Fat washing. You’ve probably never heard of it but ask any bartender and they will have — and use it often. There’s also a good chance you’ve tried a drink that uses it. So, what is it, and why are we hearing about it more?
It sounds complicated, but it’s not. It’s a technique that involves adding the flavours of a fat — like butter, bacon or olive oil — to a drink. To do it, the fat needs to be in liquid form — olive oil is fine as-is, but you’d need to melt the butter or collect the bacon’s grease.
Mix the liquid fat with your chosen alcohol and let it sit at room temperature. Then chill it in the freezer until the fat solidifies and you can skim it off. What’s left is a drink that tastes like the fat, but with no physical evidence of it. So, it tastes like butter or bacon but doesn’t have tiny chunks of butter or slivers of bacon floating around.
“Fat washing is a great technique to amplify body, mouthfeel and texture while imparting flavour,” says James Irvine, group creative cocktail lead at hospitality group Merivale.
“Natural fats will create texture with no depth or flavour, while boldly flavoured fats and infused fats create that extra dimension. Also, there’s no special equipment required to fat wash”
Irvine learnt fat washing at well-known New York City cocktail bar Please Don’t Tell a decade ago. Today, he uses it when building variety in his drinks menus. His favourite way to use it is adding extra virgin olive oil to a martini. The oil adds an extra dimension and amplifies the drink’s overall flavour.
Maybe Sammy has four cocktails that use fat washing on its menu. Bar manager Hunter Gregory says it allows flavours to blend in a more delicate way, creating a smoother, more cohesive drink. He likes using cacao butter and almond milk for the fat.
“It makes the drink silkier, and also helps clarify certain ingredients, which makes cocktails look more polished,” Gregory says. “It’s a pretty simple process — it just requires experience and some planning.”
Gregory says, generally, bartenders are putting more time into research and development of drinks and preparing drinks further in advance, making techniques like fat washing more common. Another reason for its recent popularity is aesthetics. “While the trend is driven by flavour, it’s hard to ignore the visual appeal of a beautifully clarified cocktail,” he says.
Lachy Sturrock, co-owner of Folly’s Bar and Bistro, says it’s a great creative outlet for bartenders as they can experiment with adding different flavours to spirits. He’s even seen lamb fat being infused. Fat washing, he says, taps into a wider trend in the drinks world: sustainability. Staff at his venue fat wash to minimise waste in the kitchen and bar.
“We’ve used surplus baked goods from the kitchen to create an almond croissant fat wash, which was infused with whisky to create an Almond Croissant Old Fashioned,” says Sturrock. “We’ve also infused a cinnamon scroll with vodka for a different take on the classic Espresso Martini.”
We’re hearing about fat washing more now because the average Australian is gaining more insights on mixology, says Denis Pisano, venue manager at Aster. More people are starting to understand that learning about the subtle art of mixology will give them a better, more thoughtful drinking experience.
“Small bars and professionals are doing an amazing job educating people on how to drink responsibly and more refined,” says Pisano. “They’re helping people understand the big work behind mixology and appreciating more subtle flavours. This is giving people a more open-minded approach to the bar industry.”
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