Swineitiative
Jan 5, 2010 St. Louis, groceries, missouri
As Anthony Bourdain once noted, “If you want to make people happy, give them bacon.” Apparently having had a great deal of success with their temporarily carrying Benton’s bacon last year, in addition to always stocking Nueske’s, The Wine and Cheese place has taken note of Bourdain’s words dubbing 2010, “the year of bacon.” As their newsletter today stated, the existing plan is to feature one new artisanal bacon per month sourced from throughout the country. The first featured will be Vande Rose’s highly acclaimed Duroc bacon which Momofuku’s David Chang called, “one of the best bacons ever.”
Two questions:
- 1. Who wants to start a blind bacon-tasting club?
- 2. Who do I beg to bring in Scott’s Country Jowl Bacon?
Tags: anthony bourdain, bacon, Benton's, David Chang, Nueske's, Vande Rose
Lamb Bacon, The Official Fat of stlbites.com
Sep 16, 2008 general food
“If you want to make people happy, give them bacon.”
-Anthony Bourdain
This morning, in the bacon section of my deep freeze, I found the remaining chunk of my Local Harvest Grocery lamb bacon. To be honest, I’d forgotten about it until Ellie suggested last week that we should do a bacon tasting for a Slow Food event someday. Discussions about the best local bacon briefly ensued, and I gave a nod to Local Harvest as having produced what are possibly my favorite, and the lamb bacon specifically.
Now I’d wager people love traditional bacon because people love minuscule chunks of crisp pork attached to much larger chunks of juicy, glistening pork fat. It is delicious, and some would argue it’s the best of fat followed by perhaps duck fat. I, however, have a tender place in my heart for lamb fat.
And so, when I saw lamb bacon with rosemary at Local Harvest a few months ago, it was a must have.
It doesn’t crisp up particularly and instead has a kind of chewy ham-like texture after rendering which I find strangely appealing. Take a bite and you’ll be greeted with the saltiness you’d expect of any bacon, followed by the richness of the succulent lamb fat, a dash of smoke and the permeating scent of rosemary that will linger in your kitchen for days. Put it in scrambled eggs and breakfast will reach new highs. Or hell, it’s cured so just slice it up and eat it straight.
It lived up to all expectations.
I’ve no idea if they still have it which makes this an utterly useless and outdated post, but be on the look out anyway, it’s not to be missed if it returns.
Tags: bacon, lamb, Local Harvest Grocery
More Bacon
Mar 15, 2008 general food
Right back at you Ian…
This is absolutely disgusting and I have no comment
[via Accidental Hedonist - Bacon Flavoured Vodka via YesButNoButYes via Brownie Points]
How ’bout the color and texture between that 12th and 13th rib?
Mar 13, 2008 farming, general food
Now normal people look at me like I have a third eye when I talk about being on a Junior Culinary Olympic team so I’m wondering how these people feel?
Intercollegiate meat judging has been a serious business since it started 82 years ago. About 40 colleges will compete in six sanctioned competitions this year, culminating in the international championship in Dakota City, Neb., in November. At contests, students spend most of a day staring at whole and dismembered carcasses. They score meat quality, leanness and butchering technique in detail; then, meat experts grade their work.
And they they even recruit…
Paden Daniels was recruited by a four-year college after winning junior college tournaments near his hometown of Athol, Kan.
Then there’s the totally awesome way lesser known Tarleton State University raises funds for their meat ranking team
members cure, smoke and sell hams to raise cash.
Forget cookies. If someone comes knocking on your door with bacon, put me down for a couple slabs!
Tags: bacon, competitions, meat judging, meat quality
Do you scream for bacon ice cream?
| David Lebovitz apparently does.For those of you maybe wanting to try this at home, not nearly the oddity it once was, Lebovitz posted today about Candied Bacon Ice Cream.
I’ve got a stash of yolks going in my freezer so I think I’m going to make some with chocolate as what once seemed disgusting to me has now become something I’m utterly addicted to. |
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Tags: bacon, david lebovitz, ice cream
Everything Should Taste Like Bacon
Feb 25, 2008 general food
Or at least that’s what Justin and Dave think, and proving that there are some things you just can’t make up,
Bacon salt is a zero calorie, vegetarian, Kosher certified seasoning salt that makes everything taste like real bacon.
