Bacon - Part 1
June 18, 2012
Bacon.
It’s great, it’s wonderful, and it may very well be the best food on the planet. I’ve made that assertion before, but to tell the truth I haven’t tried every food on the planet. So let’s just say that if bacon isn’t the best food on the planet, it is at the very least near the top. The fact that it has climbed from a lowly breakfast side dish to an international phenomenon dominating the food pyramid proves that beyond a doubt.
It isn’t uncommon to find bacon on your plate at any time of the day. Of course you can always have it for breakfast, but it cracked the lunch barrier in sandwiches and now it’s in snacks, dinners, desserts and even cocktails. Not bad for some pork bellies.
The broad range of bacon types is part of what makes it so versatile. Bacon is salty, meaty, fatty, smoky, sweet, umami, crispy, and juicy. Bacon can be some of these or all of these at the same time. It can be smoked with a variety sources: hickory, apple wood, pecan wood, cherry wood. It can be cured or uncured. It can be fried or baked or grilled. And when you are done cooking the bacon you can save the fat and cook other foods in it to make them taste like bacon!
Despite its many uses, bacon may occasionally need to be supplemented, enhanced or replaced, and flavor can be used to do this across a variety of food products. I hope to give some tips and tricks on how to accomplish this in upcoming posts and I hope you have as much fun reading as I will researching, tasting, and testing new ways to fit bacon into the daily diet.
It’s great, it’s wonderful, and it may very well be the best food on the planet. I’ve made that assertion before, but to tell the truth I haven’t tried every food on the planet. So let’s just say that if bacon isn’t the best food on the planet, it is at the very least near the top. The fact that it has climbed from a lowly breakfast side dish to an international phenomenon dominating the food pyramid proves that beyond a doubt.
It isn’t uncommon to find bacon on your plate at any time of the day. Of course you can always have it for breakfast, but it cracked the lunch barrier in sandwiches and now it’s in snacks, dinners, desserts and even cocktails. Not bad for some pork bellies.
The broad range of bacon types is part of what makes it so versatile. Bacon is salty, meaty, fatty, smoky, sweet, umami, crispy, and juicy. Bacon can be some of these or all of these at the same time. It can be smoked with a variety sources: hickory, apple wood, pecan wood, cherry wood. It can be cured or uncured. It can be fried or baked or grilled. And when you are done cooking the bacon you can save the fat and cook other foods in it to make them taste like bacon!
Despite its many uses, bacon may occasionally need to be supplemented, enhanced or replaced, and flavor can be used to do this across a variety of food products. I hope to give some tips and tricks on how to accomplish this in upcoming posts and I hope you have as much fun reading as I will researching, tasting, and testing new ways to fit bacon into the daily diet.
