LINDSEY McCLAVE: In this episode of The Farmer & The Foodie...

AUTUMN NETHERY: Making bourbon wasn't just a science.

It was also an art form.

So I thought, "well, if it makes fabulous cornbread, it should make a fabulous bourbon."

-Let's eat.

-Yes.

This looks delicious.

MAGGIE KEITH: I'm Maggie Keith, and I'm the farmer.

LINDSEY: And I'm Lindsey McClave, and I am the foodie.

MAGGIE: My first impression of Jeptha Creed was the deep connection of farming to their product.

And so, they were growing an heirloom variety of corn, bloody butcher corn, which I've been a big fan of for years.

And they also talked a lot about all the other farm animals they had.

So my first impression was, "wow, they really are farming, and happened to be making bourbon too."

Yes, absolutely.

And the land that they're farming on has been in their family for decades.

And I loved the story of how, where the distilleries came to be, and they had to build a road to get there.

But nothing stopped them.

And there was sort of some serendipity to their process, brought with a lot of dedication and true knowledge.

Just really neat to see how it's grown and it's continuing to grow.

MAGGIE: Yeah, and it's definitely a small business.

They were literally hand labeling the different bottles.

And I love to see that aspect.

LINDSEY: Absolutely.

So, Autumn is the daughter of the Jeptha Creed mother-daughter duo and she heads up their marketing efforts, in particular.

So, are you from Shelbyville?

It's been around for a few generations now, right?

Yes, so my family's been in Shelby County for close to 250 years, almost 300 years, actually.

So, we've been here for quite a while.

[laughs] I've grown up here.

My dad grew up here.

My mom grew up here too.

The whole family is very integrated into the community here.

And when we were trying to find a location for the distillery, we really wanted to keep it here.

We spent about six months looking for it, in about 2014.

Wonderful.

Well, it seems to have obviously grown into an amazing facility.

Did you always, growing up, know that you were going to be making bourbon and Brandy and various products?

[laughs] No.

Honestly, no, I did not.

When the idea got brought up to me, I was 18 years old.

I was a freshman in college.

It was 2013.

So, when my parents brought up the idea of doing the distillery, I was like, "Well, that sounds interesting.

Kind of cool.

Let's look at it."

So, during my spring break, just a couple months later, we went around to all of the distilleries that were on the trail, currently.

I remember it was at Woodford Reserve, we were the only ones on the tour because it was a downtime, and the tour guide found out that I was interested in distilling and he took us on a backdoor tour of everything, and really went in depth with all of the behind the scenes aspects of it.

That's when I realized that making bourbon wasn't just a science, it was also an art form.

And I fell in love with that.

That was when I decided, "okay, no, this is what I want to make my career into.

So, how did you continue to train and to learn all the many, many things that go into being a distiller?

So, I had to go over to Scotland, in Edinburgh, specifically, and studied at Heriot-Watt University.

Because, at the time, the idea was that I would become our master distiller, make all of our spirits.

And one thing that I learned when I was over there, I'm horrible at chemistry.

My mother is a chemical engineer, I did not inherit that from her.

It goes in one ear and out the other.

So, when I came back home, I was like, "Okay, well, this is not going to work, because chemistry, biology, all of those pieces are very important in distilling.

My mother became our master distiller, and I finished up my degree in Marketing at the University of Kentucky.

And now I'm our Director of Sales and Marketing.

So tell me what Jeptha Creed means.

How did you all develop this name?

Yeah, so our name comes from our home farm.

We sit at the foothills of Jeptha Knobs.

They're only about 10 miles away from here.

That's where I grew up.

My whole family grew up there.

We've got a lot of family history tied in.

And while we were trying to research distilling in Shelby County, back when we were first trying to open the distillery.

We found documentation that Squire Boone and Daniel Boone, when they were exploring the area, named Jeptha Knobs after a biblical warrior in Judges 11.

So, we had state history, local history, my family history, there was a biblical component from my mother that she loved.

We're like, "Okay, Jeptha, that is our name."

And Jeptha Creek actually runs through the farm.

So, we were trying to come up with a second part of the name, and we settled on creed.

And the reason we settled on creed is for two reasons.

One, it is our promise to remain true and uphold the values that we have as a family, in our business.

And the second one is that we want to remain honest with our customers about what's going into their spirits.

