Archive for the 'Bacon' Category

Bacon Fashion Trends: Neckties and Dresses

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by
Jason Mosley
on July 2, 2009
in Bacon
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tie-dress-bacon

A few new bacon fashion trends are popping up on my radar, Bacon Neckties and Bacon Dresses. Bacon inspired clothing is something I feel I am an expert on since I invented the Bacon pants. That being said, I would like to share my two cents on these new bacon trends.

Bacon Necktie: I rarely wear ties but the bacon tie might change that. I like the fact that it looks like real cooked bacon. My only complaint is that the tie is not grease stain resistant. Why have bacon ties if you can’t use them to whip the grease off your face?

Bacon Dress: I like the idea of the bacon dress but this particular one took it too far. The women that made it used real bacon for the construction. True bacon lovers know you should NEVER waste glorious bacon. Bacon should be eaten not worn. Other then that, I do like the idea, it just needs to have a more bacon friendly construction method.

It nice to see bacon making an impression on the fashion world. I wonder how long it will be till we see bacon clothing on the red carpet. Sadly, most Hollywood stars are brained washed by the cult that starts with P and ends in A, so it might take some time. Who do you think will be the first star to embrace bacon (Food Network people do night count)?

The Sweet Bacon Cheesecake and/or Cupcake

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Jason Mosley
on June 30, 2009
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baconcheesecake

I recently got an email from Julia, a long time bacon lover and reader of this blog. She wanted me to share her recipe for Sweet Bacon Cheesecake. This one is different than the Maple Bacon and Pumpkin Cheesecake I posted before from Lance. I like the fact that Julia adapted her recipe for cupcakes. You can see a photo montage of her creation on YouTube.

Sweet Bacon Cheesecake and/or Cupcake
Baking time: Cheesecake 1 hour 35 minutes (plus standing time) Cupcakes 35 minutes (check with a wooden pick in the center)

Crust:

  • 1.5 cups graham cracker crumbs
  • 2 tablespoons sugar
  • 1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted

Filling:

  • 4 packages (8 oz each) cream cheese or Neufchatel, softened
  • 1 1/3 cup brown sugar
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1/2 cup sour cream
  • 1.5 teaspoons vanilla
  • Bacon!!

Topping:

  • 1 egg white
  • 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
  • 1/2 cup sour cream

For the Bacon:
Your favorite sweet bacon, perhaps hickory? I usually use a standard package, fry it up, and when it’s still all nice and sweaty I crumble brown sugar over. If you’re feeling adventurous, you could also try any sweet syrup, maple, or sweet liquor would be good too. Just add that sweetness so it meshes with the cheesecake.

Crust:

  1. In a medium bowl, combine graham cracker crumbs and sugar. Add the melted butter; stir to combine (or you can do all of this in a food processor).
  2. Press crumb mixture into a 10″ spring form pan (for cupcakes line cupcake pan with liner cups and press about 1-2 tablespoons of crust mix into the bottom). Use a smooth glass to press crumbs, and chill 30 minutes (or about 15 in the freezer).

Baking:

  1. Preheat oven to 325 F. In a large bowl at medium speed, beat cream cheese for 2 minutes. Add sugar.
  2. On low speed mix in eggs 1 at a time, blending well after each.
  3. Add sour cream and vanilla until just blended. Arrange bacon either inside, or you can even attempt to line the sides of the pan with bacon. Pour batter into crust. (For cupcakes I like to put one large bacon piece in the center for that porky goodness!)
  4. Bake for 1 hour. (For the cupcakes it takes significantly less time. I apologize for not having the exact time. I would check at 10 minutes, then every 5 or so after. This recipe will make at least 2 muffin tin-full. Check with a wooden skewer and the tops should get slightly golden)
  5. Meanwhile, beat egg white until frothy, add sugar and beat until soft peaks form. Fold into sour cream until blended. Spread on top of cake after 1 hour (and when the cupcakes are mostly done). Return to oven; bake until set (about 20 minutes for the cake, 10 minutes for the cupcakes). Turn off oven and let sit with the door ajar for 30 minutes.

Cool on a wire rack. Enjoy!

Chicken Roulade Stuffed with Smoked Bacon

Published
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Jason Mosley
on June 23, 2009
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chickbacon

Last week Aaron McCargo Jr. showed us how to make Bacon Burger style Hot Dogs. Well this time he is going to show is how to make Chicken Roulade Stuffed with Smoked Bacon, Spinach & Gouda. The great thing about Aaron’s recipes is how simple they are to make. Well that and the fact that they all use bacon.

The bacon they want you to use in this recipe is Wright Brand Hickory Smoked Bacon. We plan to review that this week, so you might want to wait before you buy. If it’s anything like the Applewood it should be pretty good.

Chicken Roulade Stuffed with Smoked Bacon, Spinach & Gouda
Recipe serves 4


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Review of What the English Call Bacon

Published
by
Sean Brett
on June 18, 2009
in Bacon
. 6 Comments

englishbacon

Last week I traveled to England for my brother’s wedding. I had never been there before and was not sure what to expect. I knew they drive on the left side of the road, call police Bobbies, and eat beans for breakfast, but I didn’t know the answer to the most important question of them all. What is English bacon like?

