The BACON!!! thread

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From LA Times

So last Friday I finally made some chicken-fried bacon. At work (one of the perks of working in a test kitchen). I'd blogged about chicken-fried bacon earlier, and it came in as No. 17 on my list of 1,001 things to do with bacon.

The results? Love. At first bite.

Of course, the wonderful aroma of frying bacon tends to spread quickly, and within minutes the Test Kitchen was packed with people from throughout the building eager to help me "test" the recipe. (There was literally a logjam outside the door at one point.) Luckily, I had enough ingredients to make a rather large batch of the bacon, and a big bowl of creamy ranch dip.

Most "testers" were quiet as they sampled the bacon ? they simply closed their eyes and nodded their heads in agreement. Others were able to put their reactions into words. "This makes my whole body smile!" said Chris Erskine gleefully as he tore into a second strip.

Chixcarrots Now, if you've been following the latest string of bacon posts, you know that the Health section is located smack-dab against the Test Kitchen, right next to Food. And Health Editor Tami Dennis has been ... well ... frustrated at all the wonderful bacon goings-on in her midst.

So I wanted to make it up to her. I sliced a large carrot lengthwise on a mandoline into thin strips resembling ... bacon. And then I chicken-fried it. I plated it nicely and brought it to her with a cute little bowl of the dipping sauce.

Tami inhaled it. And then came in the Kitchen for seconds. So maybe bacon doesn't work for everyone, but chicken-fry a vegetable and you might even have a Health editor clamoring for more.

Anyway, the chicken-fried bacon ? and carrots ? were a success. My take on the wonderful dish follows the jump.

? Noelle Carter

Photo credits: Noelle Carter / Los Angeles Times

Chicken-fried bacon with creamy ranch dipping sauce

Servings: Makes 2 pounds bacon

Creamy ranch dipping sauce

8 ounces cream cheese, softened

16 ounces sour cream

8 ounces mayonnaise

1 tablespoon minced garlic

1/4 cup minced red onion

2 tablespoons chopped parsley

2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon chopped chives

2 tablespoons chopped dill

2 tablespoons chopped tarragon

Zest of 1 lemon, finely grated or chopped

1 1/2 teaspoons red wine vinegar

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground chipotle pepper

Fresh ground black pepper to taste

In a large bowl, whisk together the cream cheese, sour cream and mayonnaise until very smooth. Whisk in the garlic, onion, parsley, chives, dill, tarragon, lemon zest, vinegar, salt and chipotle pepper. Season to taste with additional salt, vinegar and black pepper. Cover and chill until needed. The dip tastes best if the flavors are allowed to develop 2 to 3 hours before serving, and will keep for up to 3 days, refrigerated.

Chicken-fried bacon and assembly

6 cups flour

2 tablespoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 quart buttermilk

2 pounds bacon

Vegetable or canola oil for frying

Creamy ranch dipping sauce

1. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt and pepper. Place half of this mixture in a large, flat baking dish.
2. Pour half of the buttermilk in a separate large baking dish.
3. Dip each bacon strip first in the buttermilk, then in the seasoned flour. Set the bacon aside on a rack for a few minutes to allow the flour to absorb some of the buttermilk to form a good coating. For an extra crispy coating, dredge the bacon once more in just the flour mixture.
4. Heat a good inch of vegetable oil in a large frying pan (or in a deep fryer) until a thermometer inserted reads 350 degrees.
5. Fry the bacon, a few strips at a time (you don't want to crowd the pan or fryer), until the strips are golden brown on both sides, about 2 minutes per side. Drain the bacon on a rack. Continue until all of the bacon is fried.
6. Serve the bacon warm (do allow it to cool a few minutes before serving as the hot bacon can burn) with the cold dipping sauce and plenty of napkins.

[The Godfather]

[mr.brownfella]

Bacon Henge is a contemporary, celestial-culinary monument erected on cast iron skillet (which some attribute to its robust staying power) in the kitchen of Supersized Meals user, Billy.

Raised from the loamy stratum below, in this case diced onion, potato, and mushroom over scramble eggs, this ungulate henge has baffled the spike.com culinary anthropology department for literally minutes. While the anthropological implications are still hotly-debated, we have something to offer you


All that can be ascertained (for now) are the basic components, and its likely construction method. Via

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YOU NEED
10 or 12 french toast sticks, frozen
1 lb bacon (rashers)
1 large potato, cubed
1 medium onion, chopped
8 oz fresh mushrooms, sliced
1 dozen eggs
1/4 c water
to taste salt and pepper

The simplified cooking instructions are as follows: Wrap some French toast in bacon. Skewer it with skewers like this.

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Popular Science columnist and author of "Mad Science" Theodore Gray has built what he calls the "Bacon Lance" ? a complex arrangement of pork that, when coupled with a blast of pure oxygen, can cut through steel.

As Gray explains, regular "thermal lances" are bundles of iron and magnesium pipes that, when lit as oxygen is pumped through them, release huge amounts of heat ? or, as he puts it, thermal energy.

He realized that certain foodstuffs might work as well. So he took several slices of prosciutto ? "a superior engineering grade of meat" ? rolled them around fiberglass rods and baked them overnight. Then he bundled those, wrapped more prosciutto around it and baked that.

