September 5, 2008 by Marianne

September 5, 2008 • Filed Under: International Bacon Day , International Bacon Day

I promise today is my last day posting about Bacon Day 2008, even though it’s worth talking about for another week. We were fortunate at the last minute to get a “swag sponsor” by way of BaconFreak.com. Not only did he provide us with some tasty bacon, but Rocco brought us a whole box of goodies to give away to our guest, including one mega-grab-box doorprize. There were “bacon is meat candy” t-shirts, stickers, bacon air freshener, gummy bacon, Bacon Salt, and the ever popular bacon bandages. There was enough stuff that about half our guests won a prize!
The big door prize winner was our good friend (and the guy who came up with the name Royal Bacon Society) Mike. Which we thought was great, considering all he’s done for the site. Most of the guests handled the disappointment of not winning pretty well, but that Brutus is a sore loser. When Mike wasn’t looking, he tried to steal the whole shabang! Luckily, Mike prevailed and all of his swag remained intact. Can’t say the same for the box.
At the end of the day, everyone went home with a belly full of grease and at very least a handy magnet for their refrigerator.  We still have some magnets so if you want one, send us an email with your address and we’ll send it your way.
And with that I leave Bacon Day to rest as a fond memory of good friends and good times. If you’d like to see all the photos from the day, you can check out the full gallery here. May it keep you warm until Bacon Day rolls around again!

September 4, 2008 by Marianne

September 4, 2008 • Filed Under: Bacon Recipes, International Bacon Day , Bacon Sandwich, International Bacon Day, Peanut Butter Jelly and Bacon

Chrissy & Smiley: Two people you cannot help but love. These friends (and avid readers) brought their own special bacon tribute to the party…a tribute to the king of all bacon lovers himself: His Holy Elvis. As seen in this photo, bacon pairs up with peanut butter and jelly on white bread for a scaled-down version of the famous Fool’s Gold sandwich. And of course each mini-sandwich was beautifully topped with an individual icon of His Holiness. If I was much, much cooler, I would have thought of this myself.

You’ve probably heard this story about how Elvis once flew himself and some friends to Colorado on his private jet in the middle of the night, just to get this famous sandwich from the Colorado Mine Company restaurant. I always thought that was an outrageous stunt, until I tried this sandwich. I could have gone my whole life not knowing I liked bacon in my PB&J, but now the veil has been lifted and I can never unlearn what I have learned. I am totally in love.

I guess I should just thank my lucky stars they didn’t bring the deep-fried peanut butter, bacon and banana sandwich. I would have to drop one seriously bad habit to make room for that one.

September 3, 2008 by Marianne

September 3, 2008 • Filed Under: Bacon Recipes, International Bacon Day , Bacon Bourbon, Bacon Grease, International Bacon Day

So I thought I would give Bacon Bourbon another try, because it absolutely had to be shared on Bacon Day. I had high hopes as I was using my favorite bourbon this time, Maker’s Mark. It has a warm, slightly smoky flavor to begin with, so seemed perfect for the infusion.

I began as last time with several ounces of fresh bacon grease in a pitcher with a full bottle of Maker’s Mark. This time I also added a slice of bacon for the three hours of room-temperature infusion. I used a thick-cut, applewood smoked bacon this time. I then froze the infusion for several hours and did a first straining through cheese cloth and a wire mesh strainer. Last time I ended up with a bit of grease in the final stage, so this time I washed the pitcher, put the bourbon back in and froze it again overnight. The morning of Bacon Day I did a second cheese cloth/mesh straining, but still ended up with a tiny bit of grease and particulate matter. No one found it off-putting, so I won’t worry so much about that in the future.

And the results? Once again, the smoke was subtle and some people didn’t even taste a difference. I should have had plain Maker’s for comparison. A few people who claimed to really know their bourbon reported tasting the smoke, and I myself thought it was slightly more noticeable than last time. But still, not quite the difference I was looking for.

In the end, no one complained about having a bottle of Maker’s to sip on, and whether they tasted the smoke or not, everyone enjoyed the Bourbon. As I mentioned yesterday, it was a hit combination with the Bacondoodles. Just as a side note, I took a bite of the bacon I used for the infusion after the first freezing. Wow, was that an unpleasant experience…I couldn’t bring myself to swallow it. So I can say unequivocally that I do NOT recommend bourbon-infused bacon!

September 2, 2008 by Marianne

September 2, 2008 • Filed Under: Bacon Recipes, International Bacon Day , Bacon Chocolate, Bacon Recipes, Bacon Wrapped Asparagus, Bacon Wrapped Jalapeno Popper, Bacondoodles, International Bacon Day

Bacon Day gave us a great excuse to try and share some of the recipes we’ve talked about on this site. The first, which I believe may be entirely original to Royal Bacon Society, was the Bacondoodle. It began with this basic Snickerdoodle recipe, but in place of the butter I used bacon grease. I also took about 5 slices of cooked bacon and ground them up in my mini-processor and added that to the batter. I also cooked a batch of regular Snickerdoodles for comparison.