That’s kind of like taking the bacon out of bacon isn’t it?
It comes in Original, Hickory, and Peppered Bacon.
Here’s the obligatory link to a review of said Bacon Salt.
And here is a link to the Bacon Salt Blog which is actually pretty hilarious and will tip you off to other great victories in bacon-themed products like bacon-flavored mints.
Tags: bacon, bacon mints, bacon salt
A Little Anarchy with your Pancakes and Syrup
Feb 18, 2008 restaurants
Starting this past weekend everyone’s favorite anarchist bakers have begun serving breakfast.
From 9AM-1PM each Saturday you can “enjoy delicious pancakes and French Toast made from scratch and served with real Maple Syrup and a variety of toppings” from.
On urbanstl.com Mark from Black Bear also posted that it would be “cornmeal pancakes and whole grain (dairy-free) pancakes with pure maple syrup, butter, and raspberry sauce.”
Personally I don’t know if I can get behind pancakes without the addition of bacon or sausage, but it’s an interesting idea considering the neighborhood and I’m more than curious to see how this goes for them.
Tags: bacon, Black Bear Bakery, cornmeal pancakes, french toast, maple syrup, pancakes
I’ll call your canned hamburger…
Feb 3, 2008 general food
and raise you canned bacon.
Having seen the canned hamburger over on Gut Check I was left wanting to get a look at what it would look like cracked fresh from the can instead of all gussied up with lettuce, tomato, onion, and cheese.
Having now seen canned bacon fresh from a can, I am terrified of what that might look like and have promptly discarded the thought from my mind.
while Anthony Bourdain said, “if you want to make people happy, give them bacon,” I really don’t think this is what he had in mind.
This will make no one happy, and the most frightening thing isn’t even that someone unwound a can of 20 year old canned bacon–it’s that they opened it to attempt to develop it all over again so they can prop it up next to their other hot sellers: Red Feather Canned Australian Cheddar Cheese and Red Feather New Zealand Canned Creamery Butter.
But then again, now that we have a source for canned hamburger, canned bacon, and canned cheese; and I’m pretty sure I’ve seen canned onions before; and there’s certainly canned tomato; all we need now is some canned lettuce and we can make an entirely can-sourced bacon cheeseburger.
Hooray!
Go check out the pictures if you dare.
Celebrity Canned Bacon Memorial Page [Canned-Bacon.com via Dethroner]
Tags: anthony bourdain, bacon, canned bacon, dethroner, gut check, hamburger, WTF? is right!
Bacon Bar at Whole Foods
Oct 3, 2007 general food, groceries
I spotted the Mo’s Bacon Bar I previously mentioned at Whole Foods the other day. Obviously, I snatched one up immediately.
At $6.99 it comes in a little cardboard box. On the back is a story about the inspiration for it’s creation, along with lengthy instructions on just how it is you are supposed to enjoy it. I can’t help but think this is like a pair of shoes coming with an instruction manual, but hey, whatever floats this woman’s boat. She’s the one that made a candy bar with bacon in it!
As for taste, as I let the bar melt in my mouth according to the explicit instructions I previously found online, the first thing that hit me was the smokiness from the bacon. While that was actually a very pleasant contrast to the buttery sweetness, as the bar melted, at only 41% cacao, the creamy milk chocolate quickly lead way to bacon-bit grit. For me, it was a weird textural contrast. The salt on the other hand really brought out the flavor as salt goes beautifully with chocolate as something like chocolate covered pretzels proves.
For the most part though, while I was eating it, I couldn’t stop thinking that it was missing something. That something was maple syrup, and after eating the bar, and noticing the story on the back of the box, I was surprised she too made the same connection from her child hood. So where is it already?
As it is now, it’s not so great, though it’s interesting. Make it a bacon, salt, maple syrup chocolate bar, however, and you’ve got yourself a hit!
Michael Ruhlman’s response to an email I sent sums it up best, I think:
“i’ve tasted one like it, was only ok, sadly”
Tags: bacon, chocolate, Mos-Bacon-Bar, Whole Foods
From the mountains of Panama and Ethiopia, to the urban-jungles of Portland and Chicago, journalist Michaele Weissman takes us behind the scenes for a look at the world of third-wave specialty coffee. How did we get to Starbucks, and where we go from here?