We use all natural ingredients here, we don't use any artificial flavorings, colorings extracts, and we're not ashamed to tell people about what's going into their spirits.

So, it's like a promise to the customer that you know what's going to be going into the drink that you're having.

Your creed is very important and you all have a family motto, I understand.

Is that right?

We do.

So, back when I was studying in Scotland, around that time, my mother was really into genealogy, and trying to come up with what our ancestry was, and she'd managed to get it all the way back to Scotland.

Like my dad's side of the family is from there.

Oh, wow.

And while I was over there, I was helping her with some of the research, going around, and one crest that they had was Ne Oublie.

It was their family motto, and in Scottish Gaelic, it means "do not forget."

So, we incorporated it into our business motto here.

And it's, "Ne Oublie.

Do not forget to buy your next bottle."

[both laugh] Well, this is clearly an unforgettable place and I can't wait to see more of it.

-So, will you take me on a tour?

-Absolutely!

-Thank you!

Awesome!

-Let's go.

[inaudible] MAGGIE: Joyce is the master distiller at Jeptha Creed.

She has a background in chemistry and really knows how to make some good bourbon.

So, how did you come to be the master distiller?

Well, my background is in chemical engineering, and I have a master's degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Louisville Speed Scientific School, and worked in distillation on an industrial scale for many years.

And it was just kind of a natural fit for me to come in here and be our master distiller.

Can you tell me just about the history of the land and your family and the farm.

Yeah, well, my husband grew up as a dairy farmer.

And we had a dairy of our own for a while.

And we still live on the farm and still have cows and pigs and chickens.

We are growing our own beautiful line of corn.

All of the corn that we use in our Jeptha Creed products is all estate grown.

And it is an heirloom variety called bloody butcher.

Big fan of bloody butcher.

[both laugh] It's beautiful, beautiful corn.

And what made you pick bloody butcher?

Well, I had seen some people who are growing bloody butcher corn for their own cornbread use.

And they said it made fabulous cornbread.

So, I thought, "well, if it makes fabulous cornbread, it should make a fabulous bourbon."

The style and everything of what we have here is just evolved out of who we are and what we're about.

We're very much about our local history, heritage, and culture.

We very much respect and love Kentucky and our Kentucky soil and our Kentucky culture.

And we just wanted to build the business to reflect all of that.

And so can you talk to how the flavor of the ingredients you're growing are imparted in bourbon?

JOYCE NETHERY: Our bourbon is beautiful because we have our bloody butcher corn in there.

So, the bloody butcher corn imparts a flavor, a little bit of a smokiness, a little bit of some nuttiness, and some fruit flavors going on.

So, our bourbon is going to have a unique fingerprint that is going to be different from all the other bourbons on the shelf.

So, can you tell me about your Ground to Glass initiatives?

Yeah, Ground to Glass is a hashtag that we really like to use because I think it really represents what we are trying to be about.

And what Ground to Glass means to me is that using our bloody butcher corn, the open pollinated corn, the kernel on the cob is a seed.

We save that over the winter, plant it back the following spring, and get the same exact corn again, so it's very sustainable and old fashioned.

So, we put our seed that we've saved in the ground, and then we grow the corn, distill it, and then we have a cocktail bar where we make our products and serve them in the glass, so we are controlling our process, controlling our spirits, literally from the ground to the glass.

I don't know about you, but our time at Jeptha Creed just left me feeling so inspired.

And Joyce and Autumn were just a delight and so nice to welcome us into this amazing distillery that they created, the two of them together, their own, and I just found so much about the strong nature of them as a mother-daughter duo, as women, as distillers, just really, really fantastic.

Yeah, it was an incredible visit.

I loved their roots to the farm, too.

They really did appreciate the farm for what it is and what it brought to their bourbon.

And they really do believe in sourcing from Kentucky, what's local to Kentucky, what's here.

They grow their own corn and they took advantage of Paw Paws, an indigenous Kentucky fruit, and made a brandy out of it.

So, that was one.

I was so excited to bring a bottle of this brandy home and thought it could be nice to sip on perhaps while we make a stew that sort of I left there inspired to make.

It made me think a lot about just hearty warm, something that you would sit down with your family and enjoy.

And so, I'd like to share that with you.

Yeah.

