The room filled with smoke, alarms began to sound, and panic set in amongst the other members of the household. As my mother and grandfather sat in the living room, they yelled to alert me that my cooking was visibly making its way through the doorway of the kitchen and making it difficult to see the television. I remained the diligent chef, fanning my way through the cloud of smoke toward my attempt at bacon-wrapped bliss — bacon wrapped filet mignon.

The day started well. I made my first trip to a Wal-Mart Supercenter — you know, the mega department plus grocery stores that are like Disneyland for hardcore consumers. In the beef section were two phrases that always make this baconographer smile: “bacon wrapped” and “on sale”. For only $4.18 I was about to bring home two circular cuts of filet mignon, each wrapped in thick sliced bacon. How could I resist?

I soon realized, however, that there were some limitations to my temporary cooking environment. You see, I was visiting my grandparents who have an electric oven (I’m used to gas) and a very sparse selection of pots & pans. The only oil in the house was canola (I ususally use EVOO – thanks Rachael Ray) but I decided to soldier on…

Into the pan they go. When they start cooking, everyone knows. The combination of the poorly oiled pan, the electric burner being turned up too high, and my general incompetence caused the aforementioned smokey mess. Once the meat looked slightly overdone on the outside, I cut into the steaks. Completely raw. Doh!

So, into the oven the filets were placed. Of course, I couldn’t find any appropriate baking dishes. Since the rest of the family was busy being overcome with smoke, I was on my own. I improvised. I reached for a bread pan and set the oven to “broil”.

About five minutes later and with some creative plate arrangement, we ended up with the sexy dish you see above. The general reaction of the family was “wow!” — everyone loved the taste of the meal and devoured every last bite. Crisis averted!

Served with some buttered carrots and sauteed peppers, onions, and mushrooms, this meal gets a hard-earned Smaste™ rating of 39.581. Once we got the smoke out of the house of course…

–Corey James

Master chef Amanda Clarke wrote an article over at Serious Eats all about her experiments with bacon-oatmeal cookie sandwiches.

Amanda seems to be quite the chef – not just in the way she created someting new, unique and seemingly tasty, but also in the way that she so passionately went through the process of discovery. If you read her whole article you’ll see that she really fought to make the perfect new bacon treat.

Way to go, Amanda!

Below is her picture of the cookie sandwiches as well as the recipe that she posted on Serious Eats.

Bacon-Oatmeal Cookies – By Amanda Clarke
- makes 25-30 sandwiches, 4-5 dozen cookies -

If you plan on sandwiching the cookies together, I encourage you to experiment with different, subtly flavored fillings. At the restaurant, I use an Italian-meringue version (slightly lighter and less sweet but significantly more complicated and time-consuming to make) of this brown-butter frosting.

Ingredients
1 cup, plus 2 tablespoons bacon fat, room temperature* (224 grams)
1 1/2 cups sugar (300 grams)
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 1/2 teaspoons molasses (30 grams)
4 1/2 teaspoons honey (30 grams)
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (180 grams)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups quick oats** (240 grams)
1 1/2 cups bacon bits* (~85 grams)
1 cup raisins, chocolate chips or walnut pieces – optional

Procedure
1. Preheat oven to 325°F. With a hand held or stand mixer, cream fat with sugar until creamy and light. (N.B.:You will not be able to achieve the same level of fluffiness in this step with bacon fat as you would with a recipe using butter or shortening. Trying to do so will result in frustration and, possibly, a greasy, over-worked-e.g. melted-mess.)

2. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla, molasses and honey, and beat to incorporate.

3. In a medium mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking soda and salt, and whisk to incorporate. Add this mixture to the butter mixture and beat to incorporate. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl, and beat briefly to insure that mixture is homogeneous.

4. Add the oats, bacon bits and raisins, chocolate chips or walnuts, if using. Mix until well distributed.

5. Drop dough by the heaping tablespoonful onto parchment- or Silpat-lined baking trays, leaving 1 1/2 or 2 inches between cookies. Bake for 10-12 minutes, rotating tray once during baking. Cool cookies completely before filling.

* It takes about a pound of bacon, give or take, to acquire the prescribed quantities of fat and bits. Cut the bacon into small pieces and cook over low heat, allowing plenty of time for the fat to render out before the pieces color too much. Pour bacon into a fine mesh sieve set over a heat-proof bowl. Once the fat has drained into the bowl, set aside and allow to cool to room temperature. Turn bacon bits out onto paper towels. Bits and fat can be stored in the refrigerator for up to a week before use, just be sure to bring the fat to room temperature before making the cookie dough.

** You can use the same quantity of old-fashioned oats in this recipe, but I’ve found that the cookies have a little more structure, a slightly nicer texture and bake into more attractive-less lumpy and irregular-circles with the quick oats.

So there it is, Amanda’s Clarke’s own bacon-oatmeal cookie sandwich recipe. Let us know if you try it yourself!

