The Ten
10 Ways to Eat More Bacon
Elvis, Metallica—everybody loves it!
By Kathryn Hawkins
1. Maple-Bacon Lollipops. Courtesy of online retailer Lollyphile, they include generous chunks of bacon encased in a maple-syrup shell, delivering a full maple-syrup-drenched pancake-and-bacon breakfast in candy form.
2. Chocolate-Covered Bacon. There are chocolate-covered peanuts, chocolate-covered raisins, chocolate-covered pretzels—so why not chocolate-covered bacon? If you pass through Santa Cruz, California, stop by Marini’s on the Beach Boardwalk for its version, or try Mo’s Bacon Bar from Vosges Haut-Chocolat, featuring bits of applewood-smoked bacon and smoked salt immersed in a rich milk-chocolate bar.
3. Bacon Chocolate-Chip Cookies. Conceived of by Andrea Hockett, author of the blog Never Bashful with Butter, they include bacon chunks and a topping of maple frosting with a bacon garnish, and were an instant Internet hit. However, 10 percent of her readers, says Hockett, complained that the cookies “weren’t bacony enough.”
4. Bacon-and-Egg Ice Cream. One of the most memorable menu items at London’s triple-Michelin-starred restaurant the Fat Duck is the Smoked-Bacon-and-Egg Ice Cream, Tomato Jam, Salted Butter Caramel, Caramelized Brioche, and Tea Jelly—a complete English breakfast, deconstructed for dessert. If you feel compelled to try it at home, check out Chef Heston Blumenthal’s step-by-step video.
5. Chicken-Fried Bacon. At the Sodolak’s Original Country Inn in Snook, Texas, you can buy a steak twice the size of your head—but the true highlight is the appetizer platter of chicken-fried bacon. The bacon is dipped in seasoned batter and deep-fried, then served piping hot with a side dish of cream gravy. Check out this news report about the dish from Texas Country Reporter.
6. Bacon Vodka. If your cocktails seem a little lightweight, it might be time to meaten them up with some bacon-infused vodka. This intoxicating brew is easy enough to make at home with a few strips of cooked bacon and a bottle of store-bought vodka—visit the food blog Brownie Points for DIY directions—or if you’d rather imbibe on the town, bacon-flavored vodka is available at Baltimore’s Captain Larry’s Bar and Grill and Jake’s Dixie Roadhouse in Waltham, Massachusetts, where the liquor is used to beef up the popular Bloody Marys. Or try a bacon martini in Vegas or New Orleans.
7. Bacon-Wrapped Tofu. Food blogger Makiko Itoh of Just Hungry decided to bring the two ingredients together because she believed that “tofu was getting bashed too much, and bacon revered too much.” She wanted “to show how a marriage between the two could work.” Or try this: Next time you order a veggie burger in a restaurant, get it topped with bacon—what we like to call “The Hypocrite.”
8. Fool’s Gold Loaf. This specialty from the late Colorado Gold Mine Restaurant features an entire loaf of Italian bread hollowed out and filled with peanut butter, grape jelly, and a full pound of fried bacon. The loaf technically serves 8 to 10 people—but its most famous fan, Elvis, would often chow down on the 42,000-calorie sandwich alone, as a midnight snack. Serious Eats has the recipe.
9. Bacon-Wrapped Tater Tots. Get your fix of meat and potatoes in the same bite with these delicious snacks from the ode-to-all-things-bacon blog Bacon Unwrapped. Blogger Heather Lauer’s rendition features wild boar bacon, but the traditional variety should work just as well.
10. BLT Salad in a “Bacontainer.” Bacon is more than a simple ingredient: It can also serve as a bowl, as in this creative dish from Megan Reardon of the DIY blog Not Martha. In devising her dish for a fellow food blogger’s bacon potluck party, Reardon wrapped raw bacon around the bottoms of muffin tins and baked them in the oven, then filled the bacon cups with a lettuce-and-tomato salad. Although she received many suggestions for other fillers, such as eggs, potato salad, and meatloaf, “I’m a little afraid that anything other than a salad veers dangerously into territory otherwise reserved for KFC Famous Bowls and deep-fried things you can find at county fairs,” she says.
CHOW’s The Ten column appears every Tuesday.
Kathryn Hawkins is a writer based in Portland, Maine. She has written for magazines including GOOD and Wildlife Conservation, and is the editor of Razoo, a website for everyday philanthropy.
Ummmmm ... Bacon! Check out the recipe for bacon baklava (with maple syrup instead of honey): http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/5608...
Mmmm, the Fool's Gold Loaf sounds good. I love bacon and peanut butter sandwiches even though I get odd looks for them.
Bacon and peanut butter sandwiches. Yum!
Hmmmm, may I have mine Extra Crispy please?
www.anonymity.at.tc
How about bacon salt http://www.baconsalt.com/
I've made bacon ice cream, and I am going to try making the bacon vodka. You need to expose the procedure for chicken-frying bacon! I've somewhat successfully made tempura bacon, but the extreme fat content of bacon makes breading and frying it very difficult. KEEP THE BACON COMING!
Mmm, bacon-wrapped pork: http://culinaryarts.about.com/od/beef...
I don't really like those Maple-Bacon lollipops - lick one is strange, lick two is really good, lick three and you say - ok this is going to get gross real fast.
I fell in love with real bacon when we got smoked hog jowl (face bacon) raised au natural by our CSA farmer. My favorite recipes that came from this torrid affair were Bacon-Zucchini Fritters (http://expatriateskitchen.blogspot.com/2008/06/whole-hog-zucchini-bacon-fritters.html) and purple hull peas with smoked hog jowl (http://expatriateskitchen.blogspot.co...
I ate some Bacon Chocolate last night. My GF buys it for me. It's pretty good, tho i wish I had it in dark chocolate.
A friend of mine made me the bacon chocolate chip cookies for my birthday. They were really good, but the bacon easily gets caught in your teeth.
Here's a picture of Ruth's bacon baklava. I guess I was wrong about the honey, so ignore the title:
http://www.jpcr.com/david/2008chowhou...
oh, like i need an excuse to eat more bacon...
#11...Bacon Jerky
http://www.jerky.com/product/BCF001.html
here's another excuse to eat more bacon. try spreading one side with thin layer of honey mustard and dip in brown sugar on both sides, bake on a rack over a pan to catch drippings about 20 min. soooo good! My favorite is from http://www.hamiam.com
Here's one for the Canucks: Get a maple-glaze donut, cut it in half like a bagel, and fill with grilled peameal bacon, and you've got the ultimate breakfast sandwich! I don't know why this still isn't on the menu at Tim Horton's.
Here's one for the Canucks: Get a maple-glaze donut, cut it in half like a bagel, and fill with grilled peameal bacon, and you've got the ultimate breakfast sandwich! I don't know why this still isn't on the menu at Tim Horton's.
Bacon wrapped asparagus tips on the grill turn out like savory twizzlers.
http://store.baconsalt.com/Baconnaise...
A fairly new find for bacon lovers, bacon mayo.