When I tasted this, I was like, I feel like I need to be sitting in a big leather sofa like in the parlor, near a fire.

So, the stew will go great with that scene.

Fantastic, fantastic.

So, I'm just going to pour us each a little bit of this.

And stew, being true to its name, it does take a little bit of time.

So, nice to have something to keep us warm in the meantime.

-So, cheers, first off.

-Cheers, yes!

To Paw Paws, and to Jeptha Creed, -and to Brandy.

-These are adorable.

-So good.

-Just as I remembered.

So good.

So simple.

So smooth.

I love the idea, also, of sipping a Brandy while cooking.

-Yeah.

-I think of sipping a wine, -but never a brandy.

-We cook with brandy a lot.

And actually, we're cooking to be completely inspired by where we were with bourbon today.

And so, one of the things, when I think of making a soup or a stew or anything of that nature is you want to build layers of flavor.

And that's part of what takes time, but it's also part of what makes each spoonful better than the last, and heartwarming, stick-to-your-ribs type of a meal.

So, we are going to start with some bacon.

Well, that's going to be our first layer of flavor.

What better to sear off our stew meat with than bacon grease.

And I like to then save the rendered bacon.

So, we're going to render it down, get it nice and crispy, and draw as much of that fat out as we can, remove the bacon, but then keep that rich fat to cook the meat in and continue from there.

So, tell me a little bit about what stew meat is because that's something that you, being a beef farmer, are very familiar with.

Stew meat is one of those value added cuts that you never really think about being that much of a convenience, but it is.

So, a lot of stews call for a whole chuck roast and you're going to dice it up into cubes, or a whole sirloin tip rows, dice it up into cubes.

So, what the stew meat is, is it's all the different rows.

And let's say you have three beautiful chuck roast, when you're cutting down the animal, you have a big chunk and you cut it into smaller rows, it's going to be like the extra little bit that was leftover, that couldn't quite be enough for a full roast, but it's an extra little pile.

So, they'll cut that into perfect little cubes and set it aside.

And so, it's actually a great way to test and taste different roasts as well because it's a mix of different roasts.

And it's already been cut up for you.

So, all you have to do is cut open the bag with some scissors, and then pat it dry with a paper towel and it's ready to go.

Wonderful.

And so, what I'm going to do in terms of cooking this in our stew, it's going to spend a lot of time in broth and bourbon, and just get really nice and tender, and just fall apart and super delicious.

But we're also going to help it do that by giving it a nice sear.

And I like to add to that crunchy exterior layer of the sear by dusting it in a little bit of flour.

And so, when it goes in there with the flour, that also creates a little bit of a roux, so it's going to thicken the broth and the stew base as we go.

So, there's a lot of components to this, each one serves a very important part.

So, the stew meat being, of course, one of the, if not the most important, and then the bourbon.

So, after we sear off our beef, we're going to take it out of the pot.

So, now we've got beautiful drippings and kind of crunchy bits that are there on the pot from the beef.

We've got that bacon fat still in there that everything cooked in.

Now it's time for bourbon.

So, we're going to take the pot off of the heat, we're going to add equal parts bourbon, about a third-cup.

And then we're also going to add a little bit of beef broth in there.

We're going to bring that to a boil, use that as a glazing element.

So, we can take a wooden spoon and scrape up all those yummy crusty bits off the pan, let them dissolve back into the stew base.

And then it's time to start adding our aromatics.

Great.

And these are all simple ingredients.

Oh my gosh, simple, but plays such important roles.

So, we know, generally, if you cook at all, onions, and garlic, and fresh herbs are key to building flavor.

So, we're going to have diced onion, minced garlic that go in there.

And then for me, when I'm cooking, especially a stew or a really rich sauce, I find that tomato paste and Worcestershire sauce can bring things through a long way.

It really adds that sort of umami nature, and it's also supporting the bacon, the beef, the bourbon, all of these things really like to party together.

So, we're going to let them do that.

[laughs] So, all of that's going to go in there, some additional beef broth, a little bit of red pepper flake, and then it's going to do what it does best; it's going to stew.

So, we're going to keep it at a low simmer, covered for about an hour.

When that's done, we're going to throw in, we want to make it a hearty stew, some carrots, some potatoes, just nice and diced.

Let those get tender.

Final finish.

We'll be adding that bacon back in.

And then it'll be about time to eat.