When I checked out the local cafés and pubs I found something that you never seem to find in the U.S. There was bacon everywhere: bacon and eggs sandwiches, BLTs, bacon baguettes, bacon flavored crisps, and bacon and toast. My mouth was watering just looking at the menus.

I went to a café for my first taste of English bacon. I got the classic English breakfast that consisted of: 2 eggs, 2 sausages, 2 strips of bacon, beans, black pudding, toast, and a cup of tea. The waiter set it down in front of me and my heart sank. There next to my eggs were two large strips of what can only be described as ham. That’s right, it was none other than the dreaded back bacon.

I couldn’t believe it. I asked some of the locals about this and they told me that back bacon was “proper bacon.” To which I said “there is nothing proper about this.” It was like I was in my own private hell. So I went on a quest to find pork belly.

I went to a bunch of different places and with each order my hatred for the England grew. But the thing that pushed me over the edge was when I ordered a BLT. It came with lettuce, tomato, and two large slices of back bacon. When I started to force it down, I realized it was missing one key ingredient, mayonnaise.

I walked up to the counter and asked for some and was told that they didn’t have any. All they had was ketchup and brown sauce (a blown liquid that tastes like a sweet A1 sauce that the Brits seem to put on everything).

As I think back to history class and the reasons for the American Revolution, (oppression, and taxation without representation) and can’t help but think I was lied to. The real reason the states wanted to break free from British rule was pork bellies and mayo. No longer did the colonies want to eat mayo-less back bacon sandwiches. As I did more research into the subject I found that the original plan for the Boston tea party was to throw pigs overboard to show their outrage. But it was decided that the pigs never did anything to harm them and it would have been a waste of precious pork belly. So they decided that since only Brits, women, and girly men drank tea (real men drink coffee) they would use it to get their point across and the rest is history.

I did come across some real bacon over there but it was somewhat disappointing. It was a single chewy not fully cooked strip wrapped around some green beans.

Other than the lack of real bacon the trip was great and if I ever go back I’ll be sure to hide some Hickory Smoked in my carry-on.

By Sean Brett

Bacon is an Innovative Ice Cream Flavor

Published
by
Jason Mosley
on June 16, 2009
in Bacon
. 4 Comments

baconicecream

Before I share this link with you I just want to say, I usually don’t read Women’s Day Magazine. I was recently sent a link to a story they did on 10 Innovative Ice Cream Flavors. Guess what was on that list, Candied Bacon Ice Cream!

Now here is the interesting part, the photo that Women’s Day is using is not of Candied Bacon Ice Cream. It is in fact a photo of Bacon Corn Dog Ice Cream, here is the proof. Also, further proving Women’s Day has no idea what it’s doing when it comes to bacon, the bacon in the photo they used is not even candied.

If you want to see what real Candied Bacon Ice Cream looks like check out David Lebovitz’s blog. He posted a great recipe and fun commentary about how he made it.

At this year’s Blue Ribbon Bacon Festival I tried bacon ice cream and it was amazing. The bacon added something savory to the ice cream, kind of like peanuts or salted pretzels. I also had candid bacon as a topping on ice cream, which has a totally different flavor and texture.

If you had bacon ice cream before, let us know what you thought about it. I know everyone at the Blue Ribbon Bacon Festival has, so I expect a lot of comments.

Bacon-Diesel Creates Better Smelling Exhaust

Published
by
Sean Brett
on June 9, 2009
in Bacon
. 1 Comment

baconcar

Once again it has been proven that bacon can do anything. The company Bio-Blend Fuels has started to use bacon grease to run cars.

It’s a process of blending biodiesel and regular diesel together to give you a cleaner cheaper fuel. Most biodiesel is made from things like corn or sugarcane but these guys use bacon. The grease that falls off precooked bacon is collected and processed turning it into fuel.

It always great to find new ways to use bacon, I just find a few flaws with this system. The grease used comes from precooked bacon. That means that to make this a successful alternative to gas everybody has to eat more bacon. That’s a concept that I could get behind if it wasn’t precooked. We all know that precooked bacon is ok for a quick fix but it is not the bacon of choice when it comes to most bacon lovers.

It also isn’t as cheap as one would think. To make it work it must be blended with regular diesel and that drives the price back up. A 50-50 blend costs $2.09 per gallon and regular diesel costs about 10 to 20 cents more. (Depending on where you live.) Is saving 10 cents a gallon really worth going through all the trouble of getting a diesel engine put in your car and driving around actually trying to find one of these Bio-Blend stations? I don’t think so.

Some might say that it doesn’t matter that how much money it saves because it saves the planet. But I don’t buy into that whole global warming thing, maybe that’s because I actually paid attention in third grade science class.

The only reason I could find for using this fuel is that when it burns in your engine it makes the entire car smell like bacon. That might make it all worth it.

