We used to drink a little bit. Super casually, but in a past life I was successful and we amassed a collection of expensive whiskeys and other alcohol. Lagavulin, Laphroaig, Caol Ila, to name a few. We have bottles of gin, cognac, and even a bunch of wine.

When my wife gave birth, I gave it up. I wanted to be present, always involved at home, and always ready to respond and drive us somewhere in an emergency. I am proud of myself, but I have thousands of dollars of alcohol that I can’t drink anymore.

Last night we braised some pork shoulder and reduced the broth with loads of brown cane sugar, raspberry vinegar and Laphroaig. It was divine.

i made bacon glazed in sweet peppery Lagavulin-infused caramel. Fantastic.

I poured a bottle of Harlan estate wine into a pot and braised some amazing brisket in it. It was banging.

But… I have so, so much more to use. It’s simply too much, and I need ideas. Please help.

Use the gin to cure gravlax.

Cure a side of salmon with coarse salt, brown sugar, and that Laphroaig.

If it’s wine or beer, works wonders in stews. Just do Julia Child’s beef bourguignon and you can pretty much put any wine or beer and it’ll come out wonderful.

For hard liquors, you can use them in high heat fast sauces e.g Italian or even Thai, but small quantity, it’ll take you a while to finish several bottles this way.

Anything unopened, gift. If there are charities or groups looking for items to auction off, great, you get a tax deduction for a charitable donation too.

Use bourbon, vodka, and rum to make vanilla, orange, mint, and almond extracts for baking (also can be repackaged as gifts).

Wine is a great braising liquid for meat (coq au vin, boeuf bourginion, etc and that family of food).

If you've got liquor, make you own vanilla extract. You can use vodka or rum or bourbon.

Make some tinctures with herbs of choice, make limoncello, or cherry bounce.

The juniper in gin goes really well with venison. I don't have recipes but it's a flavor pairing that works. Google Brandy peppercorn cream sauce. That's fantastic with steak. Bananas foster with rum. Little Bourbon in some scratch bbq sauce. A splash of range liqueur in a pan of fish adds a juice twist as well.

It's a shame to use really nice alcohol for cooking. After a certain point what you make doesn't get any better. Why not find someone who would appreciate the stuff you don't drink and give it to them?

Wrap it up and send it to me !

But seriously,
The wines can be made into reduction sauces for many different meats. The wines can also be used to make some nice jams and fruit preserves. Try poaching pears in mulled wine and then using them for a strudel filling.

Use vodka or better rum to make puddings and sweet (lemon) curd. A little blast of rum into some dark chocolate pudding is fantastic !

Whiskeys and other fine spirits can be used many ways, Flambé is the obvious answer here, you could do that with a nice grilled steak (just a little) or roast. Cherries jubilee is another obvious thing you could also try with other seasonal fruits. Bake apples with brown sugar cinnamon splashed with some spirits.

Oh, and don't forget Vodka sauce for pasta. A little tomato, a little cream, some vodka, season it fresh and you're good to go with so many dishes.

A dash of cognac or whisky in beef stroganoff is sublime (beef, onion, mushrooms, black pepper, sour cream, dill, no tomato for the love of god!)

Marinated a huge chunk of beef in a whole bottle of aged Jenever (dutch gin) once and it was absolutely delish

Dark rum
Molasses
Ginger root
Cinnamon
Lime juice and zest
Salt
Pepper
Coriander

Marinate chicken for hours

Grill

Enjoy

Bananas foster, crepes suzette, mushroom peppercorn sauce