And I feel like we need a little something to sop up the stewy goodness.

So, you had some ideas?

So, we're going to make one of my favorite things; cornbread.

And it's with a really good corn meal.

Like we said, the bloody butcher, and we got this from Jeptha Creed and they grow it on their farm, which is incredible.

And I mean, the name speaks for itself, I feel like, because you can see the flux of red in here and like orange and it's just so unique.

And that's a very specific varietal of corn, right?

Yeah.

So you see the red and the orange and sort of the lighter tone.

So, it's actually a mix of the native American red corn mixed with the white corn from the settlers and it kind of blends together.

One of the reasons I love this is depth of flavor, but also the color and the story and just paying tribute to the fact that a lot of the corn did come from native Americans -here in this country.

-Absolutely.

But we're going to start with the wet ingredients.

If you want to crack the egg in there, just to make sure it's good.

We'll take that.

Lovely.

And we'll put the one egg and the whole stick of butter melted into this bowl.

-Should I go ahead?

All right.

-Go ahead.

Melted, now is this unsalted butter?

It is unsalted butter.

And the egg.

Because we're going to add some really delicious seasoned butter.

Oh, that's right.

Yes.

[both laugh] So, here is one cup of milk.

If you want to whisk that together, I'm going to add in some honey.

So, Jeptha Creed, this is their family recipe, and they use sugar to sweeten it.

I always like to sub honey.

And so we're just going to do a quarter cup of honey that will mix in there as well.

Just another way to keep it local.

So, I mean, so far, we can have local butter, local egg, local honey, local milk.

Exactly.

Yeah.

So, now that we have our wet ingredients, we're going to do our dry ingredients.

Some people add flour to their cornbread and some people don't.

This recipe does have flour and I've actually never tested it without flour.

And so, I'm going to go ahead and add the flour, the baking powder, and then the corn meal as well.

And then, of course, a little salt.

-Balance.

-And I like this recipe too.

I mean, I don't know if this is just this simplicity of a family recipe, but it's basically dump everything in a bowl.

Usually you have two bowls; the dry ingredients and the wet ingredients, but this recipe just says, go ahead and put it all in.

I like when we can take steps out and have less things to clean, too.

I think even his moms can appreciate getting it on the table fast.

We're going to do a tablespoon of the baking powder.

I think about a quarter of that went on me.

[laughs] And then this is really the main ingredient, we have one and a half cups of the corn meal.

So, just from looking at this, I can also see it's a coarse grind.

So, I personally love that in a corn bread because I think it adds a lot of just great texture and I like being able to sort of hear and feel that crunch when I eat the cornbread.

So, 3/4 a cup of flour.

Here we go.

All right.

This is just good old kosher salt and I like to do two healthy pinches.

-If you want to mix that too.

-Shall I mix?

All right.

Technically, it's half of teaspoon, but I think two pinches.

I think we're just fine.

And we're going to have a nice bourbon honey butter on top of this, again, to kind of bring it all together.

And yeah, I'm super excited.

Look at that color.

I love this.

I really love the unique texture and color we're getting here.

This is not your everyday cornbread.

Yes.

And the nuttiness of this corn meal definitely shows through in the bread.

So, just straight into this greased pan?

Straight into the pan.

I added some of our melted butter.

I borrowed.

There you go.

All right.

MAGGIE: To keep it simple.

LINDSEY: And how long are we cooking this?

MAGGIE: Just 25 minutes.

Oh, great.

Okay.

At what temperature?

400.

Okay.

So a nice, little bit higher temperature, so you get that browning on top of it.

-Yes.

-Fantastic.

MAGGIE: And you could do it like a skillet cornbread where you start it on the stove and then pop it in the oven.

But I really like to get these big square chunks, especially when I'm serving the stew.

And so, I thought it'd be nice to have a square pan.

Right, so we'll get right.

Smooth this out to hit all the corners, I assume?

-Yes.

-Alright.

And then while this bakes, we can finish off our stew, which has been simmering away.

I'm sure you can smell.

Yeah.

And we've added our carrots and our potatoes.

So, those have continued to cook.

They will double check that they're nice tender.

Throw the bacon back in, let it reduce a little further, and it'll be dinnertime.

MAGGIE: Great.

All right.

Into the oven.

Okay.

So, cornbread's in the oven, our stew has been simmering away.

