Funny thing about bacon…once I start thinking about it, I can’t stop. I really love everything about it. The smell; the taste; the many ways you can serve it. Well, you get the picture.
Earlier today, I was cleaning out some bookshelves and came across a small cookbook called “101 Things To Do With Bacon”. This one belongs to my son. He is a bacon lover and my sister gave him this cookbook a few years ago for Christmas. I think I “borrowed” it from his room and never returned it.
While quickly flipping through the book, I picked out several recipes I want to try. They seem pretty easy; and that’s the kind of recipes I love best!
Here are a few of the recipes from the book that I will be testing out over the next couple of weeks. I have to space it out like that because, while I would love to eat bacon every day, I probably shouldn’t….right?
Blue Cheese, Bacon and Pear Toast
Red Potato Salad
Skillet Bacon Cornbread
If you decide to try any of these recipes out before I get a chance to, please come back and leave a comment on how they turned out. And if you got some good pictures, send them along too. I’ll add them to the recipe page.
So flash forward several hours. I went out for a while and had something to eat before I got home. Then I walked in to my apartment and all I could smell was bacon! Yummy bacon! Was my mind playing tricks on me? Was this a sensory flashback to earlier in the day when I was checking out bacon recipes and researching bacon odds and ends? I peered around the wall and there was my son, in the kitchen, cooking bacon. It was glorious! He asked me if I wanted some, but since I had already eaten, I declined. So sad!
Bacon of the Month Club!
Now to head in a slightly different direction. For those bacon aficionados in your life (like my son), I just found the perfect gift. “Bacon of the Month” club! Yes, indeed, there really is a club for bacon lovers. You can sign up yourself or enroll a friend or family member as a gift. Each month they send one unique flavor and one standard flavor. Unique flavor examples include Raspberry Chipotle, Apple Cinnamon, Honey Barbecue, or Cajun Style bacon. A standard flavor might include an original recipe hickory smoked or applewood smoked bacon. Sounds like Bacon Heaven!
Son, if you actually read my blog, don’t get all excited thinking you are getting enrolled to “Bacon of the Month Club” for Christmas, because you are not! (Shhh, don’t tell him, but he is totally getting enrolled!)
Speaking about Christmas gifts, I’m amazed at the vast quantity of merchandise out there in the world that has something to do with bacon. As I was researching, I came across T-Shirts with bacon slogans, bacon duct tape, bacon Christmas tree ornaments, bacon peanut butter, bacon flavored toothpicks, mugs, and much, much more.
5 Things You Didn’t Know About Bacon
- We know that bacon and/or bacon flavoring has been added to many products. Why is this, you ask? Could be a newfound fad, but the truth is that bacon has the two ingredients that enhance the flavor of almost all foods: salt and fat. “Salt brings out flavor and fat carries flavor to our taste buds,” the late Sara Perry wrote in her book “Everything Tastes Better With Bacon.” “But not only that — bacon has bite. It’s chewy and crunchy. Savory. Slightly sweet.” Basically, it’s hitting all our flavor receptors at once.
- Bacon is over 4,000 years old. (Not the bacon you ate this morning for breakfast! Eww.) Bacon is basically cured pork, and in the days before refrigeration, the only way to preserve meat was to “cure” it (meaning dehydrate it with salt). The Chinese had techniques for curing pork 4,000 years ago and until the 16th century, all pork was referred to as “bacon.” However, “real” bacon comes from the side or belly of the pig. Canadian bacon is closer to ham and comes from the loin of the pig.
- It’s not that bad for you, really. It’s not the healthiest choice, but it’s not the worst thing you can eat, either. Two average strips of raw bacon have 234 calories and 36 percent of your daily allowance of saturated fat. But two strips of fried bacon have 86 calories and 10 percent of your daily allowance of saturated fat, as well as 6 grams of protein. Bacon is a processed meat, which means it’s been treated with nitrites for preservation. Eating lots of processed meats has been linked to an increased risk of colorectal cancer, as well as heart failure and other diseases. But…two strips of bacon, with the grease poured off, along with a fried egg once a week probably won’t kill you.
- Speaking of bacon for breakfast…Edward Bernays, who’s been called the “father of public relations,” was the person responsible for pairing bacon with eggs on American breakfast tables. He’d been hired by the Beech-Nut Packing Company, which produced bacon in the 1920s, to drive up demand. At the time, Americans usually only ate a light breakfast, like a coffee and a roll. He checked with the agency’s physician to see if it was better to eat a heavier breakfast to replenish your energy and unsurprisingly, the physician agreed. The physician was asked to write to 5,000 other doctors to see if they agreed. Their answer was yes. This was reported in newspapers around the country. Of course, sales of bacon skyrocketed and “bacon & eggs” became a breakfast thing.
- The term “bringing home the bacon” didn’t actually have anything to do with bacon. “Bacon” has been a slang term for “body” (and by extension “livelihood”) since the 17th century, but the entire phrase seems to have first appeared in a 1906 news article about a boxing match between Joe Gans and “Battling” Oliver Nelson. The Post-Standard in New York reported the following: “Before the fight Gans received a telegram from his mother: ‘Joe, the eyes of the world are on you. Everybody says you ought to win. Peter Jackson will tell me the news and you bring home the bacon.‘” Gans indeed won the fight. Whether he took home some actual bacon is unrecorded.
Now it’s the next morning…and all this talk about bacon has me craving a taste. My son left me a couple of pieces in the fridge from last night. I think a feed of bacon and eggs is in order. Why don’t you go enjoy some too!