The Bacon Thread

[Sharon]

I love bacon. I know it's bad for me, has lots of fat and salt and all that... but it's so delicious!

Share your bacon tips, like how you get your bacon to be perfectly crispy (something I still haven't mastered), what dishes you like putting bacon in, etc.

** desperately craving crispy bacon in a hot roll with brown sauce **

[ngdawg]

When I have Christmas breakfast, I do the bacon in the oven on a cookie sheet. Bacon cooking in its own grease is best! I don't like it crispy, just thoroughly cooked-it should be slightly limp and not break apart into tiny pices; I tear it with my hands-not very mannerly, but fork and knife don't do the job well enough.
Bacon and eggs-food of the gods and best at dinner time.
Crmbled bacon(real, not those bits stuff) on spinach salad=heaven
Fantastic appetizer: Marinate large peeled shrimp overnight in salsa. Wrap it in slices of bacon and skewer with a toothpick, place on a cookie sheet, bake at 375 until bacon is cooked through.
Second great appetizer: Marinate water chestnuts in soy sauce or teryaki sauce for a couple of hours. Same as the shrimp, wrap bacon around each, skewer and bake.
Put crumbled bacon in Stove Top Stuffing.
Bacon on burgers rocks.
Those multipacks of bacon at Sam's club is one of the few real bargains there. You get 4 pounds for little more than the price of one anywhere else.
Oh yea...bacon...the second food group, after chocolate


Oh, note the avatar: bacon's gone, there's some egg left. I need a perfect balance and will not eat any more eggs if the bacon goes first.

[ratbastid]

A dish without bacon is like a day with only one lunch.

[Baraka_Guru]

I'm going to admit: I don't really like bacon anymore. I know too that it is bad for me, and despite its flavour, my good judgement has won out.

I will still eat it under certain circumstances, such as in classic recipes that require it. For example, I would eat it in coq au vin. I've never had it, but I really want to try it. God, it's chicken, wine, mushrooms, and lardons (which is basically bacon taken directly from the rendered fat on the pig's back...the French are geniuses, I'm telling you).

[squeeeb]

i've stopped eating bacon (and most meat) but man, i miss it sometimes.

bake the bacon on a rack in the oven at 400. it comes out full and flat and crispy, and you don't have to worry about grease splatters on the wall.

NEVER fry bacon without a shirt on. i had to learn this lesson more than once.

wrap a piece of firm white fish (cod or whatenot) in bacon and bake it. mmmm.

[Charlatan]

Bacon... good bacon is not easy to come by here. With all the halal establishments, there is a lot of "turkey bacon" and "chicken bacon". They are tolerable at best.

Going to the grocery store you can buy it but at 12 to 15 dollars per package it's a bit of a luxury.

I like bacon in a club sandwich (something else I can't get here).

[Cynthetiq]

Originally Posted by Charlatan

Bacon... good bacon is not easy to come by here. With all the halal establishments, there is a lot of "turkey bacon" and "chicken bacon". They are tolerable at best.

Going to the grocery store you can buy it but at 12 to 15 dollars per package it's a bit of a luxury.

I like bacon in a club sandwich (something else I can't get here).

I always hated the "bacon" in Singapore, then again, going to the UK I found out that I don't like them there either.

But mmmm nice thick bacon is yummy. I hate HATE HATE hotel sliced bacon.... it is the commericial cut of bacon it's too thin and barely has any flavor.

Wrap a potato in bacon, and toss it on the grill or bake. It is a nice crispy jacketed potato when it is done in about 1-1.5 hours.

Wrap bacon slice around each potato. Place potato on foil. Pick up the four corners of the foil and bring them together then twist so that the potato is snug in the foil but seam is on top. This is important if you wish to keep the bacon grease from dripping onto the base of the oven.

[Dilbert1234567]

as you pan fry, sprinkle some brown sugar over it and lots of black pepper, reduce the heat so it doesn't burn.

