Give Bacon A Festive Fall Flavor With A Little Sprinkle Of This Spice Rack Staple

Although a certain type of very online food lover has blessedly moved on from "but first, bacon" memes and other porcine sentiments of epic proportions, the animal protein does still reign supreme. It's crispy, it's fatty, it's salty, and, at least among plenty of swine-sampling carnivores, it is truly without room for improvement. But bacon, for all of its inimitability, is still pretty versatile. So, while it's practically perfect as is, it is also particularly conducive to adaptations. And fall flavors are excellent seasonings for the meat lovers' favorite meat.

Now, bourbon and maple syrup might rightfully be first to come to mind when conjuring a rasher's potential expansion. And those ingredients would place you just one more logical leap from the slightly less expected sprinkle of cinnamon. A multi-use pantry staple if there ever was one, cinnamon is just the thing to turn your bacon from merely tasty to terrifically topical as the last crisp months of the year round the calendar.

The ground cinnamon already in your possession (provided you replace your spices regularly enough to ensure peak performance) should be richly aromatic, warm, and just a little peppery. Palates vary, but it might evoke notions of cozy walks in the woods or soothing teas sipped near a fire. What it isn't, is sweet. Cinnamon is paired with sugar so often that one might forget that cinnamon can sometimes even skew a little bitter. Odds are that you'll want to recreate that classic marriage when you're making your own cinnamon bacon.

Not only will a little bit of white or brown sugar enhance your cinnamon bacon's flavor, it will also have a lightly caramelizing effect. Baking will best keep your blend all in one place in this case, so preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and get to mixing. You probably aren't going to want to exceed an equal part of sugar to cinnamon, lest you veer into candied territory, and you should even introduce the sweet stuff slowly until you reach your desired balance. Start by adding 2 tablespoons of cinnamon to a bowl, introduce 1 tablespoon of sugar, combine completely with a fork, and test for intensity. 

After you've achieved the ideal proportions, layer your bacon on a cookie sheet, sprinkle with your new signature stuff, and bake, checking for doneness at around 12 minutes. Once it's all nice and rigid, you'll have a great taste of the season that you can recreate clear through the new year.