Posted by Robyn Lee, June 24, 2009 at 8:00 AM
If you've ever wondered how to freeze bacon you've probably googled it by now, but if not, Megan Reardon of Not Martha shares her bacon freezing advice—she rolls it in parchment paper—along with a few pretty photos. About.com says you can keep bacon in the freezer for a month before the fat goes rancid.
Related
Quick Tip: How to Substitute Bacon for Pancetta
The Baconcyclopedia, Everything You Want to Know About Bacon on One Really Long Page
In Videos: Squeez Bacon from ThinkGeek
Posted by Adam Kuban, May 7, 2009 at 12:30 PM
©iStockphoto.com/Juanmonino
In a quick explainer on the difference between pancetta and bacon (bacon is smoked), Lynne Rossetto Kaspar gives this quick tip: "If your recipe is one of those pure-as-the-driven-snow Italian creations, and if pancetta is out of the question because of price or availability, there is a way to use bacon. Merely boil it for 2 to 3 minutes to get rid of much of the smoky taste."
Posted by Erin Zimmer, April 29, 2009 at 12:30 PM
A couple weeks ago, we alerted you about Paula Deen's deep-fried mac and cheese bacon bites. How could you one-up that big chunk of crispy awesomeness? Brad and Lily have figured it out. But since they were created through an insta-movie program, the conversation is all in robotic computer voice. Lily's "YES YES YES," in reaction to the buffalo sauce and Ranch suggestion, sounds more like a math teacher lecturing on cosine. She even throws her hands in the air like only a computerized, unfeeling woman can. Watch the video, after the jump.
Continue reading »
Posted by Robyn Lee, April 20, 2009 at 7:30 AM
Denise Ferguson has many cute food-related crocheted plushies (known as amigurumi) under her belt, but her bacon and egg jellyfish is one of the best/weirdest food plushies I've ever seen.
Her other breakfast mutants include toast with bacon arms and Uber Creepy Breakfast Monster.
You can buy her creations at Etsy. [via Found Shit and Knithacker]
Posted by Alaina Browne, April 15, 2009 at 12:15 PM
Mac and cheese wrapped in bacon, breaded, and then deep-fried makes perfect sense if you first stop and ask yourself, "What would Paula Deen do?" And she has done it. The video evidence, after the jump.
Continue reading »
Posted by Robyn Lee, April 3, 2009 at 5:15 PM
You're probably as tired of bacon as we are—we feel like we've seen it all. But to actually see it all on one page is another matter that reinvigorates our interest in this beloved meatstuff.
The Baconocyclopedia is "The Ultimate Bacon Reference of Baconic Proportions" and documents just about everything bacon-related—bacon videos, bacon snacks, bacon apparel, bacon cooking tools, how to raise bacon (er, a pig), and much, much more—and puts it on one seemingly endless page. If there's another single bacon-centric webpage that's even longer than this one, we'd almost be afraid to see it. [via Coldmud]
Related: The Year That Was on Serious Eats: Bacon
Posted by Robyn Lee, April 1, 2009 at 12:25 PM
Straight from Sweden, ThinkGeek brings us Squeez Bacon, a processed, preservative-free bacon product that allows you to easily add the flavor of cooked bacon to anything—ground cow, melon, seameat, you name it! Hell, it's so good you'll want to squeeze it straight into your mouth. If you need more convincing, watch this commercial after the jump.
Continue reading »
Posted by Ed Levine, March 30, 2009 at 8:00 AM
"Just because a conscientious, responsible pig farmer decides to make bacon, or just because a talented chef with good intentions decides he's going to make his own salumi, doesn't mean the bacon or salumi is going to be good"
Salumi from Salumeria Biellese—where they actually do know what good is and turn it out every day.
A couple of weeks ago, I stopped by my local farmers' market, as I usually do on Saturday afternoons. I bought an insanely expensive half pound of bacon from a bearded dude who had the kind of sign up I can never resist: "World's Best Bacon." I plunked down my $12, feeling good that I was supporting a pig farmer who treated the pigs and his land right.
A woman came by the stand and said, "It's good, but it's really salty." The bearded pig farmer responded, "Oh, yeah, if it's too salty just soak the bacon in warm water before you cook it."
That should have been the warning sign I needed, but instead I moved on to the next stand at the market, owned by a fruit and vegetable farmer I have known for years. I bought some of his mom's low-sugar raspberry peach preserves after a lengthy discussion with him about the quality of his mom's jams.
Continue reading »
Posted by Adam Kuban, March 24, 2009 at 3:00 PM
Bacon eggs came out of the inaugural BaconCamp, held in San Francisco last weekend.
A talk on bacon as art was especially fun, as the artists presented two giant eggs sculpted out of strips and showed a Power Point presentation of their Obacon project, a recreation of the famous Obama Hope poster.
More bacon madness at SFoodie. [via Unique Daily]
Posted by Adam Kuban, March 23, 2009 at 9:00 PM
Photograph from NYCviaRachel on Flickr
Seems like an encouragement to tailgate—both kinds. Looks like it's on a Jeep Cherokee.
Posted by Robyn Lee, March 9, 2009 at 2:00 PM
The Bubble Buddy is marketed as a toy for dogs, but considering that its bubble solutions come in bacon, peanut butter, and barbecue chicken-scented versions, I wouldn't be surprised if some humans would also enjoy this toy (besides that dogs don't seem to love it that much). Of course, you can skip the bubble blowing toy and go straight for the bubble solution. [via Geekologie]
Posted by Adam Kuban, March 4, 2009 at 12:15 PM
In case you didn't watch last night, the clip of Mark Bittman on The Colbert Report. [Video, after the jump.]
Colbert: "One aspect of conscious eating that I understand is that I like to eat things that were once conscious. If you show me a head of broccoli that can cry, I would dig in to that thing."
Continue reading »
Posted by Robyn Lee, March 3, 2009 at 12:15 PM
Finsbigfan mentioned it here, and in case you haven't see it, I think you should. I kind of love this song.
LA LA LA LA LAAAA!
Yeah, it's annoying. [Get your ham travel on, after the jump.]
Continue reading »
BaconCamp is a free, ad-hoc "unconference" happening in March, inspired by BarCamp and dedicated to all things bacon. "This event is FREE FREE FREE. However, in the spirit of BarCamp, we want to give back to the community. We will be taking $5-$10 sliding scale donations at the door. All proceeds go to the American Heart Association.” Um.
