BMan's Bacon

One of my boyfriend's co-workers,* Brian Lagerstrom, makes his own bacon. I had never really thought of bacon as something you might make at home, but there you have it. So Boyfriend came home the other day with this exciting package:




And we fried it up and had it for breakfast.**

(We cut the slices in half so they'd fit in the pan. Some bacon curls up like those mood-reading red fish when you do that, but this stuff was solid. But not so thickly sliced that it took half an hour to cook. Just right.)

Oh wow was it good. I'm gonna be honest, despite keeping this blog for so long, I haven't spent much time thinking about the intricacies of bacon's flavor. How thickly sliced it is, what recipes you can use it in, sure, but the range of taste notes - not so much. I first began to consider it when we did a fry-off between the bacon from Rich's, the Polish store down the street from us, and some from Butcher and Larder.*** Then I noticed that sometimes when I get bacon at crappy diners, it tastes like shoe leather. So I've started paying more attention.

ANYWAYS. This bacon was delicious. The perfect balance of salty and sweet, with a wonderful meatiness to it. Toothsome and quite succulent. There were definitely some good juniper and herb flavors, but they weren't overpowering. It tasted like bacon. Bacon this good should just be fried and eaten, not used for cooking, so that it can be properly savoured. It's awesome.

If you want to acquire some of this fabulous stuff, head over to his etsy page, where you can get a pound for the astonishingly reasonable price of $7. Let me give you that link again: HERE BE TASTY BACON. Come, my child.


*If you're wondering, they both work at (Michelin-starred) Sepia.

**He fried the bacon, I made the eggs (scrambled eggs with green chilis and cheddar). You may be surprised to learn that I am terrible at frying bacon, and almost always burn it - especially if I'm cooking for my boyfriend.

***I probably should've posted about that. Not at all surprisingly (if you know us), I preferred the former, Better Half the latter. It wasn't really a scientific study though, because the Polish bacon was sliced super thin, and the Butcher and Larder bacon was quite thick, so that affected the eating experience. But flavor played a role as well. To me, the Polish bacon tasted... like what bacon should taste like. I dunno. To my sweet baby, it had a strong juniper flavor that he wasn't wild about. In contrast, B&L's pork tasted like it should to him, whereas to me it had a carmel kind of sweetness that I wasn't wild about. No offense to B&L, because I love their meats.

Chorizo, chilies and potato tacos

Inspired by the tacos de papas con rajas at Big Star, a simple and pretty fantastic taco filling. I improvised quite a bit, as should you, but basically, I used:

1 pckg chorizo - Mexican, not Spanish style. It was basically a pork paste in a plastic tube.
2 medium-large russet potatoes
1 onion
4 cloves garlic
1 can diced green chilis
1 can chipotle chilis in adobo sauce (I am so bringing a few cans of those back to Turkey!)
Tortillas
Fresh cilantro

I peeled the potatoes and sliced them into matchsticks, chopped the onion into small slices, and diced the garlic. I put a little oil in a pan on medium heat and squeezed the chorizo onto it, stirring it around to break it up. Once it was crumbly and had exuded a nice amount of grease, I added the potatoes. Then I wondered if I should've removed the chorizo onto a paper towel first (but that always seems like such a pain in the ass to me), or if I should've added the onions and garlic sooner. So I tried to push the potatoes to the side a little, and stack the chorizo on top of it, and added the onion and garlic. I sprinkled the potatoes liberally with salt, which proved somewhat unnecessary, because the whole thing came out super salty (luckily still good though. But I think it'd be better dialed down a notch. My point being, go easy on the salt.). Then I stirred it all, with a sinking sense that it was headed for disaster. But what the hell, I opened the can of green chilis and added them, and the can of chipotle chilis. I sort of shook some of the sauce off them and chopped them up and threw em in. Gave the whole thing a few more stirs and decided it was ready. And you know what? It was awesome. I ate it on heated flour tortillas, garnished plentifully with cilantro. It has proved to be a fantastic packed lunch option, too - roll some up in a tortilla (no need to reheat) with or without cilantro, wrap it tightly in aluminum foil and boom, portable lunch! For reheating at home, I think a frying pan would be the way to go, and maybe a squeeze of lime.