An additional layer of fresh prosciutto for insulation, and the Bacon Lance was ready.

Attached to a high-pressure blast of pure oxygen and lit, the meat weapon did quite well in cutting through a baking pan.
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A vegetarian option, hollow bread sticks packed inside a cucumber, didn't work as wonderfully, mostly because the bread burned too quickly.

"The pressure-containment capacity of a standard cucumber is remarkable," Gray added.

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[tlock]

Bacon, thought red meat, is the tastiest one could have for breakfast and is loaded with proteins and other nutrients. However, its yummy texture and look has inspired many designers and manufacturers to create tasty and delicious looking products.

With that in mind here is a simple but delicious looking bacon skateboard that you could use to whiz around while people not only gawk at your skateboarding skills but also unconsciously start salivating like Pavlov?s dog in the famous classical conditioning experiment. These skateboards measure 7 3/4?, have been designed to suit all terrains, and are enabled with the perfect competition shape.



Using the best quality hard maple, the manufacturers have created a saga of skateboards that begin to pump adrenalin the moment you cast your sight on them. There are different styles of bacon skateboards and they cost between $60 and $68.



They are not too expensive, look quite funny, and could be great attention grabbers. Like mentioned earlier, bacon certainly is one of those food products
that continue to inspire product designers to create stuff that have an element of this delicious piece of red meat in them. The Bacon Wallet and the Bacon iPhone Case we had featured are examples of the huge range of products available.

Via: NerdApproved

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Justin Esch and Dave Lefkow have re-invented what it means to be entrepreneurs. The self-proclaimed "bacontrepreneurs" have catapulted their love of bacon into a successful business.
Creators say their bacon products start-up was originally a joke.

"Everything should taste like bacon; that's the motto," Esch told ABC News.

Their business began as a joke over drinks. During a lively discussion with friends about their common passion for bacon, the idea for Bacon Salt, a product mixing their two favorite flavors, was born.

The duo, who both had successful jobs at a technology company in Seattle, quit and began experimenting with different flavors of Bacon Salt.

"We took a bunch of bacon and poured in salt," Esch, 30, said. "Turns out that's disgusting."

Once the recipe was perfected, Esch and Lefkow, 35, introduced Bacon Salt, and hickory and peppered varieties, to the market last year.

With five employees and no marketing budget, they stormed sporting events coast to coast dressed as bacon and created buzz on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.

"When we launched it out of my garage in Issaquah, in suburban Seattle, we had 800 orders in the first week, with no promotion, [from] 12 countries, 25 states," Esch said. "We ran out of Bacon Salt within six days."

Within a year, their products have made it to the shelves of major grocery stores around the country and are sold around the world. And despite the nation's deep recession, the fun-loving startup keeps bringing home the bacon, raking in $1.4 million last year in profits.

Beth's Caf?, a 24-hour Seattle restaurant known for its greasy cuisine, caught on quickly, adding Bacon Salt into the mix of condiments on their tables.

"We always say everything's better with bacon and that's their motto," said Chris Dalton, owner of Beth's Caf?. "It's been excellent. You can put it on almost anything. It's good on a turkey sandwich. I like it on tater tots."

The dedication to all things bacon has led to the launch of bacon-flavored sunflower seeds and the sandwich spread, Baconaise, which combines two of life's more fattening flavors, bacon and mayonnaise.

Bacon Soap, Body Spray In the Works

Surprisingly, bacon is not an ingredient in Bacon Salt or Baconaise. The company says that the salt is low sodium, zero-calorie, zero-fat and vegetarian, bringing bacon's flavor to the masses. Plus, they're certified kosher.

"I had been eating bacon and mayonnaise for six months," Lefkow said. "I would eat a slice of bacon and a spoon of mayonnaise. That was definitely a fattening process. Bacon Salt has less than a quarter of the servings, so you can get bacon flavor in a salt format."

"We've got tons of ideas, everything from beer to waffles, hot sauce, ketchup," Lefkow said.

But they're not limited to food. They're experimenting with a bacon-scented body spray, suntan lotion, even soap. The recent hot seller on their Web site is bacon-inspired lip balm.

"We've sold over 10,000 of them," Lefkow said. "People buy it by the dozen. Some people say it's the worst thing they have ever heard of; other people said that's the greatest thing ever."

Operations Manager Shannon Carlston said the rush of orders can make the factory crazy at times.

"I'm shocked and amazed," she said. "The [lip balm], that's just been crazy. They love the feeling of having bacon fat on their lips, I guess."

Lefkow said he has faith in the sustainability of their unlikely recipe for business success -- just add bacon.

"I don't think there is any limit for what bacon can do," Lefkow said. "It's the uber-meat."

[The Godfather]

[MillyMc]

i have bacon in my fridge and even though i do not have the time, i will cook it up.

i may also go buy a fast food burger to put the bacon on.

why would i do that you may ask? bc fast food bacon sucks!

[The Godfather]

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So does most fast food cheese. I used to be so embarrassed when my grandmother used to pull her own cheese out but Ole Gal obviously knew what was up.

[MillyMc]

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haha ive heard of salad dressing, but bringing cheese!?!? was this when she planned to head out? like the kraft singles?