Posted by Adam Kuban, January 20, 2009 at 8:30 PM
Photograph from Heather on Flickr
Beer bacon? Praise be.
Posted by Michele Humes, January 14, 2009 at 2:29 PM
In this excerpt from The Johnny Cash Show, Waylon Jennings muses on an alternative career for his old buddy. If the whole chart-topping recording artist thing hadn't worked out, he could've been a chef.
"He was my cook," Jennings tells the audience. "Can you imagine Johnny Cash in a black suit with bacon fat all the way down it and gravy in his hair?"
This is not to say the Man in Black was a good cook, though Cash claims otherwise in the clip. Jennings often reminisced about Cash's cooking in interviews, noting that "his biscuits weren't that great but I loved when he cooked 'em cause he looked so damn funny with flour all over the place."
The video, which concludes with a performance of "The Only Daddy That'll Walk the Line", after the jump.
Continue reading »
Posted by Grace Kang, January 14, 2009 at 9:45 AM
First, there were bacon bowls. Now Kristen of Dine and Dish brings us bacon and egg cups. Unlike other versions I've seen floating around, Kristen uses the inside of a muffin tin and bakes the bacon and egg together all at once. No bacon-weaving skills needed. Simple, efficient, and a nifty way to present breakfast to a crowd.
Posted by Adam Kuban, January 6, 2009 at 11:45 AM
The Bacon Explosion. Photographs from BBQ Addicts
The cross section above is from something the BBQ Addicts blog calls The Bacon Explosion.
This thing is like the Borg, assimilating bacon memes, rolling up all known bacon tech, and conquering the baconverse. It's a bacon mat layered with sausage and more bacon that is then sauced and rolled and smoked. [via @arscoquinaria]
Posted by Ed Levine, December 31, 2008 at 11:00 AM
Continuing The Year That Was with our pick for Ingredient of the Year.
I know it seems like a cliche and passé at this point, but I have to call a spade a spade, or perhaps I should say I have to call a pig a pig (but maybe not, more about that later).
Bacon is most assuredly the ingredient of the year.
Every important, influential, and innovative chef, from David Chang to Grant Achatz to Thomas Keller, made substantial use of bacon in 2008. It was used in appetizers, main courses, and desserts: bacon cookies, peanut butter and bacon "Elvis"cupcakes, and brittle, anyone? It even showed up in cocktails (bacon martini, anyone?).
It's used unadorned and as a mix-in, and served plain and fancy. It's used in cuisines around the world, from China to France to Italy to Mexico. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, brunch, snacks, small plates, big plate, medium plates, in diners and four-star restaurants, bacon is served anytime, anywhere, by anybody and everybody.
And not just any bacon. These days we know much more than the brand of bacon. We know who's been making it for how long, who's been raising the pigs, what breed of pig it's made from, what it's cured in, and how long it's smoked for using what kind of wood. We know what the pigs the bacon is made from have been eating. And in fact we know that sometimes it's not even made from pigs. GQ recently named lamb bacon as one of the best foods in the U.S.
So next year don't be surprised if cucumber bacon finds its way to a restaurant table or fancy-pants grocery store. We've even got food writers expounding on bacon fatigue. When someone writes a story about bacon fatigue that's when you know an ingredient is white-hot.
Hell, as I'm writing and thinking about this I'm thinking that we ought to award bacon the ingredient of the 21st century. I know we have 91 years to go, but based on the evidence outlined above, could any serious eater come to any other conclusion?
Bacon's gone from a supporting actor's role in the food universe to flat out cultural icon. Bacon's a star, damn it, and stars have to be treated and recognized as such.
Posted by Adam Kuban, December 29, 2008 at 8:00 AM
Last Friday we started our year-end review with the Top 10 most-viewed posts across Serious Eats land. Today, we're taking a look back at the food trends of 2008. We were originally going to do this in one post, but with all the stuff we've published this year, we would have worn out your scroll finger. So we've broken up this retrospective into more-digestible bits. Your tasting menu of 2008 begins this morning, fittingly enough, with bacon.
©iStockphoto.com/Juanmonino
Bacon was all over the place on Serious Eats in 2008. That's not a huge change from 2007. And, for those of you who accuse us of being too baconcentric, let me just point out that our first bacon post of the year did not appear until the late, late date of January 3*. Here are some notable bacon items of 2008:
Just a sampling: How it's made, edible bacon bowls, the bacon bra(!), a bacon tiara, a bacon costume, bacon soap, and, yuck, bacon in a can. That's not to mention the very recent cheese-filled bacon roll and strange and brilliant way to baconify any website.
Unlikely foods to include bacon: bourbon, gelato, chocolate, more chocolate, cupcakes, cinnamon rolls, doughnuts, mayo (though there's no real bacon in this vile stuff), and Chex mix.
Weird: Someone looking to send a message to Congressional Representative John Boehner (R-Ohio) over the banking bailout in early October caused the congressman's local offices in West Chester, Ohio, to be evacuated. The jokester sent a package of, yes, bacon. (It's pork, get it? Har har.)
Some folks accused hipsters of ruining bacon, but we don't believe it can ever be ruined. (Well, maybe it can—by bacon dust.)
* Shocking, I know. I'll make sure we start 2009 with a bacon post on New Year's Day.
More of The Year That Was
Pizza
Food as Other Stuff
TYTW on Serious Eats New York
Movies
Food in Space
Food Media
Food Shortages, Scares, and Rising Costs
Videos
Science
Starbucks
Posted by Robyn Lee, December 18, 2008 at 7:00 PM
Photographs from FoodProof
Is there such a thing as too much bacon combined with too much cheese? Look at this Bacon and Cheese Roll—a log of woven bacon strips rolled around cheese—and decide for yourself. (My answer: "Yup.") [via Holy Taco]
Related
Serious Eats Gift Guide: For Bacon Lovers
Druids Eat Baconhenge Monuments for Breakfast
All Aboard the Meat Ship, Matey
Bacon Mat Reloaded: BLT
Posted by Robyn Lee, December 18, 2008 at 2:15 PM
Our favorite expletive-laced food blog Grocery Eats reviews last week's menu at San Francisco's Mission Street Food, a restaurant that is only open for dinner on Thursdays and features a different guest chef each week. The chef that night, Ryan Farr, featured a fairly pig-laden menu, including the dessert, Reconstructed Pecan Pie, Bourbon Cream, and Lines of Bacon "Snow." How was it?