I know my timing guidelines aren't so helpful, but it really is a wing it sort of meal. What is crucial though, is that you not overcook the potatoes. You want them to have some crunch. You also want the onions and chilis somewhat firm. It really doesn't take long for it all to cook - its a simple, cheap, and plentiful dish. If you overlook it, it'll still be delicious, just maybe kinda mushy. At which point, I suggest you form it into patties and fry it on high heat. I bet that'd be awesome too.

Bacon poetry

Seen on the facebook:

Kind of charming. It called to mind this delightful piece from McSweeney's. I used to find McSweeney's kind of obnoxious and irritating, but lately I have really enjoyed everything I've read from them. I wonder if I changed or they did.

Salami and Capers tomato sauce

I recently broke into my dwindling reserves (I'll be back in the US for the summer in just over a month now, so I can be less frugal with the pork supply) to try to recreate a pasta sauce that T* and I made way back when. Prior to that occasion, I had never tried cooking salami - it actually seemed like kind of an absurd idea to me. But that time, it turned out quite delicious. From what I could recall, it was basically sauteed salami hunks plus spicy tomato sauce and fresh parsley. But I don't especially like parsley, so I axed that part. I also used tomato paste instead of a can of tomatoes**, because I had a little jar of homemade tomato paste a family friend had made from the tomatoes in her garden that I was looking to use. So basically, I chopped up some salami and sauteed it with garlic, added the tomato paste, some crushed red pepper and oregano (or maybe it's thyme. I mean, it says it's thyme, but it really smells and tastes much more like oregano to me.) and cooked it for awhile. But then it didn't really taste all that amazig, so I added a few handfuls of capers! Capers are also something I do not think of as a thing one cooks, so it kind of made sense, category-wise.

Anyways, it was delicious. But to be honest, the salami was kind of the weakest link. This may be because of the particular salami I used, or because it is somewhat aged at this point. But the take-away lesson for me was actually that plain old tomato paste with some spices and capers is pretty delicious.

*I have decided that the 18th century convention of initials seems more dignified than calling him Better Half or my dude all the time.

**I am getting kind of paranoid about canned tomatoes. I keep hearing these rumors that they're really bad for you.

BaconCookbook for iPad

My friend Rowan sent me a link to this piece in Gizmodo about a bacon cookbook for the iPad. I haven't posted in eons, so I figured I'd pass it on. But I have no idea if it's any good or anything. =-)

duct tape jacket for iPad 2

To be honest, this is only tangentially related to bacon, but the creator has emailed me twice already (d'oh! Sorry for not doing this sooner!) and it does seem like an awesome project, so hey. He makes iPad cases, and he's got a Kickstarter project going to collect orders and money so that he can buy supplies in bulk. The cases come in different designs - of course you can get a custom one, but you can also get Basic, Pattern (the zebra print is pretty awesome looking) or... Inspired, which is where bacon comes in.

I recommend going to the Kickstarter page and reading the history section, because it's a feel-good DIY story of someone dissatisfied with a product and inspired to make a better one. The video also shows you the case, which looks rather more impressive in person, especially when you see what it can do.

Brussel Sprouts with Bacon

I broke out the reserves for Thanksgiving and made brussel sprouts with bacon. I'm actually coming to think that the best way to eat brussel sprouts is to halve them and just toss them with some olive oil, salt and pepper and roast 'em, but this way, with bacon, isn't bad either.

I used:
2 packets brussel sprouts. Um. 1/2 pound maybe?
2 slices bacon
1 chicken bullion cube
some water
salt, pepper
olive oil


Wash brussel sprouts, trim off the ends, cut the bigger ones in half. Coarsely chop the bacon. Fry it with some olive oil. When it's cooked but not browned, add the brussel sprouts and fry until they begin to brown. Add water enough to almost cover and bullion cube, as well as salt and pepper, and cook until brussel sprouts are soft but not mushy, ~8 minutes, less if you added boiling water.

I thought they were decent but not amazing - perhaps because I'm not that into brussel sprouts - but my dinner guests adored them.