Candied bacon for Hallowe’en? Yes please!

by Grant Hamilton

I cannot thank Francis Lam at Salon enough for this recipe:

Candied bacon
Adapted from the amazing Andrea Albin and her recipe for frozen peanut butter pie in the September 2009 issue of Gourmet.

Makes 10 strips

Ingredients

  • ½ pound bacon (10 strips)
  • ¼ cup sugar
  • Dash ground cinnamon (optional, to taste)
  • Pinch ground coriander (optional, to taste)
  • Pinch ground chile powder (optional, to taste)

Directions

  1. If using spices, stir them into the sugar and mix evenly.
  2. Lay the bacon in one tight layer in the heaviest, widest skillet you have, and set it over medium heat. If you can’t fit all the bacon at once, do this in multiple batches. Cook the bacon, flipping after a few minutes, until it’s nicely shrunk, starting to brown, but still pliable, about 6 minutes in the pan. (If you want to make a whole bunch, do it in the oven: Lay the bacon out, again in one layer, on a rimmed, parchment-lined sheet tray and bake in a preheated 350 oven. Check on the bacon in about 20 minutes.) When ready, pour off the fat, saving it for other, delicious uses, and let the bacon drain on paper towels.
  3. If you plan on serving the pieces in half, cutting them now is a good idea, and it will probably let you fit more pieces in the pan at once. Set the skillet back on medium heat with as much bacon as it will take in one layer. (Sorry, bakers; you’ll really want to do the candying step on the stove so you can keep an eye on the sugar.) Sprinkle the sugar over the bacon, remembering to save some if you’re doing this in multiple batches, and let it cook until the sugar melts. At this point, turn the heat down to medium-low and keep a close eye on it, making sure it doesn’t get too dark and burn. With tongs, swish the bacon around so that it’s entirely coated in the molten sugar. When the bacon looks dark and shiny, and the sugar has taken on a light brown color of its own, remove the bacon to a plate or a cutting board to cool. Make sure you give them some room so they don’t stick to one another, and DON’T PUT IT ON PAPER TOWELS. Trying to rip the stuck bits of paper towel of candied bacon is more impossible than trying to de-toilet-paper your tree. Once it’s cool, trick or treat!

Note: Candied bacon can be stored out of the fridge in an airtight container for a day, but will lose its crispness. If you want, you can precook the bacon and refrigerate it, and then candy it with the sugar the day you want to serve it.

At a special chocolate event at Winnipeg’s The Forks Market, I got to try a wonderful thick-cut bacon that had been dipped in spicy chocolate. It was delicious.

Tags: , ,

Another excuse to eat bacon

by Amy Breen

Like I really needed one …

The Daily Mail reports on the findings of U.S. researchers that eating a big fatty breakfast full of all the trimmings is the best way to start the day, and probably the best for your health.

Their study looked at the effects of eating different types of food - and of eating them at different times in the day.

Mice fed a high fat meal after waking remained healthy, but those given a carb-rich breakfast, followed by a fatty dinner, did not fare as well.

They put on weight and had trouble processing sugar, raising their risk of diabetes.

Blood tests also flagged up other problems that raised their risk of heart disease and strokes.

Dr Martin Young, of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, said: ‘The first meal you have appears to programme your metabolism for the rest of the day.

The study finds that eating a carb-heavy breakfast like cereal programs your body to only burn off carbohydrates for the rest of the day — too bad for me and my love of toast and peanut butter in the morning.

Now don’t start thinking that you can eat bacon and eggs for breakfast and then whatever you want for the rest of the day; the research suggests that for optimal benefit, you should eat a heavy breakfast, a light lunch, and an even lighter dinner.

Which shouldn’t be hard, really. I find that when I eat a big breakfast with bacon and eggs, I’m barely hungry for the rest of the day.

Tags: ,

Bacon is only 10th?

by T. Keith Edmunds

Following the spate of bacon posts in the past week or so, I stumbled across an article about a poll taken in Britain pertaining to peoples’ favorite (and lest favorite) scents.

For the most, part smells like baking, grass, clean sheets and fresh coffee made the “good” lists for both men and women. Unsurprisingly, vomit, body odor and garbage appeared on the other list. (I’ve reposted the combined “good” list below.)

This article made me think about my favorite smells. Although I am loath to make a definitive list of favorite anything, I can admit that I do prefer the following smells to most others: fresh-baked cinnamon buns, fresh-baked bread, theatre popcorn, the smell of the air just before it rains, frying bacon, wood smoke, fresh mown grass, barbecuing hambugers, fresh coffee and old books. There are others, I’m sure, but these come easily to mind.

TOP 20 SMELLS WHICH MAKE BRITS HAPPY

1. Freshly baked bread

2. Clean sheets

3. Freshly mown grass

4. Fresh flowers

5. Freshly ground coffee

6. Fresh air after rain fall

7. Vanilla

8. Chocolate

9. Fish and chips

10. Bacon frying

11. Roast dinner

12. Babies

13. Lemon zest

14. Lavender

15. Petrol

16. Apple and blackberry crumble in the oven

17. A freshly lit match

18. Roses

19. Party poppers

20. Rubber tyres

Note that this is the combined list and does not account for the inevitable gender differences. I’m interested in the idea of cultural variances, as well. For example, I don’t know that a similar poll of Canadians would include “fish and chips” or “party poppers” anywhere on the list.

Who has a favorite smell that might be considered odd?

Tags: , ,

How to properly cook bacon — and how not to

by Grant Hamilton

In case a bacon cinnamon roll isn’t, um, how you roll, I present the video below, which demonstrates just exactly how you should and shouldn’t cook your bacon:

I will admit, I’m an impatient bacon-cooker, but I’ve recently started to take more time with it, cooking it longer at a lower heat, and I think the results are worth it. I also like Amy’s suggestion that I pop completed bacon in the oven to crisp it up and keep it hot, so we can fry eggs in the leftover bacon grease.

(I was going to tag this post NSFW, but I don’t think we have any heart surgeons or rabbis in the audience.)

Tags: , , ,

For breakfast: Bacon cinnamon rolls

by Grant Hamilton

l

My newest friend on Facebook, Lewis Meme, whom I’ve posted about before, has a thing for sweet confections. He works in a bakery, don’t you know (his last job turned out to be kind of a temp gig). While browsing his page, as I do for every newly-acquired Facebook friend (how else to know which privacy setting they have decided you deserve?) I came across the picture above, of a bacon cinnamon roll, which he said tasted better than heaven: “just a little smoke and a whole lotta sweet.”

Immediately, I hit the Google. And found a recipe! Well, “recipe” might be a little strong:

While grocery shopping the other day I picked up a tube of ready-to-cook cinnamon rolls and thought hey, I wonder how these would taste with bacon. As I read the back of the package I was reminded that the rolls are actually un-rolled when you remove them.

I unrolled the first pastry and the length of the dough reminded me of something. Could it be? Yes indeed. Serendipity. The unrolled pastry was nearly identical in size to a strip of bacon. This was going to be interesting.

After assembling all the bacon cinnamon rolls I popped them in the pre-heated oven at 425 degrees for about 15 minutes. I then pulled the rolls out of the oven and drizzled the icing upon them as directed.

The recipe writer calls them a winner: “The entire house was filled with sugary, cinnamony, bacony aroma. The taste was both sweet and salty, a perfect combination for a morning pick-me-up meal. Highly recommended for any bacon lover!”

This I have got to try. Thanks Lewis! And thanks pseudonymous Internet recipe-writer “Mr.B“!

In other news, there is a website called Bacon Today, which promises “Daily updates on the world of sweet, sweet bacon.”

Tags: , , ,