Everything’s Coming Up Bacon

by Chewy

     Whether you like it crisp, fatty, maple cured, thick cut, thin sliced or peppered coated, there is no other substitute for bacon. Mankind’s love affair with bacon seems eternal and crosses all ethnic backgrounds and even occasionally makes it on to the plate of those who eat kosher. As one woman put it to me, “I don’t eat pork…except for bacon.”. Jim Gaffigan (the comedian) does an homage to bacon that makes me salivate just thinking about it. Besides advocating the pig for man’s best friend over the dog, he also posits that the thing that goes best with bacon is more bacon! That being said, it appears that many chefs are indeed trying to pair bacon with anything and everything, including in our desserts.
    
     This new combination appears to go against our separation of dessert and meat. Whether this is a natural revulsion or culturally motivated is a question I’ll leave to the anthropologists. I do know that a sugar frosted  meatloaf cake, liver danish and trout pecan pie hold no appeal for me. So, why does bacon work? For the same reason that peanut butter works with chocolate or sea salt with caramel. Salt enhances and brings out the flavor in our desserts. Look at all your dessert recipes and you will see salt among the ingredients. An additional element, the sweetness in the dessert cuts the fatty flavor of the bacon. A perfect symbiotic relationship. Perhaps bacon made the meat/dessert crossover first because people are acclimated to the idea with the eating of pancakes, syrup and bacon mixed together on one plate.

     A possible origin of this phenomenon seems to be gastronomist, Heston Blumenthal. He proffered the bacon-and-egg  ice cream at U.K.’s Fat Duck in 2006. Later that year, two contestants on Bravo’s Top Chef also whipped up bacon ice cream, causing Tom Colicchio to ponder how long before Ben and Jerry picked up on the trend. The bacon makin’ sweet has certainly taken off since then and most of us have run across some variation on the theme.

     There appears to be no limit to the confections that bacon has been yoked with. From cupcakes, to caramels (we here at Show Me the Sugar like the Caramel  House bacon caramel), to Voodoo Doughnuts famous maple bacon bar (Portland, OR), to ice cream, to fudge and even jam.

     For the adventurous, I submit a simple recipe I found for slow cooker Bacon jam. This is one I am personally going to try and can envision this not only with toast and biscuits but as a syrup replacement on French toast or pancakes.

Bacon Jam Recipe

INGREDIENTS:
1 1/2 pounds sliced bacon, cut crosswise into 1-inch pieces
2 medium yellow onions, diced small
3 garlic cloves, smashed and peeled
1/2 cup cider vinegar
1/2 cup packed dark-brown sugar
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
3/4 cup brewed coffee

METHOD:
1. In a large skillet, cook bacon over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until fat is rendered and bacon is lightly browned, about 20 minutes. With a slotted spoon, transfer bacon to paper towels to drain. Pour off all but 1 tablespoon fat from skillet (reserve fat for another use); add onions and garlic and cook until onions are translucent, about 6 minutes. Add vinegar, brown sugar, maple syrup and coffee and bring to a boil, stirring and scraping up browned bits from skillet with a wooden spoon, about 2 minutes. Add bacon and stir to combine.
2. Transfer mixture to a 6-quart slow cooker and cook on high, uncovered, until liquid is syrupy, about 3 1/2 hours to 4 hours. Transfer to a food processor; pulse until coarsely chopped. Let cool, then refrigerate in airtight containers and use within a couple of weeks.