Smokin' spurtles

We made a black forest ham sandwich, using our freshly whittled spurtle to toast the bun in a warm skillet, before adding a dressing of mayonnaise, dijon mustard, honey, apple cider vinegar, salt and paprika. To taste, we sipped a sweet, spicy and smoky hickory barbecue sauce used for Cajun blackened chicken. Following reduction we feasted our noses on a plate of fennel sausages braised with lemony potatoes, bay leaves and pomegranate molasses. The reduced palate delivered a smoky root beer brisket and a woody, herbaceous and slightly medicinal glass of green chartreuse. The starting point for this small batch was two bourbon hogsheads of single malt Scotch whisky. One cask was transferred at nine years old to a new oak hogshead with a heavy toast and a medium char. The other, at the same age, to a second-fill ex-oloroso hogshead. The casks were then married together before bottling.