Cooking with Spirit

Bourbon on the day of the Kentucky Derby is as much a celebrity as the horse that wins the final race. Splashed into a glass over crushed ice and fresh mint, bourbon makes its grand appearance in a beloved Southern favorite, the Mint Julep. Though a classic cocktail is a popular way to enjoy the robust flavor of bourbon, it is no longer relegated to just an annual appearance at the Derby.
 
In The Kentucky Bourbon Cookbook, master chef Albert W. A. Schmid reveals the versatility of Kentucky's quintessential creation in a plethora of recipes covering entrees, soups, desserts, and more. Signature recipes range from Kentucky Tomato Bourbon Soup to Bourbon Baked Ham, from Kentucky Bourbon Acorn Squash to Bourbon Banana Flambé.
 
Beyond a simple collection of recipes, The Kentucky Bourbon Cookbook offers a side dish of bourbon lore and savory personal anecdotes. Schmid also serves up a full course meal of bourbon history, from its beginnings in Bourbon County to its current place of pride in the culinary arts.
 
Appropriately, The Kentucky Bourbon Cookbook devotes an entire chapter to such classic bourbon cocktails as the Mint Julep. Whether served straight up in a shot or elegantly splashed over ice in an Old Fashioned glass, The Kentucky Bourbon Cookbook shows you how to cook with bourbon and drink it, too.
 
A testament to bourbon's time-honored traditions and versatility, The Kentucky Bourbon Cookbook is an essential companion for unlocking the flavors of bourbon in the kitchen.
 
Albert W.A. Schmid has worked as an executive chef and currently teaches at Sullivan University's National Center for Hospitality Studies. He is the author of The Hospitality Manager's Guide to Wines, Beers, and Spirits, now in its second edition.
 
Kentucky Bourbon Burgers (4 to 8 Servings)
 
2 pounds 80% lean ground chuck
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper
2 cloves garlic, minced
½ cup Kentucky bourbon
1 cup bread crumbs
4 to 8 hamburger buns
4 to 8 thin onion slices
Condiments
 
Mix the ground chuck with the salt, pepper, and garlic. Add the bourbon and bread crumbs and mix well. Separate the mixture into 4 to 8 patties and refrigerate.
 
Start the grill, and when it is hot, place the burgers on the grill. When blood begins to appear on the burgers, flip them and grill until done. Generally speaking, burgers should be cooked to medium well, which means there will be a little pink inside the burger.
 
Place the burgers on buns and dress with the onion slices and condiments.

 
Kentucky Bourbon Ice Cream (Yield: 3 Quarts)
 
4 eggs
1 cup sugar
¼ cup Kentucky bourbon
1¾ cups sweetened condensed milk
6 cups half-and-half
 
Beat the eggs with an electric mixer on medium speed. Gradually add the sugar while continuing to mix. Add the bourbon and condensed milk and mix well. Add the half-and-half and mix well.
 
Pour the mixture into the canister of a one-gallon ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer's directions. Generally the canister will be surrounded by freezing salt water and will continue to be churned while freezing the ice cream inside.
 
Once the ice cream is made, place it in the freezer and let it sit for at least 1 hour before serving it.
 
MORE INFORMATION:
The Kentucky Bourbon Cookbook
Albert W. A. Schmid
$24.95 cloth

Chasing a Ghost

On the rainy night of March 8, 1863, John Mosby led his band of raiders into Union territory in Maryland. After cutting the telegraph wire at Germantown, the men rode into the Fairfax Court House. By the time the sun rose the next day, Mosby had captured a brigadier general, a captain, a telegraph operator, thirty men, and fifty-eight horses-all without firing a single shot or losing a man.
 
Now available in paperback, Gray Ghost: The Life of Col. John Singleton Mosby is the first comprehensive biography of the renowned Confederate partisan ranger. Mosby possessed a genius for irregular warfare and became an expert at using fear as a weapon.
 
Mosby was never captured, and at the end of the war his wife convinced Gen. Grant to write him an exemption from military arrest. He returned to his law practice and after a few years became active in politics. He ardently supported the Grant presidency, and by the time Hayes was elected, Mosby was virtually exiled from his native Virginia for his outspoken backing of the Republican Party.
 
Ramage thoroughly explores the life of a man who served as an invaluable member of the Confederate Army. This biography revisits the genius and innovation of his campaigns and provides insight into his unpredictable personal, political, and military decisions. In detailed exposition, Gray Ghost tells the fascinating story of the leader who not only revolutionized the art of the night raid during the Civil War, but who set the precedent for exploiting the psychology of fear to gain essential victories.
 
James A. Ramage, Regents Professor of History at Northern Kentucky University, earned a Ph.D. in history at the University of Kentucky. For his book Rebel Raider: The Life of General John Hunt Morgan, Ramage won both the Douglas Southall Freeman Award for the most outstanding work in Southern History and the Kentucky Governor's Award for the most outstanding book in Kentucky history published during a four-year period.
 
MORE INFORMATION:
Gray Ghost: The Life of Col. John Singleton Mosby
James A. Ramage
$24.95 paper

When the Movies Were Wilder

Shortly on the heels of the South Carolina Historical Society selecting University Press of Kentucky author Janet G. Hudson as the recipient of the 2009 George C. Rogers, Jr. for her book Entangled by White Supremacy: Reform in World War I-era South Carolina, another UPK author has joined her as an honored author in the Carolinas.
 
Mark L. Bradley was recently selected as the recipient of the 2009 North Caroliniana Book Award for his book Bluecoats & Tar Heels: Soldiers and Civilians in Reconstruction North Carolina by the North Caroliniana Society. According to the NCS website, a committee surveys all books published during the year and chooses the volume that it believes "makes a positive contribution and appears to have the best chance of standing the test of time as a classic volume of North Caroliniana." The NCS was established in 1975 with the purpose of promoting knowledge and appreciation of North Carolina's heritage. The society is a private non-profit organization.
 
In Bluecoats and Tar Heels, Bradley tells the story of the U.S. Army's lengthy occupation of North Carolina after the Civil War during a time of intense political instability and social unrest. He details the complex interaction between the federal soldiers and the North Carolina civilians during this tumultuous period. Bradley's exhaustive study examines military efforts to stabilize the region in the face of opposition from both ordinary citizens and terrorist organizations such as the Regulators and the Ku Klux Klan. While many volumes exist that document the events that transpired before, during, and after the Civil War, this book is one of the few which thoroughly explores the U.S. Army's role as conciliator during Reconstruction.
 
Bradley, staff historian at the U.S. Army Center of Military History in Washington, D.C., is the author of Last Stand in the Carolinas: The Battle of Bentonville and This Astonishing Close: The Road to Bennett Place, which was a finalist for the 2001 Lincoln Prize.  He will be announced as the winner of the North Caroliniana Society's annual meeting at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on Friday, May 21, 2010.