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.
Continue reading »
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
| Tagged: bacon, comics, funny, pigs, pork
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.
Continue reading »
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.
Continue reading »
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.
Continue reading »
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.
Continue reading »
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.
Continue reading »
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]
Continue reading »
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.
Continue reading »
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:
Continue reading »
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.
Continue reading »
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.
Posted by Robyn Lee, July 19, 2007 at 3:30 PM
It was only a matter of time before someone invented Bacon Salt. You can put it on everything—sandwiches, eggs, salads, popcorn, vegetables, fish, fries and steak can all benefit from an extra dose of bacon flavor. You can even baconize your bacon. Whoa. And as this seasoning is kosher, vegetarian, and contains no calories, there's no reason why everyone can't shared in the salty, bacony joy.
Stretch the limits of your bacon love (or live out your bacon fantasies) by making everything taste like bacon. [via MetaFilter]
Posted by Ed Levine, July 17, 2007 at 7:40 AM
Everyone has their own version of a Food Sur-Thrival Kit, a small group of reasonably priced go-to foods that we try to keep around at all times, so that no matter how bedraggled we feel when we get home, we can whip up a pleasure-inducing, satisfying meal in 20 minutes or less at any time on any day of the year. You not only survive on these foods, you thrive on them. Hence the name.
Here's my Food Sur-Thrival Kit.
- Kossar's bialys: (fresh or sliced and frozen) A toasted bialy is just one of life's greatest and simplest eating pleasures. It supplies my daily requirement of crispness and crunchiness. Once the bialy is toasted, I melt a slice of Kraft Deli Deluxe American cheese (see below) on each half—perfecto!
- Kraft Deli Deluxe American slices: They're tangy, they taste like cheese (not cheese food), they're already sliced, and they don't have that shine that suggests they were made in a factory on another planet
- Pre-cooked Penne or Fusilli: If they pre- or par-cook pasta in good Italian restaurants we can, too. I prefer Barilla, but I sometimes have difficulty finding its penne and fusilli.
- Grated Parmigiano-Reggiano: I know the food police are going to arrest me for not grating my own, but so be it. I can live with that
- Nueske's bacon: It's smoky, it's sweet, it's porky. What more could you want out of a food? Makes anything you do with the rest of the kit better
- Allan Benton's bacon: It's in the same class as Nueske's and is a little cheaper, but it's mostly available by mail
- Patsy's or Rao's marinara sauce: I know these two brands cost a couple of bucks more than Prego, but they actually taste like sauce you would make yourself if you had the time
- Häagen-Dazs Raspberry Sorbet and Vanilla Yogurt Bar: 100 calories of fruity, sweet, creamy deliciousness
What's in your Food Sur-Thrival Kit?
Posted by Adam Kuban, June 19, 2007 at 1:55 PM
The burger above might look fairly ordinary, but the patty is not ground chuck or ground sirloin or any kind of ground beef.
That, my friends, is 100 percent ground bacon, skillet-cooked ("to avoid having it break apart on the grill"), and sandwiched between two slices of pepper Jack cheese.
Posted by Robyn Lee, June 14, 2007 at 6:00 PM
It's a mat. Of bacon. I don't predict a bright future in "bacon textiles", but this mat should please bacon lovers everywhere. Or kill them...
Make your own in just four easy steps at instructables.
Posted by Robyn Lee, May 31, 2007 at 5:00 PM
If you ever worried about what happens to bacon strips after they die, fear no more! (And if you didn't worry, then you're probably normal. Read on anyway.) According to Sappy Moose Tree, they take on cute facial expressions and sprout wings and halos made of pipe cleaners. The ones who get into heaven, at least. If you prefer bacon of the undead, magical magnetic bacon strips are also available. Check out more cute things, bacon or non-bacon related, at Sappy Moose Tree. [via plushyou]
Posted by Adam Kuban, May 25, 2007 at 2:25 PM
How did I miss this site after all these years?!?
The Bacon Show which has been around since May 2005, promises "one bacon recipe per day, every day, forever." [via Matty]
Posted by Lia Bulaong, April 10, 2007 at 8:11 AM
Four researchers from the UK's Leeds University spent more than a thousand hours testing 700 variations of bacon sandwiches using both a computer and 50 taste-testing volunteers, and they managed to come up with the formula for perfectly crisp bacon:
N = C + {fb(cm) . fb(tc)} + fb(Ts) + fc . ta
N = force in Newtons required to break the cooked
bacon.
fb = function of the bacon type.
fc = function of the condiment/filling effect.
Ts = serving temperature.
tc = cooking time.
ta = time or duration of application of condiment/
filling.
cm = cooking method.
C = Newtons required to break uncooked bacon.
Team leader Dr. Graham Clayton says, "We often think that it’s the taste and smell of bacon that consumers find most attractive. But our research proves that texture and sound is just, if not more, important."