[snowy]

I don't eat bacon or real sausage any more because of the high fat content. So I like to eat Canadian Bacon instead. All the flavor, less fat. Yum.

[Baraka_Guru]

Let's not forget filet mignon. God the French are geniuses. I'm telling you.

[robot_parade]

mmmm...bacon, the world's most perfect food.

Alton brown's 'recipe' for bacon in the oven:

Place the strips of bacon onto a sheet pan fitted with a rack and place into a cold oven. Turn the oven to 400 degrees F and cook for about 12 to 15 minutes, depending on how crispy you like your bacon. Remove from rack and drain on paper towels. Enjoy.

[Mister Coaster]

With all due respect to my fellow TFP cooks and foodies... if you are responding to "The Bacon Thread" and your response is "I don't eat bacon," then it's time for you to have nice, big, hot cup of STFU.

Bacon isn't supposed to be a staple of a diet, but a beautiful and necessary escape for those who choose wisely to indulge with care. Besides, the human body REQUIRES both sodium and fats to properly operate. Can you think of a better way to get both? Besides, it's low carb!

With that said, Bacon wrapped jumbo sea scallops, add a little cajun seasoning and grill away. Best kabob ever.

Bacon... it's the 5th food group.

[snowy]

Originally Posted by Mister Coaster

With all due respect to my fellow TFP cooks and foodies... if you are responding to "The Bacon Thread" and your response is "I don't eat bacon," then it's time for you to have nice, big, hot cup of STFU.

Bacon isn't supposed to be a staple of a diet, but a beautiful and necessary escape for those who choose wisely to indulge with care. Besides, the human body REQUIRES both sodium and fats to properly operate. Can you think of a better way to get both? Besides, it's low carb!

With that said, Bacon wrapped jumbo sea scallops, add a little cajun seasoning and grill away. Best kabob ever.

Bacon... it's the 5th food group.

It's not that I don't love bacon, it's that I cannot eat it. Fat=GERD, and trust me, I don't want to waste an entire day in pain because I couldn't say no to bacon. Occasionally I indulge with one piece, but like I said, I usually just order Canadian bacon.

As for the bacon wrapped sea scallops...yum yum, one of my favorite appetizers! I definitely cannot resist bacon if it's wrapped around a scallop or pineapple--though I only have one.

I'm glad to see that Alton Brown's recipe for bacon was mentioned--it is by far the easiest way to prepare bacon imaginable. It allows for the perfect amount of crispiness to be attained.

[Redlemon]

On Radio Blowfish (the podcast), they had an interview with author/stripper Sarah Katherine Lewis. As a long aside, she had at one point asked herself, "Why am I never satisfied with the amount of bacon I eat?" So, she put it to the test, and found out that 4 pounds (uncooked weight) of bacon was the proper amount. Words to live by.

[noodle]

Rashers are God's gift to the GERD-affected public. That's the closest I can get without getting sick, too.

I love, love LOVE a good potato salad with blue cheese and real bacon crumbles. And a good BLT.

[Baraka_Guru]

Originally Posted by Mister Coaster

Bacon isn't supposed to be a staple of a diet, but a beautiful and necessary escape for those who choose wisely to indulge with care. Besides, the human body REQUIRES both sodium and fats to properly operate. Can you think of a better way to get both? Besides, it's low carb!

First of all, no one said you had to eat lots of bacon to be able to share your bacon tips on this thread. Second, let's be a bit more careful with how we perceive bacon's nutritional value.... Sure the body requires sodium, but the typical Western diet is already loaded with it outside of bacon intake. And a lot of the fat in bacon is saturated; 100g of it can have anywhere between 8g and 10g of saturated fat (back bacon being an exception), keeping in mind a healthful daily limit of this kind of fat is about 16g or less. The sodium in bacon is between 1500mg and 2000mg of sodium, with a RDA of 2400mg. Given a modest serving of bacon (30g), this is still at around 3g of saturated fat and 500mg of sodium. So if you had bacon for breakfast, you would need to consider the rest of your food intake for the day: no more than 13g of saturated fats and 1500mg of sodium. If you eat bacon daily and are a meat lover...this might be a concern. This serving of bacon has 11g fat and 11g of protein, but as a percentage of calories, this is 68% fat. There is a reason why bacon belongs in the fat group rather than the meat group. And what did you imply by low "carb"? The human body requires way more carbohydrates than both sodium and fat combined. So, yes, I can think of better ways to get fat and sodium in my diet. A cup of boiled spinach, for example, has over 500mg of sodium. To this, I would add 1tsp of olive oil, which has 6g of fat, less than 1g of which is saturated.

