Bourbon Pecan Pie
Chef Hilary White adds about 30 ml of bourbon to her grandparents’ pecan pie to make it, in her words, “even more Southern”. Her filling brings together dark corn syrup, butter, vanilla and pecans with eggs and sugar: a family recipe with a deliberate whiskey addition.[9] The bourbon contributes to the recipe, but baking does not reliably remove all its alcohol.[9][11]
What bourbon brings to pecan pie
Bourbon echoes the flavour nuances of dark corn syrup, according to White. The chef, of Bistro Hilary in Senoia, Georgia, combines them in her grandparents’ recipe with sugar, eggs, butter, vanilla and pecans, plus a little flour and salt. This is her explanation of the combination, rather than a comparative tasting result.[9]
The ingredients offer two routes into the science of aroma: the whiskey itself and the changes that roasting brings to pecans. In a 2008 study of an American bourbon, Poisson and Schieberle used aroma extract dilution analysis to investigate its odour-active compounds. Vanillin, eugenol and lactones were among the contributors to an overall aroma described as vanilla-like, fruity and smoky.[12]
A 2018 study of raw and roasted Georgia pecans found 63 flavour-active compounds in samples roasted at 175°C. Pyrazines, associated with the Maillard reaction, appeared only in the roasted samples. The researchers linked the changes brought by roasting with increased roasted, nutty, buttery and sweet sensory characteristics.[10]
These studies examined bourbon and pecans separately, not White’s baked pie. They illuminate the ingredients’ aromatic possibilities without establishing which bourbon compounds remain noticeable after mixing and baking, how the finished pie tastes, or how the two ingredients interact in this recipe. White’s pairing rests on her culinary judgement.
The filling in Hilary White’s bourbon pecan pie
White’s recipe, published by Garden & Gun, provides a named reference for the filling below. Bourbon accounts for 2 tablespoons within a formula that also includes dark corn syrup, sugar, eggs and butter. This site has not tested the recipe; use White’s published recipe for the complete preparation and baking method.[9]
| Filling ingredient | Approximate metric volume and published US measure |
|---|---|
| Sugar | 175 ml (¾ cup) |
| Dark corn syrup | 355 ml (1½ cups) |
| Salt | 2.5 ml (½ teaspoon) |
| Flour | 7.5 ml (1½ teaspoons) |
| Eggs | 3 |
| Vanilla | 7.5 ml (1½ teaspoons) |
| Bourbon | 30 ml (2 tablespoons) |
| Butter | 22 ml (1½ tablespoons) |
| Pecans | 355 ml (1½ cups) |
The US measures come from White’s recipe as published by Garden & Gun.[9] Metric volumes are approximate conversions, not inferred ingredient weights.
The whole formula matters, not simply the bourbon measure. A pie with a different syrup or filling should not be presented as White’s recipe merely because it contains the same amount of whiskey. For a first attempt, the published version gives the clearest reference point. Note the bourbon used and any changes, so your observations remain attached to an identifiable version; describe an altered recipe as an adaptation rather than attributing it to White.
The bourbon is not a substitute for syrup, and this filling is not a specification for a whiskey sauce. For the wider principles of using whisky as an ingredient, turn to cooking with whisky, rather than treating one pie formula as a rule for every dish.
Alcohol remains after baking
A bourbon pecan pie may still contain alcohol after cooking. The USDA’s published retention factors show that cooking reduces alcohol without reliably eliminating it; the figures concern alcohol generally, not bourbon pecan pie specifically.[11]
| Preparation in the USDA table | Alcohol retained |
|---|---|
| Stirred in, then baked or simmered for 30 minutes | 35% |
| Stirred in, then baked or simmered for 1 hour | 25% |
| Stirred in, then baked or simmered for 2½ hours | 5% |
| Not stirred in, then baked for 25 minutes | 45% |
Source: USDA Table of Nutrient Retention Factors, Release 6, December 2007.[11] These percentages describe the proportion of the original alcohol retained under the listed conditions, not the alcohol strength of the finished food.
The table is not a calculator for White’s pie. In particular, it would be misleading to select the nearest baking time and announce an exact alcohol content for a slice. The cited data do not establish a measured result for that recipe.
The practical point belongs beside the food: describe it as containing bourbon, not as alcohol-free. If someone needs a dish without alcohol, offer a separate recipe made without it rather than promising that the oven has removed it.