For that I happily give him and his team my first-ever Serious Eats Hero of the Month Award. Congratulations to the Leeds U team, and may they always have perfectly crisp bacon! [via mental_floss]
Posted by Alaina Browne, April 2, 2007 at 2:15 PM
Fool's Gold Loaf, the peanut butter and jelly sandwich first made famous by Elvis, consists of a hollowed-out loaf of bread stuffed with a jar of peanut butter, a jar of jelly, and a pound of bacon (thanks, Jason!).
Continue Reading for the Fool's Gold Loaf recipe.
Related: The Ravenous Guide to Eating Like Elvis
Continue reading »
Posted by Lia Bulaong, March 30, 2007 at 1:00 PM
I love bacon so much I'm considering making bacon ice cream this weekend, but even I have to draw the line at this bacon-scented bacon print tuxedo that Archie McPhee's now selling for $99.
Well, OK, so maybe it would be good for Halloween parties or if you were getting married in Vegas by, say, Elvis or Captain Picard. But other than those settings, I can't think of where this might be considered appropriate! [via Weird Asia News]
Posted by Lia Bulaong, March 27, 2007 at 3:00 PM
Grateful Palate, home of the only club I've ever wanted to join—the Bacon of the Month Club—has a beautiful ceramic bacon butter dish for $39.95. I don't know who writes the copy for their site, but it's so beautiful it makes me want to cry: "Bacon and butter. Isn't this an epic concept? Spasky and Fischer, Stalin and Roosevelt, Angelina and Brad? The two greatest, most powerful cooking ingredients come together to form a union of love and flavor in your kitchen."
Also great: their BLT scented votive candle trio. The bacon one has a cute illustration of a pig and says "bacon = freedom" on it! These are truly my people.
Posted by Lia Bulaong, March 12, 2007 at 6:28 PM
SuperSizedMeals.com, on Stuff Magazine's Bacon, Cheese and Beer Dogs: "They hollow out a few hot dogs, fill them with cheese, wrap them in Bacon and deep fry them.... Mmmm... it's like a hot dog heart attack all in one convenient greasy little package!"
Posted by Lia Bulaong, March 8, 2007 at 11:11 AM
Nosheteria says snacking, thy name is decadence: "When the bacon is sizzling hot, and crisp to your heart's content, remove the bacon from the pan, and add popcorn kernels to the grease. Cover the pot, you wouldn't want your popcorn to bounce everywhere. Appalling though it might seem, this is really no different than adding oil to pan of popcorn kernels. It's just in this case the oil tastes like bacon!"
[via Slashfood]
Posted by Lia Bulaong, March 1, 2007 at 4:13 PM
Bacon is a Vegetable: the slogan that started out as a Diesel Sweeties strip can now be purchased on t-shirts, aprons and stickers. What, no tiny hipster buttons?
Posted by Lia Bulaong, March 1, 2007 at 10:31 AM
"Pigs are very beautiful animals...There is no point of view from which a really corpulent pig is not full of sumptuous and satisfying curves."
- G.K. Chesterton
The pig is "an encyclopedic animal, a meal on legs."
- Grimod de La Reynière
"I've long said that if I were about to be executed and were given a choice of my last meal, it would be bacon and eggs. There are few sights that appeal to me more than the streaks of lean and fat in a good side of bacon, or the lovely round of pinkish meat framed in delicate white fat that is Canadian bacon. Nothing is quite as intoxicating as the smell of bacon frying in the morning, save perhaps the smell of coffee brewing."
- James Beard
"But I will place this carefully fed pig
Within the crackling oven; and, I pray,
What nicer dish can e'er be given to man."
- Aeschylus
Posted by Lia Bulaong, March 1, 2007 at 9:08 AM
If you find yourself in Portland, Oregon, make your way to Voodoo Doughnuts after 6 p.m. and congratulate yourself on your good luck and good timing, because you'll be in the right time and right place to taste their famous Bacon Maple Bar. a) The name is misleading, it's more doughnut than bar, b) it's maple-glazed and topped with two strips of crispy bacon, c) it's about a dollar, d) it's delicious. As Yay Hooray user CowboyX says: "haven't you ever had pancakes and your syrup gets all over your bacon? it's a handful of Yes."
Posted by Lia Bulaong, March 1, 2007 at 8:57 AM
Aleta Watson of the Mercury News, on how bacon is even more popular than ever: "The attraction of bacon is virtually universal, suggests Bay Area cookbook author and food consultant Bruce Aidells, who notes that the tantalizing aromas and savory flavors touch something deep in our core. "I think bacon is essentially the meat lover's version of chocolate," he says. "It does the same thing to people." Good-quality bacon brings so much to a dish that even diet-conscious cooks often are willing to trade the higher fat content for increased satisfaction at the table. Chefs note that the mention of bacon in the menu description of a dish tends to draw more orders."