Anyways Bacon Snow is the fucking truth, I will ride for that shit til the death. I know Brains was talking about bacon being the new all overprint but dude this shit brought me back. Bacon still has a long way to go. I don’t know how they make it but I think it’s powdered sugar infused with smoked bacon.
Besides leaning that "Bacon Snow is the fucking truth," the Grocery Eats gang also discovered that when a restaurant presents you with something called bacon snow, it's only natural to want to snort it.
Related
Serious Eats Gift Guide: For Bacon Lovers
For Gourmet Sandwiches in San Francisco on Thursday Nights, Go to Mission Food Truck
Food Description of the Week: Mammer Jammer's Cheesesteak
Serious Sandwiches: General Tso's Philly Cheesesteak
A blogger figures out how to scam Whole Foods. Go to the salad bar early in the morning, fill your cardboard container with bacon strips, close container, and pay. 16¢ for about 8 strips.
What's better than Chex Party Mix? Chez Party Mix made with bacon grease. Check out the recipe courtesy of San Francisco Chronicle's Michael Bauer. Sure to be a hit at your party, as long as you're not serving vegetarians.
Posted by Alaina Browne, December 5, 2008 at 10:00 AM
If you're a Serious Eats regular, chances are you're also a bacon lover. We've created a holiday gift guide especially for you to share with your friends and family to ensure your holidays are bacon-filled. You can thank us later.
DIY Bacon Gifts
With the economic times being what they are, many of us will be spending less money and more heart on our holiday gift-giving this year. Here are a few DIY gift suggestions for your bacon lover.
Make Your Own Bacon: It's easier than you think, doesn't require any special equipment, and is sure to impress. There are many tutorials and recipes online, we recommend following the New York Times' adaptation of Michael Ruhlman's savory bacon recipe. Savory Bacon Recipe »
Bacon Soap: If you've gone through the trouble of making your own bacon, you've already got the main ingredient needed for a batch of bacon soap. This is not a quick project (your soap will need to cure for at least 2 weeks) so be sure to read through the instructions carefully before you dive in. How to make bacon soap »
Bacon Fat Spice Cookies: Everything tastes better with bacon! Especially cookies. This recipe for Bacon Fat Spice Cookies is adapted from Jennifer McLagan's book,Fat: An Appreciation of a Misunderstood Ingredient, with Recipes. This is a low effort, high reward project and a great gift (if you don't eat them all!) Bacon Fat Spice Cookies Recipe »
Crochet Bacon Wrap: If you're handy with a crochet hook, use your skills to wrap your bacon lover in deliciousness. The Big Strip O'Bacon crochet chart can be downloaded for $5 from Monster Crochet »
Continue reading »
Posted by Adam Kuban, November 6, 2008 at 4:50 PM
Earlier today, I mentioned Bob Bacon trouncing Matt Fries in Colorado's District 14 State Senate election on Tuesday. In the comments there, Serious eater amanda0730 reminded us all of the "Would you rather give up bacon or french fries?" thread from July 29, 2008, in Talk.
With 56 serious eaters reporting, I'm ready to call that "election." Bacon wins by a landslide, giving this porky product a clear mandate to dominate our plates and palates for years to come. The eaters have spoken. The breakdown:
The issue: Would you rather give up bacon or fries?
Give up bacon: 15 (26.7%)
Give up fries: 28 (50%)
Undecided*: 13 (23.2 %)
Total serious eaters reporting: 56
Like some ballot initiatives, this one may have confused some voters, as a negative vote for one was a positive vote for the other.
* The elections commission here at SEHQ determined that undecided "voters" were those trying to give up neither, both, or folks who gave vague or hard-to-interpret answers.
Posted by Adam Kuban, November 6, 2008 at 11:00 AM
John Scalzi
You might even say it's a landslide. That's Bob Bacon (D) vs. Matt Fries (R) running for Colorado's State Senate District 14. See the final tally here. I hope Bacon can reach across the aisle to Fries. I think their common ground is anywhere you can find a good burger. [via John Scalzi]
Posted by Robyn Lee, November 6, 2008 at 7:30 AM
Photograph from Augapfel on Flickr
Another amazing moment in garbled translation: Elaborate Bacon. Even better is the tagline: "Piece in heart! Fragrance in Mouth." Yes, after savoring the fragrance of the elaborate bacon in my mouth, that piece is going directly to my heart.
Related
Do Not Want: Crap Meat from L.A.'s Golden Dragon Palace
'Translate server error' Restaurant in China
Engrish Burger: 'Fresh & Meat'
Posted by Adam Kuban, October 31, 2008 at 12:30 PM
I thought we'd seen everything bacon-related here at Serious Eats. But no.
No.
We had not seen the bacon lampshade. [via Donny]
Related
The Bacon Bra
Bacon Mats
Posted by Adam Kuban, October 29, 2008 at 12:30 PM
Honestly, I don't know what's going on in this video. Fake Barack Obama makes bacon, some of the kids behind Sizzology rap about it, and then—how did we ever miss this tidbit of news?—they cut in a Michelle Obama breakdown in which she says, "I do my protein as bacon. We're bacon people."
I'd imagine that was clipped from some appearance on a morning talk show where she either made a recipe or talked about breakfast. The video, after the jump.
Continue reading »
Posted by Robyn Lee, October 28, 2008 at 3:30 PM
From the guys who brought you Bacon Salt, there's now Baconnaise, a vegetarian and kosher bacon-flavored spread. It comes in Regular and Lite. Buy some today, and slather it on everything! Hell, eat it straight if you want.
Seattlites will get the chance to trade in their jars of mayonnaise for Baconnaise this Thursday, October 30, at Baconnaise's Mayonnaise Wrestling Match, during which participants will wrestle in a ring filled with 200 gallons of mayonnaise.
Related
For the Best in Bacon News, Visit Bacon Today
David Lebovitz's Candied Bacon Ice Cream
I've Seen the Future, and It Tastes Like Bacon
Posted by Matthew Amster-Burton, October 24, 2008 at 10:00 AM
Photograph by Matthew Amster-Burton
See these awesome maple-bacon doughnuts I made? I actually can’t take any credit for them. The idea came from Voodoo Doughnuts in Portland, Oregon, where they serve a maple bar with bacon strips on top. The idea of doing it at my house, with bacon sprinkles, came from Dana Cree, the talented pastry chef at Poppy in Seattle.
The raised doughnut recipe is from Baking Illustrated, which comes from the editors at Cooks Illustrated. Making raised doughnuts at home sounds like a major undertaking, but it’s not. All you need is a lot of hungry people to eat them, because one batch of dough makes a lot of doughnuts, and you don’t want to waste your precious frying oil—especially if it’s organic lard, like I used.
Continue reading »
San Francisco Chronicle tests 11 brands of turkey bacon to find the most pork-like version. Oscar Meyer's Louis Rich brand is deemed the best, with all others trailing far behind.
Posted by Robyn Lee, October 16, 2008 at 10:30 AM
Ice cream made with bacon fat and mixed with chopped bacon sounds pretty awesome, but you know how it could be even better? By adding mini corn dogs!
Bacon corn dog ice cream is the brainchild of James Boo of The Eaten Path. With the help of two friends, this flavor—"the greatest ice cream I have ever tasted," according to James—became a reality. After reading his description, I'd have to agree with him:
... [W]hile the taste of bacon emerged as a subtle undercurrent, the richness of the mixture was downright devilry. Sensations of maple, meat, and brown sugar streamed from the spoon in deceptively smooth ribbons of flavor, each more consummate than the last. The fresh bacon bits completed the picture perfectly, providing a savory punch and a scatter shot of focus for the bacon fat in the ice cream.
And that's just the bacon. He compares the texture of the homemade corn dogs to the fried shell of tempura ice cream. That's a good thing.
One of James's friends got sick from eating the ice cream, but it sounds like it's worth the pain. If only I could eat it to find out.
Related
David Lebovitz's Candied Bacon Ice Cream
Fine Dining with Bacon-Flavored Gelato
In Videos: Heston Blumenthal's Egg and Bacon Ice Cream
Posted by Robyn Lee, October 14, 2008 at 4:55 PM
You could almost mistake Bacon Today for a regular news website, except that this one is focused on "Daily Updates on the World of Sweet, Sweet Bacon." In case our bacon coverage isn't enough, visit Bacon Today for the best in bacon news, recipes, reviews, and anything else that might be related to bacon, like this parody song about bacon or this quote about bacon. Too bad it doesn't smell like bacon.
Posted by Erin Zimmer, October 8, 2008 at 9:00 AM
If you watched last night's town hall debate and thought, both campaigns could use a morale-booster, might I suggest newcomer Donuts Bacon '08? While they may be polarizing factors (vegetarians ain't behind this one), for many Americans, it's a Taste We Can Believe In (starting at $23.80). If you eat a piece of bacon and think, yes, this is who I can trust for four more years. Or get frosting all over yourself and think, my investments will be safe with this—then, this is the ticket for you, my friends.
Posted by Adam Kuban, October 7, 2008 at 7:30 PM
As LunaPierCook points out in SE Talk, the local offices of Congressional Representative John Boehner (R-Ohio) were evacuated yesterday after a suspicious package of bacon arrived there. Authorities think it was sent by a constituent upset that the congressman voted for the $700 billion bailout package on Capitol Hill last week. Pork, get it?
Sounds like a waste of bacon to us. Thanks for the link, LPC! Here's some video, after the jump.
Continue reading »
Posted by Robyn Lee, October 6, 2008 at 7:30 AM
The only way to become a true pork princess is to wear a tiara made of meat. And now you can by following The Anticraft's directions for making a bacon tiara! Be sure to follow all of the safety precautions; the meat paste ingredients include transglutaminase, a protein-binding enzyme. The directions say, "If any area of your body comes into contact with the transglutaminase, flush it thoroughly with water and consult a health care professional." Is the prospect of donning a meat tiara is worth the trouble? [via Boing Boing]
Related
Bacon Bra
Molecular Gastronomy at the French Culinary Institute: Meat Glue
Make Your Own Bacon Soap
Posted by Robyn Lee, October 4, 2008 at 4:00 PM
mredepot.com
Why does canned bacon exist? So The Onion's A.V. Club can taste it and tell you how terrible it is. In their review of Yoder's Canned Bacon, available at MREdepot.com ($109.95 for 12 cans), watch them unleash the nine ounces of beastly, greasy, slime pork-based horror out of the can. It tastes about as good as it looks:
Yes, it tastes kind of like bacon, the same way Purina Beggin' Strips might taste kind of like bacon. (Not that we'd know… really!) The essence of bacon was there, thanks to a healthy injection of "smoke flavor," but the texture was completely off—stringy and mealy and not at all meat-like.
In a taste test against Oscar Meyer Ready To Eat bacon, the latter is the clear winner. Read all the commentary at avclub.com and pray you're never forced to eat canned bacon.
Related
Cheeseburger in a Can, Unveiled in Video, in All Its Full Glory
Ham Soda: Unsurprisingly Repulsive
Sour Cream and The Onion: The A.V. Club Reviews Weird Pringles
Posted by Erin Zimmer, October 3, 2008 at 8:00 AM
Cinnamon rolls have been vegetarian for too long. Too long.
While grocery shopping the other day I picked up a tube of ready-to-cook cinnamon rolls and thought hey, I wonder how these would taste with bacon. As I read the back of the package I was reminded that the rolls are actually un-rolled when you remove them.
Yup, he did it. He made a bacon cinnamon roll. After rolling a bacon strip up with cinnamon roll dough, he just went ahead and baked those suckers. [via Serious Eats community member dithie]
Posted by Caitlin Kenney, September 20, 2008 at 10:30 AM
Photographs from Chicagoist, supafly, and eob on Flickr
These drivers clearly have pork on the brain. Chicagoist spotted the homemade baconmobile (top) on the street, and Chicagans were quick to point out it's not the only pig in town. Check out the pictures of "Jim's pig" (below), a pink VW bug with a snout, ears, a curly tail, and a sound system that emits 19 snort, squeals, and grunts. Looks like the Weinermobile has got some competition.
Posted by Raphael, September 19, 2008 at 3:00 PM
If you were planning this weekend to hit your local Ikea to get a Flurvig, a Granvik, a Göllusk, a Yerkvar, or any of their other fine Swedish flat-pack sundries and goods, you're in luck. You don't have to do it hungry because Ikea is giving away free breakfast until 10:30 AM all weekend (with the help of this handy coupon). (Sorry Hicksville, Houston, Pittsburgh, and Seattle: the offer isn't valid at your stores.)