Delicious, yes. Quite. It is up there with other delicious substances such as hollandaise sauce. When you suggest "wise indulgence," I agree. I wouldn't eat bacon daily, for instance. Once or twice a week, maybe. But in my own case, once or twice a month is more than enough.

Oh, and btw, that is one hell of a kabob you recommend.

[Mister Coaster]

I admit to embellishing on the nutritional "value" of salted pork belly, but thanks anyway, Baraka. Take my first post with a grain of salt, as it was intended as a humorous over-reaction to the non-bacon eaters.

[Baraka_Guru]

Originally Posted by Mister Coaster

I admit to embellishing on the nutritional "value" of salted pork belly, but thanks anyway, Baraka. Take my first post with a grain of salt, as it was intended as a humorous over-reaction to the non-bacon eaters.

No worries, I found it humorous, myself. But you know how it is. It is sometimes difficult to read the tone of one's writing, and I can't speak for everyone.

Personally, I was just being an opportunist. I love engaging in topics on nutrition and health. I thought my post would be of interest to others.

Heh, grain of salt...good one. There's no trimming the fat when it comes to your humour, eh?

[Cynthetiq]

what this thread needs is more cowbell... I mean bacon!!!!

[ShaniFaye]

I love bacon so much sometimes early on a saturday morning I will fry and entire pack and eat on it all weekend lol

I dont need to make anything with it, its the perfect food all by itself

[Willravel]

[Dilbert1234567]

http://thesiblog.blogspot.com/2006/1...acon-ever.html

EW EW EW EW EW!!!!!!!!!

[Mister Coaster]

Baraka, yeah I know what you mean. I have gotten in trouble more than once at work when the recipient of my e-mails read it the wrong way. No go eat some turkey bacon or something.

[Psycho Dad]

Quick snack:

Sprinkle colby jack inside a tortilla, add some jalapeno slices and then put in a few strips of microwave bacon roll it up and microwave a few seconds to melt the cheese.

[Anxst]

I know everyone says to make bacon in the oven, but I have an ancient bacon press from my Grandmother, and nothing beats that thing. Good old cast iron to the rescue!

[Willravel]

Ah, the George Foreman's ancestor's grill: the bacon press. Excellent cooking tool.

[freeload]

Originally Posted by squeeeb

...
NEVER fry bacon without a shirt on. i had to learn this lesson more than once.

I'll bet Clavus got a story on this too

[Mister Coaster]

AND just in case you think EVERYTHING should taste like bacon...

http://www.baconsalt.com/

[doodlebird]

does no one cook their bacon in a skillet over medium heat, turning every so often?

yes, all on a sheet in the oven is easy,
but the skillet method lets you keep an eye on it,
and you get to play with it while it cooks - pig fat is fun, kids!
AND then you can cook your eggs in all of that glorious bacon fat.

just keep flipping until all (or most) of the white areas have some reddish/brown color to them and you've got crispy bacon.

personally, i prefer mine a little on the softer side.

and i think it was fredweena who mentioned bacon in a potato salad.
normal potato salad is pedestrian.
a potato salad with sour cream, bacon, and cheddar cheese is genius.

to quote pulp ficiton,
"bacon tastes good."

[Challah]

Not that it needs any more grease, but poutine with real bacon bits on top is heavenly.

[squeeeb]

you can weave the bacon into a cool "bacon pattie" like this:

[Psycho Dad]

Shit. That would make a helluva BLT or bacon cheeseburger.