– Mike

Oh, Turbaconducken, we knew you had legs.

When BT writer Corey James created the Turbaconducken last Thanksgiving he had a feeling that it was going to  strike a chord, but he never anticipated the high value that it would eventually obtain.

Michelle Malkin of TownHall.com recently wrote a story about the much ballyhooed economic stimulus bill that has been floating around congress for the past month or so. Her article discusses the many “pork-filled” earmarks that are attached to the bill and have been the focus of much debate in our government, on the news and online.

Her article, titled “The ‘Tiny’ Trillion-Dollar Turbaconducken You Don’t Care About” contains the following quote:

“If the stimulus plan were a Thanksgiving dinner entree, it would be a Turbaconducken — the heart attack-inducing dish of roasted chicken stuffed inside a duck stuffed inside a turkey, all wrapped in endless slabs of bacon.”

Yes, Friends, the glorious Turbaconducken now has a trillion dollar price tag. If you were planning to have one of your own next Thanksgiving, you’d better start saving now. 

– Mr. B

We have written some

of our own bacon haikus

in past articles.

Now a fan has shared

a link to a haiku site

that’s all about it.

Here is a sample

that is one of our fav’rite

that they have written.

*****

In a perfect world

To get clean you simply take

A bacon shower.

             – BaconHaikus.wordpress.com

*****

– Mike

Photo credit

Check out this cute little video. (Well, to my English-speaking ears it’s cute, to a Japanese audience it’s probably just an ad for AOL Food.)

This is a Japanese interpretation of some of the many things that bacon is delicious with.

What are some of your favorite things to pair with bacon?

-- Mike

Video submitted by Leo V.

In case we don’t say it enough, we love our Readers. That means YOU, Reader! We love you. You are the second most important reason we are here (the first being bacon, of course!). When you read our site, buy our pillows and order our shirts, it makes us happy, and makes us enough money to keep this thing going.

When you send us emails, it gives us things to write about! One of you sent this email a while back, and I thought it was a wonderful message about the powerful impact of bacon:

“I used to work at the local supermarket in the meat department and anytime bacon went on sale (usually around $2.49-2.99/pack, regularly $4.99-5.99/pack) people went berserk. You couldn’t keep it on the shelves and towards the end of the sale if we ran out of stock there would be hell. When chicken or beef was on sale and ran out it was “ok, we’ll come back next week”. When the bacon ran out we would get attacked, people just flipped when they couldn’t get their bacon. I never got over this obsession and the amount of abuse I took because of bacon.” – Anonymous Fan of Bacon

For so many delicious and Smastey™ reasons, bacon holds a special place in many bellies around the world. This story is a clear reminder that a ton of people love bacon, and that it can be expensive, so you’d better stock up when it goes on sale.

But please remember to be nice to your local butchers.

– Mr. B

A couple of weeks ago we interviewed Mike Nelson, who has embarked on the self-proclaimed “Bacon Stupidity Month”. He’s in the home stretch now, so it seems like a good time to check in and see how he’s coming along. 

Mike has made several good posts about his month-of-bacon, but one in particular caught my attention. A few days ago Mike not only continued his jopurney, but elevated the presentation of meal-bacon in the process. The picture above, which we borrowed from his blog, shows a delicate teepee of bacon on a dinner plate. 

Mike could have simply microwaved bacon on paper plates all month long, but he instead chose to make the most of a seemingly limited situation. He is reminding all of us that bacon comes in many forms and that bacon creativity is endless.

– Mike

Family is one of those things in life you just can’t take for granted. No matter what the world throws at us, a solid family foundation can get you through the worst of times and make the good times seem all the better.

This Valentine’s Day, Bacon Today reader Mark M. learned just how good family can be. He was given the most wonderful gift from his parents. In fact, he was given two: bacon and a bacon quiché which accoring to Mark “was still warm when i got home from work on friday afternoon.” What a wonderful mother and father. Here is son Mark’s reaction to his fabulous and loving gifts:

bacon for v-day! from mark mcintyre on Vimeo.

I Love Bacon Shirt only $10.99

Sweet indeed. In Mark’s own words “bacon r00lz!”

Cover photo credit: http://flickr.com/photos/tandemracer/833281323/

People always ask us why we have a daily news publication dedicated to bacon. Yes faithful readers, there are those folks among us that just don’t understand the importance of this glorious meat. We generally point them first to our Why Bacon page and if they still don’t get it then we try with all our might to resist the urge to slap them upside the head with a 1 lb. pack of applewood smoked.

With the growing popularity of Bacon Today we now have alternative options of informing the BT-unawares (other than resorting to pork-laden violence). We’ve got publicity! Here’s just a few of the mentions we’ve recieved this past week.

• We were interviewed for a story published in the Sunday, February 15 edition of the Toronto Star newspaper
• Our own creation and internet sensation “Turbaconducken” was featured on ABC TV in Australia on the game show Spicks & