper in Hudson, New York, defined the cocktail in 1806, it described “spirits of any kind, sugar, water, and bitters”. The name came later in the century: the Companion has people ordering Old-Fashioneds in Chicago in 1880, as bartenders added liqueurs to the format and drinkers who wanted it plain asked for one made the old-fashioned way.
Maple Old Fashioned
A Maple Old Fashioned is 60ml of bourbon, 10ml of dark maple syrup and two dashes of Angostura bitters, stirred with ice for 20 to 30 seconds and strained over one large cube in a rocks glass, with an expressed orange twist. About 2.5 UK units. It is the Old Fashioned with maple syrup in place of the sugar cube, and the bitters and orange kept as they are. We found no creator named for it, and no source we read dates its first appearance. Maple is sweeter by volume than one-to-one sugar syrup, so 10ml is enough against 60ml of bourbon. The darker grades carry a toasted, caramel side that meets the vanilla and oak in the whiskey; pancake syrup, mostly flavoured sugar syrup, does not.
Sazerac
The IBA’s Sazerac is 50ml of cognac stirred with a sugar cube and two dashes of Peychaud’s bitters, then strained, with no ice, into a chilled rocks glass rinsed with absinthe, and finished with lemon zest. About 2.1 UK units. New Orleans more often makes it with rye whiskey. The Sazerac Company’s own history places Aaron Bird at the Sazerac House beside the Merchants Exchange from 1852 and dates the switch to rye to 1885. The Oxford Companion says the Sazerac cocktail was first mentioned in print only in 1899, and that the company’s account, which follows the historian Stanley Clisby Arthur, is undercut by numerous errors. The absinthe never goes into the mixing glass. It coats the glass and is poured away, leaving anise on the nose of every sip.
Manhattan
The IBA specifies 50ml of rye whiskey, 20ml of sweet vermouth and a dash of Angostura bitters, strained into a chilled glass with a cocktail cherry; we stir it over ice for 20 to 30 seconds and serve it in a coupe. That is five parts whiskey to two of vermouth. About 2.3 UK units. The Oxford Companion says the most commonly told story puts it at New York’s Manhattan Club on 29 December 1874, at a testimonial dinner for Samuel J. Tilden, later retold with Jennie Jerome, Lady Randolph Churchill, as host or inspiration, and calls that story simply not true: she had given birth to Winston Churchill in Oxfordshire less than a month earlier. The Companion names O. H. Byron’s Modern Bartenders’ Guide among the bar books that printed the drink in 1884, and we read Byron’s and Charlie Paul’s books of that year in the Internet Archive scans. With so little in the glass, the vermouth decides it. Twenty millilitres is over a quarter of the drink, and a bottle opened months ago tastes flat and sour against the rye. We keep it in the fridge and replace it within about four weeks.
Where this one sits
Recipe by Jerry Can Spirits · Updated 1 November 2026