The Bourbon Country Cookbook: New Southern Entertaining: 95 Recipes and More from a Modern Kentucky Kitchen

Bourbon, the first uniquely American distilled spirit, is nearly synonymous with Kentucky, its birthplace. The region conjures images of verdant hills of bluegrass, rolling pastures punctuated like an intricate quilt with horse farms’ defining white fences, cold bourbon cocktails sweating in the sun, and hundreds of well-dressed racegoers urging their steeds of choice to the finish line—all culminating into one distinctive southern heritage.

However, bourbon has come a long way since it was ...