Food The Bacon Thread

I looked, and I couldn't find a Bacon thread on this new TFP. I think that this "food group" deserves it's own attention, especially after seeing this in the paper today:

http://www.thestar.com/living/food/article/1058762

Bacon jam arrives in Toronto

Published On Mon Sep 26 2011

This is the beef slider that Skillet Street Food chef/founder Josh Henderson served at All the Best Fine Foods. It's topped with bacon jam, blue and brie cheese and arugula.
Keith Beaty/Toronto Star


By Jennifer Bain Food Editor

Bored of your usual condiments? Help yourself to bacon jam.
Josh Henderson, the Seattle chef behind Skillet Street Food, flew in last week to promote the launch of his savoury Skillet Original Bacon Spread at All the Best Fine Foods.
Then Loblaws provided a sneak peak of citrusy-sweet Bacon Marmalade, which should hit shelves in select stores in mid-October.
“I can’t believe bacon jam hasn’t been done before commercially,” said Alison Fryer, manager of the Cookbook Store. “The possibilities are endless. I mean bacon is a food group, isn’t it?’
She sampled Skillet’s version and declared it “awesome.”
All the Best Fine Foods threw a public party for Skillet, inviting Toronto chefs Claudio Aprile of Origin/Colborne Lane, Chris McDonald of Cava/Xococava, and Nick auf der Mauer of Porchetta & Co. to cook with it alongside Henderson.
The four chefs set up cooking stations in the Yonge St. shop and handed out samples to customers.
Aprile put bacon jam dumplings in a puréed Jerusalem artichoke soup with Champagne-vinegar poached garlic scapes and a dollop of caviar.
“We’re trying an ingredient that’s kind of low-brow and adding a bit of a contradiction to it,” he explained.
McDonald stuffed deep-fried Spanish croquetas with bacon jam and smoky Blue Haze cheese.
“We’ve used bacon in wacky ways before,” he said, citing his maple bacon toffee and maple bacon ice cream as examples.
Auf der Mauer used bacon jam in a panini with his signature porchetta and crackling plus aged white cheddar.
“It’s a new product and there’s lots of buzz,” he said. “It’s pork. It’s pretty versatile.”
Jane Rodmell, who owns All the Best Fine Foods and is a cookbook author, created the free sampling to show people different ways to use bacon jam. She also handed out recipes.
“This would be wonderful with lightly smashed potatoes cooked in their skins,” Rodmell said.
Enjoying the company of fellow chefs, Henderson served bacon jam on beef sliders with blue and brie cheese plus arugula.
While he (and everyone else) calls his creation bacon jam, it’s labelled as a spread due to American and Canadian labelling laws.
“They think jam needs to have fruit in it,” he said with a shrug. “We think they’re nuts.”
Henderson started Skillet Street Food in a vintage Airstream trailer in 2007 serving American-inspired lunches. This year he opened a bricks-and-mortar Skillet diner. So many people bugged Henderson for his bacon jam that he worked on jarring it and then figured out how to sell it commercially.
It caught the attention of Concord-based food distributor Peter Neal of Neal Brothers Foods and Ian Gordon, senior vice-president of Loblaw Brands, in January at the Winter Fancy Food Show in San Francisco.
“We walked away wondering how can we do something similar to that but completely make it our own and make it shelf stable,” said Loblaws product developer Jackie Houghman, who handled the new President’s Choice black label line of gourmet products.
PC black label Bacon Marmalade will sell for $4.99 for a 370-millilitre jar. Bacon is the seventh ingredient after sugar, water, orange peel, sautéed onion, balsamic vinegar of Modena and orange juice concentrate. It also contains bacon seasoning. It’s somewhat more attractive and tastes overwhelmingly of orange.
Neal, meanwhile, went on to bring Skillet’s bacon jam to more than 50 shops across Ontario and Quebec.
Skillet’s version retails for about $19.99 for a 300-gram jar. Smoked bacon is listed as the first ingredient and it also contains onion, balsamic vinegar, brown sugar, salt and black pepper. It’s puréed, very brown and not particularly attractive, but tastes overwhelmingly of bacon.
Henderson says his product is 70 per cent smoky bacon that he gets from Neuske’s smokehouse in Wisconsin.
“In something like this you need an intense bacon,” he said.
Henderson figures bacon’s enduring appeal has much to do with nostalgia for pancakes and Saturday morning breakfasts. He’s working on new bacon jam flavours, such as fennel and black pepper, and brown sugar-apple.
But just as bacon jam gets its moment in Canada, America moves on to mayonnaise.
Empire Mayonnaise Co. is poised to open in Brooklyn with a starting roster of 40 specialty mayo flavours including coffee, smoked paprika, foie gras and mushroom.
Co-owner Elizabeth Valleau told Grub Street New York that the city is in the grips of a “condiment revolution” but “nobody is coming in and owning the mayonnaise.”
jbain@thestar.ca
www.twitter.com/thesaucylady

 

All Hail the Mighty Bacon!

 

Bacon rules. Bacon jam on toast along with scrambled eggs would kick ass.

 

Any dish can instantly become better with the addition of bacon. Love the stuff.

 

@ 00:15

 

I have many vegetarian friends who say the only meat that they miss is bacon. Not me, I never really liked the stuff. Sorry. I like fakin bacon though...maybe because it doesn't taste anything like I remember bacon to taste like.

 

I love bacon, but I think I'm in a minority because I don't think everything tastes better with bacon on it or in it. I don't want it on my hamburger, I don't want it wrapped around anything, and I don't want it in an omelette or burrito or whatever. With few exceptions (turkey avocado bacon sandwich, standard club sandwich, or as a salad topping), I just want it plain.

 

Voo Doo Doughnuts Maple Bacon Bar is pretty famous....but I haven't tried it of course.

 

The only thing better than bacon is double smoked bacon. Have you other folks tried this type?

I just love it. It is so smooth and tender that I just slice about a 1/8" or tad thicker slice, put it on a nice crusty bread, and eat it. Double smoked bacon is generally meant to be eaten "as is" rather than the typical "normal" bacon which you would fry before eating. Although double smoked is also excellent when added to soups, stews, eggs, etc, my favorite way is to just slice and eat.

 

dang, I want

 

A topic near and dear to my heart.
I've got 3 hogs out in the pasture behind our house. For another 3 weeks, then.......(cue horror film shriek).
This is my third year as an amateur hog farmer.
We have a butcher 5 minutes away that processes the animals and smokes the bacon for us.
It is divine. Simply divine.
And did I mention the home made sausage, or the pleasures of cooking with fresh ham or hog jowels?

 

Years ago, I bought half a butchered hog. Bacon and sausage were prepared exactly like I wanted. Chops cut to order. I was in......

hog heaven!

 

I understand that bacon is very very tasty and all that but why do you think that bacon out of all the tasty foods has gained such a HUGE following?

I use it a lot. But I use other parts of the pig more often. Simple store bought bacon is crap compared to what you can do with the rest of the pig. Maybe we need to be praising pork in general.

 

Too new to post up images of these interesting bacon uses:

Denny's Maple Bacon Sundae - I'd do it!
Chocolate Covered Bacon - Interesting
Peanut Butter Bacon Cookies - I don't think so
Bacon-Apple Pie - I can definitely taste this warm with some vanilla IC
Bacon Vodka - Hmm, not sure.
Bacon Bikinis - Raw or crispy
Bacon Lube - For him, obviously

 

It's got the perfect combination of crunch, chew, salt and fat.
All hail the pig; it is the finest of the meat animals.
People think that porterhouse is good. I will knock their socks off with a fresh ham. That is truly the king of meats.

 

If I ever wish to end my life, it shall be by over-consumption of nature's crispiest treat.

The Bacon Shall End Me.

 

Really though, I can't think of bacon without being reminded of Jack Nicholson in "As Good As It Gets"

 

I have had bacon ice cream. Yeah....it was that good.

 

All Hail the Republic of Bacon!