Ikea's breakfast has always been a cheap lure (99 cents) to get people into the store early, but this weekend it's free—and it includes bacon. Free bacon!
Related: The Food at Ikea: Cheap and Good
Posted by Michael Nagrant, September 18, 2008 at 2:30 PM
I've always wanted a tattoo, but I've also been hung up on that whole "my body is god's temple" thing. It's not that I'm particularly religious, but when you've gone 30 years with a clean slate of skin, inking up seems like a big commitment. Where do you start? What do start with? On the other hand, tattoos are only as permanent as you are, which despite the morbidity of saying so, isn't very permanent. Might as well get over the whole clean slate thing and have some fun.
Still, our impermanence can be relatively long, so you'll still want to have some ink that says something about you that you can live with. In my case, the short list of things I'm pretty sure I'll be enamored with forever include my son and bacon. No disrespect to my wife, whom I love very much, but there's always the possibility that my love of bacon may eventually drive her away, and so there's no reason to take chances with that.
Overwhelmed by Bacon Love
The thing is, I've begun to doubt the role of bacon in my life. Like everyone else, you like to think you're unique and interesting or that you've found some particularly cool niche that no one knows about. Everyone loved bacon for a while, but about 10 years ago because of cholesterol concerns and all that, the love for it was a bit underground. It was like loving Murmur-era "Radio Free Europe" Athens, Georgia, REM. But during the last five years or so, the love for bacon became a gluttonous free-for-all. It was like when the album Out of Time came out, and damn if you didn't lose your religion regarding Michael Stipe.
Continue reading »
Posted by Robyn Lee, September 15, 2008 at 6:30 PM
"If you don't know why they're called Danger Dogs then you've never had one," says sunnyd1225 on her photo of a tray of Danger Dogs, bacon-wrapped hot dogs topped with sautéed onions and peppers. The knowledge of its composition plus the sight of the glistening pool of fat in the tray makes the "danger" part pretty clear. Yet the more I think about it, the more I want one.
Related
America's Regional Hot Dog Styles
Bacon-Wrapped Hot Dog Crackdown in Los Angeles
Posted by Adam Kuban, September 13, 2008 at 10:00 AM
You know, you're just askin' for failure when you use a microwave for anything other than reheating leftovers or popping popcorn. But I'm weirdly drawn to this crazy bacon-cooking contraption. Hang the strips from the lid of the WowBacon Cooker pitcher and the fat renders down into the bottom while it cooks. Sure, you're not going to get as juicy a bacon experience as you would if you pan-cooked the strips, but think of the ease of collecting the fat for use in other recipes. My guess is that this would be perfect for a recipe that called for crisp-cooked bacon—though who knows how well a microwave would do "crisp." $19.95 plus $7 shipping and handling, from wowbacon.com [via Boing Boing]
Posted by Allison Hemler, September 10, 2008 at 9:00 AM
We can never get enough bacon. A bacon cupcake? Bring it. This organic bacon peanut butter chocolate cupcake gets whipped up by Michelle Garcia at the Bleeding Heart Bakery in Chicago. She's dear to my heart: I've seen her episode of Food Network Challenge: Extreme Cakes way too many times. In a perfect world, this would count as breakfast. [via Chicagoist]
Related
Photo of the Day: Meatloaf Cupcake
Wake N' Bacon Alarm Clock
Bacon+Chocolate+Sugar= Heaven
Posted by Ed Levine, September 8, 2008 at 7:30 AM
I've been waiting for someone to make bacon cologne (are you listening, Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren?), but Blogadilla tells us how to make the next best thing: bacon soap. Actually, what I would really like is a bacon-scented deodorant. Wouldn't that be awesome?
Blogadilla had two missions: to see if making soap from bacon fat was possible and to make the result look like bacon. Both were accomplished. It's pretty similar to making regular soap, except in this case, Liquid Smoke is an optional fragrance option.
Previously
Wake N' Bacon Alarm Clock
In Videos: How It's Made—Bacon
Posted by Robyn Lee, August 22, 2008 at 10:00 AM
The people of Los Angeles can feel safer knowing that the LAPD is cracking down on illegal carts selling bacon-wrapped hot dogs. Tom Andrews of LAist snapped these photos of hot dog carts being confiscated and thrown into the back of a garbage truck. One point for public health, but a stab to the heart of bacon-wrapped hot dog lovers everywhere.
Related
In Videos: Drew Carey in 'Food Fight: Battle of the Bacon Dogs'
Saving Los Angeles Taco Trucks
Posted by Ed Levine, July 31, 2008 at 8:15 AM
Be still, my bacon-loving heart. Could there really be a Wake N' Bacon Alarm clock, which wakes you up with the intoxicating porky bacon smell. You put a slice of frozen bacon in the clock's chamber when you set the alarm the night before, and voila, you wake up to the wafting smell of a cooked piece of bacon. We might have to order a thousand of these puppies. The inventor of this baby should be a shoo-in for a MacArthur Genius Grant.
What about a Wake N' Chocolate Chip Cookie Alarm Clock? Or a Wake N' Pizza Alarm Clock? What other food smells would serious eaters like to wake up to? [via Dvice]
Posted by Erin Zimmer, July 24, 2008 at 7:30 AM
Pretzels, strawberries, and bananas do their share of bathing in chocolate, but bacon? These indulgent strips are a new item at Marini's Candies in Santa Cruz, California, brought to our attention by Serious Eater Fast Food Critic. Do we consider this pushing bacon's limits? Or accentuating its beauty?
Yet another sign that bacon is taking over the world.
Posted by Robyn Lee, July 23, 2008 at 4:15 PM
With the help of Baby's First Internet, written by Kevin Fanning and illustrated by Kean Soo, you can teach your little ones how to behave on the internet. The rhyme, "In order to increase renown / add “bacon” to most any noun," is one we're particularly familiar with. Maybe a little too familiar with. (Another one that may hit close to home for food bloggers is, "Your friends won’t like it, on the real / but you must Flickr every meal.") [via Metafilter]
Related
In Videos: New 'Dinner Impossible' Chef Michael Symon Makes Chocolate-Covered Bacon
For an Edible Container, Try Bacon Bowls
Bacon Mat Reloaded: BLT
Posted by Raphael, July 23, 2008 at 12:30 PM
Judging from the preview episode that aired this past Sunday night, the new Dinner Impossible with Michael Symon looks like a winner. This episode takes place in Wildwood, New Jersey, with a challenge to make "upscale boardwalk food" for 600 people using the boardwalk's vendors and supplies. In a stroke of brilliance, Symon gets the venerable Laura's Fudge to help make chocolate-covered bacon with almonds. Video of the bacon after the jump.