How pecan pie changed from custard to syrup
Pecans boiled in milk, baked as custard in a pastry-lined plate, perhaps finished with meringue: that was the “Pecan Pie” reported in Harper’s Bazar on 6 February 1886. According to Plate Tales, the same wording appeared in Texas Siftings that day. The earliest printed examples described in these sources were milk-custard pies, not the syrup fillings familiar from later recipes.[2]
By 23 January 1898, when the Dallas Morning News printed Mrs Matt Bradley’s “The Texas Pecan Pie”, milk still had its place. That recipe, also reported by Plate Tales, combined sugar, sweet milk, finely chopped pecans, eggs and a spoonful of flour, with browned egg whites on top. Across these two examples, the name is familiar but the filling belongs to an earlier style of pecan pie.[2]
Story box: From milk custard to syrup filling
The early record
Pecan pie has no established single inventor. Plate Tales reports recipes in two publications on 6 February 1886, both describing a milk-custard filling. These reported printings leave the identity of the dish’s first maker open. Source: Plate Tales.[2]
A syrup turning point
In 1925, Mrs H. W. Woodruff contributed a recipe containing dark Karo, sugar, flour, eggs, pecans, butter and vinegar to a Dallas church cookbook. Historian Rebecca Sharpless identifies it as the earliest recipe naming Karo that she found. Source: UNC Press Blog.[1]
An uncertain place in the chronology
Sharpless also identifies a cane-syrup pecan pie in a New Orleans recipe collection. Its publication date is not securely established, leaving its precise place in the chronology unresolved. Sources: UNC Press Blog and Plate Tales.[1][2]
Reading the sources
Plate Tales supports the reported 1886 printings and their custard filling. Rebecca Sharpless’s account on the UNC Press Blog supports Woodruff’s 1925 ingredients and her search finding. The two accounts also supply the dating qualification for the New Orleans collection.[1][2]
Last checked: 7 November 2026
Did Karo invent pecan pie?
Pecan pie was in print before Karo’s syrups arrived. The milk-custard recipes reported from 1886 precede the company’s stated introduction of its light and dark corn syrups on 13 May 1902.[2][3] The more specific question is who first made the corn-syrup version.
That origin story is contested. A Texas legislative resolution credits an executive’s wife with creating the syrup pie around 1930. Sharpless points instead to Woodruff’s earlier published recipe, which already called for dark Karo.[1][5]
Verdict badge: The Karo executive’s wife
The claim: The wife of a Karo executive created the syrup-based pecan pie around 1930.
Verdict: Disputed
What the record shows
The introduced text of Texas Senate Concurrent Resolution 12 repeats that account. Sharpless rejects it, citing Woodruff’s 1925 recipe containing dark Karo. Sources: Texas Legislature and UNC Press Blog.[5][1]
What remains unresolved
Woodruff’s 1925 recipe predates the resolution’s approximate creation date. It establishes an earlier published use of corn syrup in pecan pie, while leaving the first maker unidentified. Source: UNC Press Blog.[1]
The earliest source for the executive’s-wife claim is not established from the sources checked.
Reading the sources
The resolution supplies the executive’s-wife account; Sharpless supplies the earlier recipe and her correction.[5][1]
Last checked: 7 November 2026
Karo’s own history page now tells the story more broadly: “Down South, a new use for corn syrup is born”. Its pecan pie account names no inventor.[3]
Where to go next
- Cooking with Whisky: the wider guide to using whisky as an ingredient.
- Whisky and Food Pairing: The Complete Guide: a separate starting point for pairing food with whisky.
- Irish Whiskey Cake: another baking article centred on whiskey.
Sources
[1] UNC Press Blog, Rebecca Sharpless. A Fresh Look at the History of Pecan Pie. 16 November 2022.
https://uncpressblog.com/2022/11/16/a-fresh-look-at-the-history-of-pecan-pie/
[2] Plate Tales. The Origin of Pecan Pie Was a Custard, Long Before Karo. Undated web article.
https://www.platetales.com/stories/origin-of-pecan-pie-history
[3] Karo. Our History. Undated company history, producer’s account.
https://www.karosyrup.com/our-history/
[5] Texas Legislature Online. 83(R) S.C.R. No. 12, introduced version. 2013. Cited for the historical account it repeats, not as proof of that account.
https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/83R/billtext/html/SC00012I.htm
[9] Garden & Gun, Francine Maroukian, recipe by Hilary White. Bourbon Pecan Pie. Undated in the supplied fact sheet.
https://gardenandgun.com/recipe/bourbon-pecan-pie
[10] PubMed. Characterization of the Volatile Compounds in Raw and Roasted Georgia Pecans by HS-SPME-GC-MS. 2018.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30347446/
[11] USDA Agricultural Research Service. USDA Table of Nutrient Retention Factors, Release 6. December 2007, alcohol retention table, p. 11.
https://www.ars.usda.gov/ARSUserFiles/80400525/Data/retn/retn06.pdf
[12] Poisson and Schieberle, Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, volume 56, p. 5813. Characterization of the most odor-active compounds in an American Bourbon whisky by application of the aroma extract dilution analysis. 2008.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18570373/
This desk-researched article uses the supplied verified fact sheet, distinguishing the chef’s recipe, historical reporting, producer statements and published research.
Last checked: November 2026