Under the giant feathered hats and watchful eyes of the estimated 150,000 attendees to this year's Kentucky Derby, the culinary team at the Churchill Downs race track will will use roughly 1,000 pounds of mint, 20,000 bottles of Woodford Reserve and 24,000 bottles of Old Forester to create tens of thousands of mint julep cocktails in a derby tradition that has carried on for almost 150 years.
Roughly 120,000 mint juleps are served at the race each year, but the cocktail isn’t the only must have for Kentucky Derby season—an open-faced turkey sandwich called the Hot Brown, a pie actually named for the race and pimento cheese are all traditions of America’s oldest continuous sporting event.
Another tradition of Derby watchers around the country is the Derby-Pie, which actually has little to do with the race itself: The pecan, chocolate and bourbon pie wasat the Melrose Inn outside of Louisville in 1954 and Kern’s Kitchen trademarked the “Derby-Pie” name a decade later, leading it to become a traditional menu item for at-home viewing parties.