In the Kitchen: Buffalo Bacon!!

Last week, while creating the menu for our annual Super Bowl party, I had an idea that seemed too good to pass up: Buffalo Bacon. Not bacon made of buffalo meat, but bacon — peppered bacon to be exact — dipped in my buffalo hot wing sauce.

I’d never had nor heard of it before, but it’s an excellent combination.

I started by cutting the bacon strips into thirds, then frying them early in the day. I sopped up as much grease and put them in the fridge for later.

After preparing all the wings, I still had a bunch of sauce left over, so in went the bacon!

Kin hams it up for the camera. Get it? "Ham?"

Cutting the bacon into thirds before frying helped in two ways. The bacon stayed pretty flat while frying. And most importantly, they made the perfect bite-sized pieces.

Buffalo Bacon was a big, hot hit. At first, I worried about posting this recipe before the Super Bowl so others could try it out at their party. But then I realized the only people who probably read this blog were at the party!

What are your bacon recipe ideas?

In the Kitchen: Bacon Fudge

Today’s experiment is quite simple* and flavorful.

I’ve been wanting to make chocolate covered bacon for a while, so the fudge was a good opportunity to try the chocolate/bacon taste combination.

My wife made dark fudge the other night with her girlfriends, so we have a plentiful supply. After this morning’s bacon and egg breakfast tacos, I took the remaining bacon strips and crushed them with a mallet/pounder/tenderizer thing. After that, it was just a quick dredge of fudge in bacon and now we’re off!

The end result was a perfect blend of creamy, sweet chocolate and crunchy, salty bacon. Tricia and I agreed it might be aesthetically better to top the freshly poured warm fudge with the crushed bacon to improve the melding of the two textures. Or maybe just mix the bacon pieces into the fudge while cooking? Fortunately, we’ll be making this again, so we can give it a try.

(*The recipe is simple when the fudge is already made.)

Leftover Bacon.

Crushed Bacon

Fudge. (Unpacked)

Fudge, meet bacon. Bacon, fudge.

The finished product. Yay!

Bacon Gift Guide

Hey!

Having trouble finding the perfect Christmas gift for the bacon lover in your life?

Here are a few ideas: (Stick to Christmas gifts, though. I’d steer clear of these for Hanukkah or Ramadan gifts – just to be on the safe side.)

For the Glutton:

There are any number of Bacon of the Month Clubs (BOMC) out there, ranging from a simple package arriving in your mail to a full-featured bacon smorgasbord. A couple of promising sites:

• The Grateful Palate: One of the pricier BOMCs out there. In addition to a monthly dose of artisan bacon, you get extras, like a bacon t-shirt, pig snout, notes on each bacon, recipes, etc. Up to $375.
• The Pig Next Door: Starting at $99, you receive the standard fare of monthly bacon, tasting notes, plus a coffee mug and other small goodies. Splurge a little ($149) to join the Heirloom Bacon Club, with cut of meat coming from special breed pigs on small farms.

Not ready to commit a loved one to a full year of bacon? Nodine’s Smokehouse in Connecticut offers their Bacon Sampler that arrives all at once. Six total pounds of their specialty bacon, including their somewhat famous (mentioned on NPR) Garlic Stuffed Bacon.

For the Jokester:

There is no shortage of bacon-themed novelties, ranging from bacon air fresheners to bacon soap. Fortunately there is a single website where you can find just about any bacon novelty: Archie McPhee.

The first thing you’ll notice about Archie McPhee is the sheer range of items they have. Then you’ll probably wonder if it’s all really, um, real. It is. You really can buy Meatball Bubble Gum, a Deluxe Librarian Action Figure, or  even Handerpants! I often spend hours in front of my computer, just gazing at the items Archie McPhee has. In fact, I started this blog post yesterday, and I’m still not done with it because I’ve kept going back to the Archie McPhee store!

When a website has its own, dedicated “Bacon and Meat” category of items, you know you’re gonna find what you need. Does the bacon lover in your life fall down a lot? Bacon bandages! Are they religious? How ’bout the St. Anthony, Patron Saint of Bacon figurine. Bathe them with bacon soap. Dress them up in a bacon belt, bacon watch and bacon wallet. Got the idea?

St. Anthony, Patron Saint of Bacon

How do you wrap bacon gifts? In this Bacon Tuxedo joke gift box, of course!