I was really excited about this new recipe, and was a little let down by the results. First of all, the Bacondoodle took a little longer to cook than the Snickerdoodles and didn’t flatten out as much. That was no big deal, but then I tasted one while it was still warm and was disappointed by the lack of bacon flavor. I mean, it was there, but very subtle. If you didn’t know you were eating a Bacondoodle, you wouldn’t notice it. On the bright side, our friends said it was more moist than the Snickerdoodle, and a couple people thought it perfectly complemented the Bacon Bourbon. So all in all, a success.

My favorite recipe of the day was the Bacon-Wrapped Jalapeno Popper. So delicious and relatively easy to make, despite the hours of burning under my fingernails. (I recommend gloves when seeding the jalapenos.) I loved these babies so much that after several glasses of wine I promised to make them every single time any of the guests came to my house for dinner for the rest of their lives. I’m sure that won’t come back to bite me in the butt.

Finally, we had some simple bacon-wrapped asparagus. I blanched the asparagus for one-minute in boiling water, then wrapped each 5 spears in a half slice of bacon and baked at 350 for about 30 minutes. I really should have pre-cooked the bacon about half way so that the asparagus could have spent less time in the oven. Their little heads got a bit over-cooked, but it wasn’t the end of the world.

Even Kindergartners agree: Bacon is worth celebrating!

September 1, 2008 by Marianne

September 1, 2008 • Filed Under: Bacon Reviews, International Bacon Day , Bacon Freak, Bacon Grease, Bacon Reviews, International Bacon Day

Okay, so it was our first Bacon Day ever. That doesn’t make it any less spectacular. The Royal Bacon Society hosted a backyard party that will take me a good week to fully cover. It was a ton of fun and ridiculously delicious. We prepared seven pounds of bacon in various forms and recipes, and I’m here to tell you…there was no bacon left at the end of the day.

The centerpiece of the event was a bacon and wine tasting. We offered three wines and four bacons, asking our guests to try each bacon with each wine and rate the pairings from 1 to 5. Wines included a local Zinfandel blend, a Petite Sirah, and a Pinot Grigio. To begin with, the two reds were a toss up in terms of guest ratings. They both went well with bacon, but I imagine a nice bold Syrah would probably have beaten them both. The Pinot Grigio was the least pairable, but that was no surprise. Even a buttery Chardonnay probably couldn’t have held up to the strength and smokiness of any decent bacon. It was overwhelmingly confirmed: bacon is a red wine meat.

We had a delicious array of bacons. First was Daily’s Hardwood Smoked Peppered Bacon. This was a thick-sliced bacon with plenty of course-ground pepper and about a 50% ratio of fat to lean. The texture was somewhat typical, and I didn’t notice anything overwhelming about the smoke. But it was a great bacon and consistently got the highest ratings in terms of pairing, particularly with the Zin blend.

Next was Trader Joe’s Uncured Apple Smoked Bacon (couldn’t find a link.) Again, a thick cut bacon with a pretty even blend of meat and fat. The bacon was absolutely delicious, and the fat had a much softer consistency than traditional cured bacons, which I found delightful. This may become my new every day breakfast meat. In terms of pairing, it ranked second of the four.

Third we had Farmer John’s Old-Fashioned Maple Bacon, which was a pleasant surprise. You could truly taste the maple syrup with each bite. I’m not sure I would want a BLT with this one, but it was great to eat on its own. This product was standard cut with average fat content. Although it tied for third in pairings with our last bacon, it was the only one that could even approach a decent flavor with the Pinot Grigio.

Finally, we had a late entry with Rocco’s Sun-Dried Tomato Bacon. This is one of BaconFreak.com’s Bacon of the Month Club offerings, generously contributed for the event. (Thanks, Rocco!) This bacon is standard cut with a high fat content, which made it a bit softer than the other bacons (similar to Trader Joe’s). It tied for third in terms of pairing, but I think this was the big favorite of the day for texture and sheer deliciousness of bacon. Every time I turned around someone was asking me what it was and where I got it. I’m anxious to try Rocco’s other flavors over the coming month.

I have to say this party was just a blast. I’ll fill you in throughout the week about other recipes we tried, more product ratings, and the most recent verdict on the Bacon Bourbon. I have to give MAJOR THANKS to Naseem and Cameron for handling all of the set-up and cooking all the bacon for the tasting! This party would not have been possible without you two rock stars. And thanks to everyone who came out and partied with us and ate no less than 5 slices of bacon each. I hope your arteries will forgive us and that we’ll see you next year…the countdown to Bacon Day 2009 has already begun!

More than 20 ounces of grease was produced on Bacon Day 2008