By Sean Brett

Top 10 List of Bacon in Hollywood

Published
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Jason Mosley
on June 5, 2009
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baconwood

Adam Wimsatt emailed me to tell me about his post over at Reelz Channel about Bacon Movie Moments. I liked the fact that he stated in the beginning of his post, that there will be no Kevin Bacon movies on the list. I feel that would have been a overly used bad joke.

I am going to list the movies for you, but you will have to check out Adams post to get the full story. He took a lot of time finding clips and transcribing dialog.

  1. Tie Between Bacon Grabbers (1929) and Canadian Bacon (1987)
  2. Giant (1956)
  3. Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
  4. Kronk’s New Groove (2005)
  5. Signs (2002)
  6. Wayne’s World (1992)
  7. Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001)
  8. Better Off Dead (1985) - This one is my favorite, I hope I never see bacon cooked like that!
  9. So I Married an Axe Murderer (1993)
  10. Lion King

Again, be sure to check out the full post to get all the great bacon insight. If you know any other movie mentions of bacon feel free to share via a comment.

Aaron McCargo Jr’s Bacon Burger-Style Hot Dog

Published
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Jason Mosley
on June 4, 2009
in Bacon
. 2 Comments

bacondog

On Bacon Live I played a video showing you how to make the Bacon Burger-Style Hot Dog. Just in case you wanted to try and make this yourself, here is the video and recipe again. This part of a campaign to promote Wright’s Brand Bacon, but I am sure you can use any brand of bacon you like.

We will be reviewing Wright’s Bacon in the next few weeks on Bacon Live. It looks like its going to be good from the video, but we will have to wait and see.

Bacon Burger-Style Hot Dog: Recipe serves 4

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Wendy’s Bacon Morning Melt Panini: Bacon Fail

Published
by
Sean Brett
on June 2, 2009
in Bacon
. 11 Comments

baconfail

I heard a commercial on the radio yesterday for the fast food chain Wendy’s. The radio ad went on to say that many fast food bacon is subpar, (Something that we have been saying for years). But that Wendy’s finally had the solution. Wendy’s is now claiming that their new Apple wood Smocked bacon is “crispy, twice as thick as before,” and that this is “the way bacon ought to be.”

The new bacon is available on their breakfast menu in the bacon egg and cheese biscuit and the Bacon Morning Melt Panini. Now I’m that guy that likes fast food breakfast but can never seem to get up before 10:30am, but today I made a sure my alarm was set for 6 am so I would have plenty of time.

I rolled up to the drive thru at about 7 and ordered the number 2. It came with the Bacon Morning Melt Panini (BMMP) a side of tots and a drink choice (I chose a vanilla iced coffee). The bill was a little over 5 bucks; I paid, got my food and was off to work.

During the couple minute commute all I could think about was crispy thick apple wood bacon. I wanted it so bad, I think I was driving at least 80MPH. A small part of my mind was saying “calm down, you’ve been tricked by fast food bacon claims before,” but I pushed that thought out of my head and started to drive even faster.

I ran into work BMMP in hand. When I got to my desk I opened the bag like a kid on Christmas. As I pulled the BMMP out one thing I noticed was the smell or the lack there of. I could smell the cheese, the egg, and even the vanilla from my coffee but not the bacon; this was not a good sign.

I took the BMMP out of its wrapper and could not see any bacon sticking out but I still had high hopes. I slowly lifted the bread and to my horror couldn’t see any bacon. All I saw was yellow egg. Then I realized the sandwich was upside down. I flipped it over and slowly lifted that slice of bread. Under it was a slice of tomato cheese and three slices of bacon. The bacon was longer than most fast food bacon but definitely not thicker. As for the claim of being crispy, that was a bald faced lie. Not one bit of the bacon had any crisp on it. It was all limp and chewy.

I ate one of the slices to see if I could taste the apple wood but unfortunately it wasn’t really there. There was a very faint flavor of it, and tasted like the flavor was added later not smoked into the meat.

Once again Wendy’s has disappointed me with bold claims and poor execution. It’s true that this bacon is a step up from the bacon used on the Baconator, but I still would not call this good bacon. So unfortunately I must continue the boycott of Wendy’s bacon products.

On a side note, I must also start a boycott on Wendy’s iced coffee. My vanilla iced coffee had a strange after taste that made me gag. The best way I can describe the taste is kind of like a rotten burnt vanilla, Wendy’s is starting to become by far the worst fast food chain in the game.

By Sean Brett

Bacon is only Funny when it Looks Real

Published
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Jason Mosley
on May 28, 2009
in Bacon
. 0 Comments

If your a bacon lover chances are you know about Archie McPhee’s, the store known around the world for there novelty bacon gifts. Turns out McPhee has an employe working for them that knows when bacon is funny. His name is Nai and he has been working with them for almost 20 years. Check out the video bellow to learn when bacon is funny.

I love the dry humor in this video, I would watch a whole TV show with these guys. Also, even though Nai doesn’t think bacon is funny when it’s drawn, I think he is my new favorite Archie McPhee employe.