Bacon Air Freshener

Mr. Bacon vs. Monsieur Tofu vinyl figures

For the Artist:

Got $6000? Well then, may I interest you in “Rashers” by Victoria Reynolds? This 29″x35″ oil on panel painting is sure to delight the most discriminating of bacon lovers.

"Rashers" by Victoria Reynolds

Okay, I understand. The economy has been down lately and you need to save your six grand for something more important. That doesn’t mean you still can’t have some nice art.

Heather forwarded me the link to Nicodemus Green’s shop on Etsy.com. His “Bacon is Like a Little Hug from God” print is perfect for framing. $20.

While you’re on Etsy, check out Heather’s awesome prints, cards, letter boxes and other paper goods (albeit the non-bacon variety).

For the Adventurous Survivalist Naughty

This is gross. It isn’t something you’ll want to get your friends. And you probably don’t want to spend $120 on someone you don’t like. So, I guess what I’m saying is, I’m not quite sure who this gift is for. You know what? I’m not even sure what to say about this, so here’s the link. I’ll let you just go check it out for yourself.

Good Night Everybody!

“Bacon is good for me!”

An oldie but a goody, from one of those spousal exchange reality shows. Little Charles Barkley likes his bacon.

In the Kitchen: Bacon Burger

The other night, we were making burgers at home when I finally got around to trying out a recipe that’s been knocking around my head. I’ve had many a bacon burger in my life, but never had I eaten one where the bacon was actually in the burger. I’m sure it’s been done before — in no way am I implying that I invented this idea. But it was new to me, and worth a shot.

The first issue was determining how to make this burger. I knew I wanted chopped bacon inside the patty, but the big question was whether to fry the bacon before putting in the beef, or using raw bacon. I decided to pre-cook the bacon for these reasons:

• Bacon reduces in size considerably and can become fatty when cooked. I was worried it would compromise the integrity of the patty during cooking.
• I wasn’t convinced the raw bacon would cook completely by the time the patty was done. Since this was going to be my dinner, and there wasn’t enough beef for a do-over, I opted for the safer pre-cooked route.
• The kicker was the realization I could fry the burgers in the bacon grease. More on that later.

I also considered crumbling the cheese into the patty before cooking, but decided against it. One thing at a time.

I’m a big fan of sauteing mushrooms in butter. Those slimy little buggers become all tender and juicy and oh, so full of flavor. It’s neat. But, when a pan of fresh bacon grease is sitting right there, you just go with it.

Mushrooms, sauteed in bacon grease.

After the mushrooms, I chopped the bacon and rolled into my beef patty. As this was an experiment, I went easy on seasoning so as not to overpower the bacon flavor.

It was now time to fry! As stated above, I used the left over bacon grease to fry the burger. I started with a high heat to sear the burger, then lowered the heat for a uniform cook.

Check out the chunk of bacon sticking out of the patty as it fries in bacon grease! It looks like a scab!

In the final minute I added a slice of sharp cheddar and the mushrooms. This burger was coming together better than I thought.

Ready for the bun!

So, how was it? Not as good as I expected.

(Bet you didn’t see that coming!)

Don’t get me wrong — the burger was good. It was moist and had good texture. It just lacked the bacon punch I was looking for. Maybe I was expecting too much. Since I put bacon inside the burger and fried it in the bacon grease, I guess I kinda thought every fiber of beef would magically turn into bacon. Rather than getting bacon flavored beef, I got a distinct burger flavor and a distinct bacon flavor. It seemed the two flavors were fighting for supremacy, rather than cooperating for the greater good. Again, nothing wrong with that. Just not what I expected.

Here’s what I’ll do different next time:

• Lose the cheddar. I think the flavor of the sharp cheddar overpowered a lot of the other more subtle flavors. If I do cheese again, I’ll probably go with bleu cheese crumbles in the patty. Yes, bleu cheese also has a potent flavor, but a few crumbles add great flavor without being overpowering. Moderation.
• Better bacon distribution. Maybe instead of chopping the bacon, I’ll leave them in short strips and sort of sandwich the strips between two thin beef patties. The possible downfall is complete destruction of the patty.
• Back to butter. I wasn’t exactly thrilled with how the mushrooms turned out being sauteed in bacon grease. They were too greasy and firm. I’ll stick with butter for that.

Well, there you have it. My first kitchen experiment.

Cheers!