Posted by Lia Bulaong, March 1, 2007 at 7:42 AM
If you've ever wondered which part of the pig your favorite cut of pork comes from, thank Wikipedia user GameKeeper for working up diagrams of both the British and American common cuts of pork, as described in Larousse Gastronomique. Personally, nothing comes close to the pork belly. Mmmm, delicious bacon.
Posted by Lia Bulaong, February 27, 2007 at 3:17 PM
"Making your own bacon at home is not difficult. You will need pork belly and a brine of some sort. The most important ingredients are salt and TIME." Well, most important after the pork belly.
Posted by Lia Bulaong, February 26, 2007 at 3:09 PM
19 year-old Dayne Gilbey of Coventry, Wales volunteered to let tattoo artist Blake Dickinson ink his skull with the image of a full English breakfast: "bacon, eggs, sausages, beans and even cutlery."
Frankly, I'd be amazed by Gilbey's foolhardiness except that I'm too busy appalled by how ugly that tattoo turned out to be, especially when you consider how pretty the photo of an English breakfast that ran with Graham Holliday's In Defence of British Food feature today is! What do you make of it?
Posted by Lia Bulaong, February 23, 2007 at 3:25 PM
The English Food Pyramid is pretty hilarious to me—but then I'm not an English nutritionist. The very tip of the pyramid is labeled "Fats, Oils and Sweets", contains lard, suet, bacon, shortbread, heavy cream and castor sugar, and has the notation "eat sparingly".
[via malaclyps del.icio.us]
Posted by Lia Bulaong, February 22, 2007 at 4:15 PM
Bacon Flavored Mints: "Each one of these mints tastes like a delicious slice of crispy bacon with just a hint of mint flavor to give it that extra punch! It may sound weird but once you taste it, you'll see that mint and bacon is a match made in China." $4.95 for two tins, 100 mints in each.
[via Neatorama]
Posted by Lia Bulaong, February 13, 2007 at 10:30 AM
There's so much activity over at Serious Eats Talk, we've got lots of great people leaving interesting comments that maybe not everyone gets to see, so I decided I'd highlight my favorites from the past week or so. They run across the spectrum of emotions, but they're all fabulous:
Tragic
"Funny story - the hub and I were in New Orleans for the World's Fair in 1984. We ate at the Japanese pavilion's restaurant. The restaurant only provided wooden chopsticks, the kind that you have to break apart, no forks. The couple at the table sitting next to us had no idea how to use them. They were scooping up the food with the chopsticks still joined. It was comical. I believe they left hungry..."
- pageycooks, from Do you know how to use chopsticks?
Romantic
"My husband is a foodie. He knew how to cook when I married him and after all these years he now is a far better cook. Years of being with a food bully will straighten out anyone. He is the best weekend sommelier I have ever met. The bottles of wine he chooses for my father make my fathers eyes bug out. I have taught him to bake. Most men do not go quielty into a kitchen with me. We designed our kitchen together and enjoy it together. Here is a tell......I won him over the first year we dated by making him truffles for Valentine's Day. One little bar of Ghardelli and all the love you can put in a tin. He said that one gift just sealed the deal."
- JerseeTomato, from Is your sweetheart a "foodie"?
Terrifying
"My boyfriend's mother had heard that I liked -as she phrased it - "Oriental food". She beamed as she presented me with her "authentic" version of sweet and sour pork, made with frozen chicken nuggets, a mishmash of vegetables and flavored with an unholy mixture of sweet pickle juice and maraschino cherries. And yes, you read correctly; in her mind, chicken and pork were interchangeable [your work is done, Pork Board]. The things we do for love..."
- sallyforth, from What's the worst meal someone's ever cooked for you?
Zen
"Sizzling bacon - oh, the anticipation!"
- mel, from What's your favorite kitchen sound?
Posted by Lia Bulaong, February 6, 2007 at 9:56 AM
Jalapeño Girl cooked a pound of bacon and spent the next day at work, smelling of bacon: "The folks on my new project probably thought I was weird that first day. Rather than expose them to my bacony smells, I would lean way back whenever someone greeted me or came close."
Posted by Nathalie Jordi, January 19, 2007 at 1:35 PM
Why do we love pigs so much? wonders Sara Dickerman on Slate. My personal answer's one word long: bacon.
Posted by Alaina Browne, December 22, 2006 at 10:14 AM
For hardcore bacon lovers only:
If you’ve ever had the pleasure of having some of your pancake syrup flow onto the savory side of the plate, you might understand why hounds are crazy for the porky version of this old-fashioned confection.
Chowhounds are talking about bacon brittle. Read on for the "ultimate" recipe.
Posted by Alaina Browne, December 22, 2006 at 10:00 AM
New York City brunch expert, bacon lover and friend of Serious Eats, Kathryn Yu, documents her recent visit to Cookshop including some mouthwatering bacon pics.
