Whiskey-flavored pork chops are in your future dinner plans

Pork and whiskey pair wonderfully, but previous attempts to fuse them together have failed horribly (never again, pork-juice Manhattan). Luckily, the folks at Templeton Rye Distillery are hard at work raising 25 pigs that should, in theory, taste like their whiskey.

Contrary to knee-jerk theory, the people spearheading the Templeton Rye Pork Project aren't feeding the animals straight shots. They're actually giving them a special feed made with dry distillery grain, so the piggies get a taste of the whiskey-making process while they are beginning to taste like whiskey themselves. Where the pigs will go when they're grown remains up in the air -- the Templeton peeps aren't deciding until June -- but apparently Top Chef champ Stephanie Izard has already made her plea for some rye pork, making the prospect of Templeton chops & Cheez-It cake one step closer to reality.

Kristin Hunt is a food/drink staff writer for Thrillist and is pretty confident those pigs are taking pulls from a flask when the farmers aren't looking. Follow her at @kristin_hunt.