Happy International Bacon Day!
To celebrate this sizzling "holiday" (not sure who designates these special dates, but there now seems to be an edible occasion on nearly every day of the year, right?), I decided to cook something out of one the books that easily greased its way onto my list of Top 10 summer reads.
It's Zingerman's Guide to Better Bacon by Ari Weinzweig, a prolific author and fellow food enthusiast I met through the Southern Foodways Alliance. Ari launched Zingerman's in 1982 with his partner, Paul Saginaw and it has since blossomed into a wildly successful business that includes a Bakehouse, Roadhouse, Creamery and Coffee Company in Ann Arbor, Michigan and a mail order company with an exhaustive catalog of delicious items.
I've been devouring this tasty read since I first cracked open the cover a couple of weeks ago. It's part history and lore, part cookbook and part porky profiles of some of the finest bacon purveyors in the land including swine superstar Allan Benton. (Though, I was a little bummed there was no mention of the Benton bacon Ari and I ate during a memorable lunch a few years ago at Momofuku Noodle Bar in New York, a meal shared with Calvin Trillin, Gael Greene and Randy Fertel, whose mother launched Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. Maybe he's saving that (curly) tale for the major motion picture!)
My salivary glands kicked into high gear - like Pavlov's mutt - while perusing the recipes in this guide. (Which is cleverly subtitled "Stories of Pork Bellies, Hush Puppies, Rock 'n' Roll Music and Bacon Fat Mayonnaise".) There are Cheddar Bacon Scones, Apple Bacon Crisp, Shrimp and Grits (which I'm predicting is going to be the hottest dish of 2009) and Spaghetti alla Carbonara. Continuing the spin around the gastronomic globe, there's also recipes for Irish Bacon and Cabbage, South Carolina Red Rice as well as Dutch Bacon and Gouda Potato Salad. Mmmmm.
I wanted to tackle something super simple for a recent dinner following a jam-packed day, so I picked up a jar of extra small raw oysters, wrapped each one in a half a piece of bacon and popped them under the broiler. That's right, the classic Angels on Horseback. You don't even really need a recipe.
I gave my Angels a Rockefeller finish, perching them on a bed of sauteed spinach. I loved the contrasting textures: the creaminess of the shellfish complemented by the crisp salty note of the bacon. The greens gave it a little extra character. You can turn those Angels into Devils by swapping out the oysters for prunes. Good heavens, they're both darned delicious.
What about you? Are you a bacon fan? What's your favorite dish to show off one of the hottest ingredients in cooking these days?
-- Leslie Kelly
Steve Skubinna on September 07, 2009 at 07:23 PM
Last time home on leave I made a braised red cabbage, in an attempt to recreate the dishes I enjoyed so much while visiting the Czech Republic. Not too exotic a dish, but lately it's been on my mind a LOT lately. Next time on leave, going to start chopping the bacon and onions and slicing the cabbage again!
And if I'm trying to go Czech again, I might try doing those bacon dumplings too.
disques durs on September 11, 2009 at 02:24 AM
dang - that's so brilliant I wish I'd thought of it -- but I did my best to raise Bacon Awareness yesterday -- and ate bacon, of course!
antennenkabel on September 18, 2009 at 11:03 PM
International bacon day? Never heard of that, sorry. But after reading the article on bacon it seems to me that now is the time to go fry up that pound of bacon in the fridge so that the wife and i can have a nice mid-morning brunch!