[snowy]

Originally Posted by doodlebird

and i think it was fredweena who mentioned bacon in a potato salad.
normal potato salad is pedestrian.
a potato salad with sour cream, bacon, and cheddar cheese is genius.

Add a touch of chives and you've got loaded baked potato salad--one of my favorite indulgences.

[robodog]

Originally Posted by doodlebird

does no one cook their bacon in a skillet over medium heat, turning every so often?

yes, all on a sheet in the oven is easy,
but the skillet method lets you keep an eye on it,
and you get to play with it while it cooks - pig fat is fun, kids!
AND then you can cook your eggs in all of that glorious bacon fat.

I like to use mine to cook pancakes, I drain it off after each batch of bacon then have enough to make a couple dozen skillet sized perfect pancakes =) Add OJ and real maple syrup and I'm in heaven. I don't do it very often anymore for health reasons but thanks to this thread I think I'll be doing in on Monday in celebration of the long weekend, I'll just have to take my son hiking to work off the calories =)

[greytone]

Buy a cookie sheet with a cooling rack that fits inside. Then use Alton Brown's method. But the time will vary by the thickness of your bacon and how long it takes to heat your oven. Starting cold does not seem to make that much difference. I like my bacon still medium rather than crispy. This method lets you cook a whole package and store the remains in the fridge for a few days. Heat up with 15-20 seconds in the microwave as needed. That is much cheaper than buying the microwave precooked bacon.

Bacon is obviously high in fat, but a little can go a long way in many recipes to give a feel and taste of meat. My favorite bacon recipe is German potato salad.

[Midnight]

eh. the way I like bacon would probably make most bacon lovers smack me - i like it burnt to a crisp. (but also most meat, i like my meat ultra dead. lol)

my grandmother had a fairly high rack that she would put room temperature bacon on, then break into a cookie sheet a couple eggs that were nearly ready to freeze, tap the yolks, slice a room temperature tomato in half, set that cut side up with some shaved parmesan cheese and some fresh basil and a handful of boiled new potatoes cut in half , set the rack over them and slide it into a 400 degree preheated oven and cook till the bacon was crisp.

[Redlemon]

Originally Posted by Midnight

my grandmother had a fairly high rack that she would put room temperature bacon on

Sorry, I'll go put my dirty mind back in the gutter where I had left it.

[snowy]

Originally Posted by Midnight

eh. the way I like bacon would probably make most bacon lovers smack me - i like it burnt to a crisp. (but also most meat, i like my meat ultra dead. lol)

my grandmother had a fairly high rack that she would put room temperature bacon on, then break into a cookie sheet a couple eggs that were nearly ready to freeze, tap the yolks, slice a room temperature tomato in half, set that cut side up with some shaved parmesan cheese and some fresh basil and a handful of boiled new potatoes cut in half , set the rack over them and slide it into a 400 degree preheated oven and cook till the bacon was crisp.

Oh wow that sounds amazing. I need to find a higher rack then and try this!

[Midnight]

Originally Posted by Redlemon

Sorry, I'll go put my dirty mind back in the gutter where I had left it.

ROFLMAO....

actually - my grandmother would have gotten a big kick out of you finding that dirty, then she would have made you scrub some floors to "help you get your mind back on clean things."

come on now... bacon thread... bacon is tasty... but sexy... please... hehehe

[Push-Pull]

does no one cook their bacon in a skillet over medium heat, turning every so often?

yes, all on a sheet in the oven is easy,
but the skillet method lets you keep an eye on it,
and you get to play with it while it cooks - pig fat is fun, kids!
AND then you can cook your eggs in all of that glorious bacon fat.

ME ME ME!!!

That is pretty much breakfast for me most days, with either a waffle or some toast depending on mood. I usually don't get much of a lunch, so I give myself a good start instead.

Another thing is to do your bacon and eggs like usual, and toss on some grated cheddar, chives, tomatoes, and what have you into a tortilla and roll it up for a breakfast burrito.