First you cook the bacon, remove the fat and tear it into pieces. It sounds like the start of a nice breakfast, but it’s actually the first part of mixologist Adam Seger’s Baconcello recipe. The next step is steeping the bacon in vodka for 72 hours.

Bacon-infused spirits and other so-called “carnivorous cocktails” are quirky options on the menus of some cutting-edge bars these days, and with the introduction this May of a mass-produced product called Bakon Vodka, flesh-flavoured spirits are beginning to nudge their way into the mainstream drinking scene.

Seger, general manager, mixologist and sommelier of Chicago bar/restaurant Nacional 27, is part of a multitasking breed of barkeep that likes to incorporate culinary techniques into drinks. Bacon is the most popular meat-in-a-glass, but Seger has also made a ham-and-cheese cocktail.

Seger says that savoury drinks follow cooking logic. “You use alcohol to deglaze a pan when you cook, so it makes sense that you can inverse it.”

The carnivorous cocktail movement is expanding people’s view of drinking.