We added our carrots and potatoes about an hour in, and they've been simmering an additional 45 minutes.

So, we're just going to take a peek and we mainly want to make sure.

Yep, perfectly fork tender, potatoes too.

And then at this point, I like to just have a little taste of the broth just to see how we're doing.

It's hot, so be careful.

I think it tastes pretty delicious.

I would maybe add a pinch more salt, normally, but what I'm going to do now, final steps, add the remaining bacon, saltiness in here.

And then, also, I'm going to let it simmer for one last little bit, 15 minutes or so with the top off, and I want to bring it to a pretty heavy simmer, and it will just let a little bit of the broth condense, and just make those flavors that much bigger, and then it'll be about ready for our cornbread and add a little butter and we're ready to go.

-Great!

-All right.

So, in goes that bacon that we rendered the fat off of earlier.

That will add a nice punch of flavor.

So, we're going to leave the top off and we're going to go back to bring it to a low boil, high simmer, whatever you want to call it, and it'll be almost dinnertime.

Great.

Looking forward to it.

Yeah.

I don't know about you, but I'm starving.

And I think this smells amazing and looks great.

And I think it just really speaks to the experience that we've had at Jeptha Creed.

This is a meal I want to share with family, it warms the soul, and it's from the earth.

Yeah.

This is the perfect meal to enjoy together and then have leftovers for our family later.

Absolutely.

And I think this cornbread is going to be great for sopping up some of the leftover gravy.

So, I love- It's almost kind of blue color to it now that it's cooked.

Yeah, and every single piece is good.

Even the corners, the middle, the ends, I love it.

Well, give me a corner please.

Because I kind of like crunchier edge pieces.

And then I think all the better to use our bourbon honey butter with, and, basically, this is a taste as you go, so, gosh, you have to eat a lot of butter to get it just right.

But I just start with a stick of room temperature unsalted butter, I add a nice healthy drizzle of honey, and then, we aren't using just straight bourbon in the butter.

So, not cooking any alcohol out in this case.

So, I start with a tablespoon, and I whip it all in, I taste, add a little bit more, and sometimes I think it takes a little bit more bourbon than you might expect.

But you don't need a lot of the butter and I want the bourbon flavor to come through but it's definitely one of those whip, taste, splash more bourbon, whip.

A little bit of salt at the end and just a really nice way to elevate a meal, I think, in general.

Why not doll your butter up a little bit?

Looking forward to that one.

All right.

Well, I think we need- we have some thyme in here, and obviously there's carrots.

So, we'll add- Yeah, I love using carrot tops in place of parsley in dishes.

Just a great way to use the whole ingredient.

Absolutely, and adds another texture, and flavor element, and fresh thyme in a stew, you couldn't be more classic than that.

Fantastic.

All in one spot.

There we go.

Just going to do a little butter on mine.

Do you want me to go and add a little butter for yours?

Yeah, I love it.

All right, here we go.

LINDSEY: Well, this is very fall apart cornbread.

MAGGIE: It's hot.

LINDSEY: Love it, right out of the oven.

-Let's eat!

-Yes.

This looks delicious.

Well, I gotta hand it to the stew meat, tenders can be basically melts.

I love it.

I think I just got a little chuck roast.

I can tell.

Well, I do feel like the time we put into layering the stew and then allowing it to simmer slowly and, at the very end, letting it reduce just a little bit more with the top off, I do think that makes a difference because I didn't add any salt or pepper or anything in the end.

It was reduced enough and thickened in its own juices with the bacon.

Fantastic.

And now... Oh yes.

To the cornbread.

Yeah, we just need our hands for this one.

Oh my gosh.

Oh, that butter.

I love it.

I love the texture.

There's a little crunch in there but I do think balancing the cornmeal with the flour helps balance that texture so it's not just all gritty corn, but you do get a little bit of that.

It's got nice depth of flavor and I will say the butter doesn't do any harm.

MAGGIE: Yes, and I can taste the honey too.

Can you taste the honey in the bread?

LINDSEY: Yeah.

Well, we have honey in the bread and in the butter.

I just think this is one of those things when you don't want to overdo one ingredient, but it is nice to tie everything together.

So, bourbon in the stew, bourbon in the butter.

We've got a little Paw Paw Brandy, and yeah, cheers to another great episode!