Whiskey in a Milkshake?

Today I saw the online headline, "Who put the Whiskey in my Milkshake?" Though it ended up being a legitimate story about milkshake recipes that contain Bourbon, it brought back memories -- weird memories of growing up with three older brothers.

One day before junior high school, I decided to have Shredded Wheat for breakfast -- the large biscuits that were much bigger than a Brillo pad, but looked like they were made the same way. Because it was pretty cold outside, I decided to warm up the milk. This was before microwave ovens, so I put about a cup of milk in a saucepan and ran upstairs for a second.

When I got back downstairs, I poured the warm milk on my cereal and began to eat. The weird thing is that all three of my brothers were at the table eating -- we didn't normally all end up eating at the same time. With the first bite I noticed that the milk didn't taste right. "Does the milk taste bad to you?" I asked. They all said it tasted fine to them.

After a couple more bites, I was positive there was something wrong with the milk. "The milk is spoiled," I announced. "I'm throwing this out." The reaction from my brothers was immediate. They said stuff like, "You can't throw that out, Mom will be mad." They continued to tell me I was wasting food, etc., but I threw it out anyway. I have no idea what I ate instead.

Flash forward to several years later. Someone brought up this insignificant breakfast morning at a family event. It went something like, "Do you remember when you heated milk for your Shredded Wheat and the milk tasted spoiled?" Confused I said I knew what they were talking about. "When you were upstairs, we poured Dad's Scotch in your milk."

Yeah, just what I needed -- Scotch for breakfast.

So, from experience I can tell alcohol in milk does not work. And if Scotch is bad in milk, I can't imagine Bourbon would be any better in a milkshake.