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Posted by Erin Zimmer, July 16, 2008 at 2:15 PM
Mmm, pig belly meat. Drew and Natalie Dee, the folks behind the comic Married to the Sea, identify the range of goodness on a swine, noting that the rich, juicy underside is not only good, it's real good.
Related
Pig Butchering Guide
Posted by Sarah Wolf, July 12, 2008 at 4:30 PM
Oh, the crazy, tasty things kids do these days. Albany, New Zealand-based gelato maker James Oliver of Zest Gelato is only 22 years old, but his unconventional flavors are already making a mark. His bacon-and-egg-flavored ice cream won a silver medal at this year's New Zealand Ice Cream Awards, while his manuka honey gelato and his toasted coconut, lime, and mascarpone ice cream both grabbed golds. He also won a silver medal for his poached pear and blue cheese ice cream, which contains pears Oliver poaches himself and chunks of blue cheese. This is not your father's French vanilla. [via Coldmud]
Posted by Adam Kuban, June 25, 2008 at 12:15 PM
This video showing the chicken fried bacon available at Sodolak's Original Country Inn in Snook, Texas, has been around for a while, but when it first made the rounds it wasn't embeddable outside of YouTube. It looks like the author, Bob Phillips, has changed that. So here it is, after the jump, if you missed it.
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Posted by Erin Zimmer, June 25, 2008 at 9:30 AM
This Washington, D.C.-based Craigslist ad for a homemade felt bacon costume, priced at a reasonable $10, somehow went ignored last weekend. The creator and seller says it's still available, and she's even extending the former "must pick-up today" (June 21) deadline to the first week of July. Why didn't anybody in the nation's capital, home of pork, want a lifesize bacon suit, so fuzzy and fastened together with velcro? The head hole ideally works for a five-foot-six bod, but one size can fit most. Even you, the grass-fed vegetarian. (It's just felt, not real pig meat.)
Related
Baconwrapt Scarf
Bacon Brassiere (NSFW)
Eat Your Salad From a Bacon Bowl
Posted by Robyn Lee, June 23, 2008 at 4:45 PM
While on a trip to Chicago, teacher and comedian Bryan Bowden found heaven on Earth in the form of Whisky Road's ALL U CAN EAT BACON! On Mondays, at least. Which is good because it gives you six days to recover from the bacon-ing, at which point you should be ready to go back for more.
Related
Photo of the Day: Bacon Mat
Photo of the Day: Bacon Cheeseburger Sausage
Photo of the Day: Bacon Not Done Yet
Posted by Erin Zimmer, June 17, 2008 at 1:15 PM
theanticraft.com
Unlike Stonehenge, which mysteriously had no defined origins or intent, the Baconhenge is here for a reason. To celebrate the goodness of bacon-wrapped french toast "stone" sticks that surround a frittata of mushrooms, potato and onions.
Baconhenge is not yet a UNESCO World Heritage Site but has the potential to inspire sacrifices, like breakfast cereal.
Related
The Bacon Mat
The Bacon Mat: Reloaded
All Aboard the Meat Ship
The San Francisco Chronicle sacrifices their stomachs to taste test fifteen brands of thick-sliced bacon, with Tyson coming out at the top.
Posted by Robyn Lee, May 29, 2008 at 11:00 AM
"This is a book about drawing pictures of bacon for Karen. That's why it's called 'Pictures of Bacon for Karen.'" Well, that explains it.
...Actually, it does, for the most part. More specifically, Andrew's bacon-related drawings (accompanied by philosophical commentary) are the result of trying to pass the time during work meetings, which apparently double as a wellspring of creativity from which bacon doodles burst forth.
Why will you read Pictures of Bacon for Karen? Because it has the word "bacon" in it. Also, as one of Karen's co-workers explains, "it's bacon, it's droll, and its 12 pages should waste at least 3 minutes of your workday."
Related
David Lebovitz's Candied Bacon Ice Cream
For an Edible Container, Try Bacon Bowls
Behold the Bacon Pig
In Videos: How It's Made—Bacon
"Bacon Painting Auctioned for Record $86 Million" - The painting does not, in fact, have any bacon.
Posted by Raphael, May 13, 2008 at 12:00 PM
Homer just wants a smiley faced breakfast with 500% more bacon content than what's listed on the menu. Is that too much to ask for?
Watch the clip, after the jump.
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Posted by Robyn Lee, May 2, 2008 at 3:15 PM
Webcomic xkcd tells no lies. Bacon + stove = rapid decline in your overall health. (Admittedly, bacon + anything will probably give you the same results.)
Related
'Meat Cereals'
'F*** Grapefruit'
In Videos: Jim Gaffigan on Bacon
Posted by Raphael, April 27, 2008 at 6:00 PM
Reason.tv host Drew Carey takes a look at the illegal bacon hot dog trade in downtown Los Angeles. Selling bacon dogs without county-approved equipment can result in fines and jail time for vendors, creating an illicit black-market trade by unlicensed vendors. Video after the jump.
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Posted by Raphael, April 20, 2008 at 2:00 PM
Hiding a Taco Bell Bacon Club Chalupa in your handbag is certainly one way to get the guys. Commercial after the jump.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, April 14, 2008 at 2:15 PM
Perhaps the Ne Plus Ultra of Fried Food on a Stick
First there was the french-fry-coated hot dog from South Korea. Then Phil Lees, of The Last Appetite tweaked the Korean version, bringing it more in line with Western tastes (complete with recipe). Now he's done away with the hot dog altogether and subbed in ... BACON: "Originally I was planning on making a French fry coated, bacon-wrapped hot dog, but thought that the inclusion of the hotdog was largely pointless," he says on his blog. "Why not just head straight for the bacon?"
Posted by Adam Kuban, April 10, 2008 at 11:30 AM
Robyn and Ed visited a mobile dessert truck earlier this week, but today our attention is drawn to Skillet, a vintage 1962 Airstream trailer that sets up shop in various Seattle neighborhoods and dishes up Kobe beef burgers with bacon jam, lemongrass braised pork sandwiches, and San Juan Islands hallibut tacos, among other awesome-sounding grub. Video of the rolling restaurant after the jump.
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Posted by Robyn Lee, April 9, 2008 at 2:15 PM
Are you still thinking about making that bacon-infused bourbon and maple syrup cocktail but don't know where to begin? Watch this video of Don Lee making the Bacon-Infused Old-Fashioned in which he explains each step, including how to make the bacon-infused bourbon.
It's three of your favorite ingredients in one: bacon, maple syrup, and hard liquor! Just in time for maple syrup season, New York Magazine shares Don Lee's recipe for his bacon-infused bourbon and maple syrup cocktail served at East Village bar PDT.
Posted by Erin Zimmer, April 2, 2008 at 1:15 PM
"Wait, men love bacon and boobs, why not combine the two? That's a million dollar idea right there!" —bkusler
Still no confirmation if it's turkey or piggy bacon, but even the kosher chick might make an exception for a bra made of bacon (NSFW). Given the raw state, sunbathing seems like the ideal frying method. Victoria's Secret—nudge, nudge—you need to get on this, though it does seem pretty DIY-friendly. NSFW photographic evidence after the jump. [via Found Shit]
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Posted by Robyn Lee, March 12, 2008 at 11:00 AM
File this under, "Why Didn't I Think of That?": Maple Bacon Lollipops. And I'm not talking about your run-of-the-mill Maple Bacon Lollipops, but ones made with sustainable, organic, cured bacon and organic Vermont maple syrup. You can buy four for $10 from lolliphile, but wouldn't you rather be more cost-effective and buy 36 for $52? Yes. [via Neatorama]
Previously:
David Lebovitz's Candied Bacon Ice Cream
How To Make Pig Candy
Snapshots from Asia: Bak Kwa, Chinese Pig Candy
I add bacon to ____
Posted by Robyn Lee, March 10, 2008 at 3:00 PM
Because everyone likes bacon and there's no reason to restrict its intake to breakfast, ice cream expert David Lebovitz experimented by making candied bacon ice cream. Considering that the resulting smoky/salty/cinnamon-tinged dessert got a thumbs up from his butcher, it seems that his recipe was a success.
Posted by Robyn Lee, February 28, 2008 at 10:45 AM
Megan of Not Martha made these useful bacon cups by baking woven bacon strips around the bottom of a muffin pan. Guaranteed to be delicious and increase the unhealthiness of anything you put in it!
Posted by Robyn Lee, February 19, 2008 at 12:45 PM
Los Angeles-based artist Victoria Reynolds specializes in painting detailed pictures of meat. When have viscera ever looked so beautiful? You can view and buy her paintings at Richard Heller Gallery (the above bacon painting is $5,000 if you're interested) and read more about her at Señor Enrique. [via bb]
Posted by Robyn Lee, February 14, 2008 at 5:45 PM
Artist Dan Goodsell has recently put up a few cute Valentine's Day-themed illustrations in his Flickr. I especially like the one with Shaky Bacon. Because everything is better with bacon.
Previously: Dan Goodsell's "We Like Pie" illustration.
If you live around Des Moines, Iowa and don't know what you're doing March 1st, here's your solution: attend the Blue Ribbon Bacon Festival. $30 will get you six hours of bacon-filled activities! More information at Bacon Unwrapped.
Posted by Robyn Lee, February 6, 2008 at 2:15 PM
Image created by Carl Huber
Carl Huber used his 110% accurate "Pig Butchering Guide" to help him create his baconpig, a somewhat pig-shaped mass made mostly out of bacon, ground pork, and a hot dog. Carl sums up the process as so: "I took the pork hot dog, encased it in ground pork, and wrapped it in bacon." Get ready to feast your eyes on the "turducken of pork." It kind of looks like Piglet!
Related
A Pirate Ship Made of Meat
Bacon-Wrapped Turkey: You Know You Want It
Bacon Mat Reloaded: BLT
Nobody Wants to Enter the Bacon Tomb
From novelty toys vendor Archie McPhee comes Mr. Bacon vs. Monsieur Tofu, bendable vinyl figurines modeled to look like a marginally menacing strip of bacon and the Monopoly Man if he were disgruntled and made of tofu. Together they have the potential to provide minutes of entertainment! [via Laughing Squid]
Posted by Robyn Lee, January 15, 2008 at 12:00 PM
Have you ever dreamed of being surrounded by towering rows of cured pork bellies? Do you long for an existence where you would be paid to stare at bacon all day long? Working in a bacon factory may be just the job for you!
Watch the video showing how bacon is made after the jump.
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Posted by Ed Levine, January 13, 2008 at 1:00 PM
Fishtown, a newly gentrified section of Philadelphia, may have the best cheesesteak in the city—which is saying something—as well as a fine bacon-wrapped meatloaf (Serious Eaters do love their bacon-wrapped meatloaf). The New York Times takes a look at food options in the neighborhood:
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Posted by Robyn Lee, January 11, 2008 at 12:00 PM
"You wanna know how good bacon is? To improve other food, they wrap it in bacon." Comedian Jim Gaffigan shares some truths about bacon. Because it's the best. Watch the video after the jump.
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Posted by Robyn Lee, January 3, 2008 at 5:00 PM
What's better than swathing your head in a long strip of cushy fleece? Swathing your head in a long strip of cushy fleece made to look like a massive strip of bacon from a monstrously huge pig! This magic can be yours for $38 from Baconwrapt.
Posted by Jenn Sit, December 28, 2007 at 5:00 PM
It's almost the end of a bacon-ful year here at Serious Eats and even over at The Wandering Eater, where Tina Wong writes farewell to Bouchon Bakery and their bacon and cheddar chive scone.
Posted by Robyn Lee, December 21, 2007 at 10:00 AM
© 2007 Curt McAdams
Bacon + dark brown sugar + ground chiles = pig candy! Curt McAdams suggests serving this before Christmas dinner with "sliced pears and brie, or figs and cheddar, or all of the above," for a unique appetizer. Or you could just eat it own its own. [via tastespotting]
From yesterday's New York Times: " 'We find over and over again that bacon is the conversion meat,' Ms. Standen said. 'Bacon is how vegetarians change their minds.' " Not an entirely new concept (we've heard it before), but we always like pointing it out.
Posted by Robyn Lee, December 11, 2007 at 6:00 PM
Everyone likes pie. Even bacon!
Check out more of Dan Goodsell's art at The World of Mr. Toast. You can even buy your own huggable, nubbin-armed plush toast, egg or bacon dolls.
Posted by Adam Kuban, December 10, 2007 at 2:15 PM
This week's Cook the Book has a title that almost guarantees it success with a certain large and very vocal subsection of the population: The Bacon Cookbook
. See? You're already interested.
It's by James Villas and features 150 recipes inspired by bacon dishes from around the world. We've picked our five favorites from the book and will be featuring them all these week.
Win This Book
Monday's recipe will be up in a bit, but first we'd like to give you a chance to win one of five (5) copies of this cookbook. All you have to do is tell us:
What is your favorite bacon dish?
Winners will be chosen at random from among the commenters here. Comments will be open until noon Saturday, December 15. The standard Serious Eats contest rules apply.
Posted by Robyn Lee, December 5, 2007 at 6:00 PM
It will be bacon, dear little boy. Just give it time.
...And wash your mouth out.
Posted by Melissa Hall, November 16, 2007 at 5:15 PM
Southern Foodways appears on Fridays as part of our collaboration with the Southern Foodways Alliance, an organization based in Oxford, Mississippi, that "documents and celebrates the diverse food cultures of the American South." Dig in!
By way of this blog, the Southern Foodways Alliance seeks to introduce you to folks you might not otherwise ever encounter. While it's likely you won't ever meet Allan Benton in person, it is likely you'll encounter his ham or bacon in the finest restaurants across the country. Momofuku in New York City serves Benton's bacon. So does McCrady's in Charleston, South Carolina. You'll also find Benton's on your plate at The City Grocery in Oxford, Mississippi. Allan Benton's hams and bacon have been highlighted in Saveur, Gourmet, and, most recent, Southern Living.
This year, the SFA honored Allan with The Jack Daniel's Lifetime Achievement Award. This is the highest honor the SFA bestows. Past award winners include restaurateur and chef Frank Stitt; author and expert on the foodways of Appalachia, Joe Dabney; and author and historian John Egerton.
Continue reading »
The Bacon Flowchart knows what your heart desires; if you tell it that you don't want bacon, it will insist that, actually, you do want bacon. It will also insist that you put on some pants before cooking the bacon.
Posted by Robyn Lee, November 8, 2007 at 5:15 PM
Bacon-wrapped turkeys by janelbot and Poppy Wright.
Why roast a turkey not wrapped in bacon when you can roast a turkey...wrapped in bacon? The prevalence of bacon-wrapped turkey photos shows that it is quite popular. Try out Chow's Bacon-Wrapped Turkey with Pear Cider Gravy recipe and watch the accompanying video to create porky turkey goodness in your own kitchen.
Learn how to make a bacon costume. All you need is foam, some big plastic bags, stick pins, spray paint in various baconesque colors, a hot-glue gun, Velcro fastener tape, and a burning love for bacon. [via Make]
Posted by Robyn Lee, October 11, 2007 at 7:30 PM
If you live in Boston and love bacon with a passion, be sure to check out the next Bacon Club meeting and pot luck. What does one do at a Bacon Club meeting? Eat lots of things made with bacon, naturally, although dishes that merely look like pigs (a pig-shaped cake, for example) may also be included in the festivities. If you can't track down Bacon Club mistress Deb Nicholson for information about the next meeting, there's no reason you can't start your own bacon-centric gathering—the world has no impending shortage of people who love bacon.
Posted by Robyn Lee, September 6, 2007 at 2:30 PM
Assuming that everyone loves bacon, there's something for everyone in iVillage's guide to bacon-related products. First you need the core of the bacon universe, which is...bacon. But this bacon won't evenly cook by itself or self-nuke to a tasty crisp in a microwave; for those tasks you may need a bacon press and microwavable bacon tray. If you don't happen to possess any bacon, just take whatever other food you have and sprinkle it with bacon salt to revel in the illusion of smoked meat. And don't forget about dessert—there are still bacon flavored chocolates and bacon flavored mints to be consumed.
You can't escape bacon. Don't even try.
Posted by Adam Kuban, August 23, 2007 at 1:35 PM
Remember the bacon mat that Robyn blogged about back in June? It was definitely interesting but it just kinda sat there.
Well, Kathie Lucas crafted one and gave it oodles of context, making an open-face BLT sandwich (bottom right), "with spinach and sliced cucumbers to bump up the healthiness of it all. It was so good. And yes, the two of us polished it off in a matter of minutes. Our 7-year-old daughter looked on in awe. Or something like awe."
Make your own, via Instructables.
Posted by Adam Kuban, August 22, 2007 at 4:45 PM
So you know those email newsletters you subscribed to at one point but never open? Or those requests to add friends to whatever social network you're a part of? Or your e-bill statement? Or the email heads-up that Netflix just shipped you Ishtar?
These kinds of email messages—the ones you want to keep but just don't want to open right now—were dubbed bacn over the weekend. And the term is beginning to spread.
The fact that superblog Boing Boing mentioned the word's coinage probably doesn't hurt the effort to add this term to the lexicon of email—right alongside spam. Hmm, what email annoyance can we affix sizzlean to?
Yeah, I know, that was only marginally food-related, but when it involves bacon—even in the slightest—it's news with a capital B here. How 'bout this: In real bacon news, this guy went and made his own—he shows you how.
Photograph from Lex in the City on Flickr
Posted by Robyn Lee, August 13, 2007 at 5:15 PM
One momentous day Carl wondered what would happen if he sealed a strip of bacon and a raw egg in their own airtight plastic compartments. Two months later the bacon strip transformed into a putrid fat-erupting shell of its former self while the egg's physical appearance stayed the same as the day it was cracked.
Fast forward to a year later and oh, how things have changed. The bacon turned into a semi-translucent slab with patches of fungal matter while the egg broke down into a cloudy honey-colored mass. When nature wants to break down organic matter, it gets the job done.
And now you know what happens when you allow a strip of bacon and a raw egg to rot in airtight containers in the corner of your desk for a year. Remember to refrigerate your food, folks.
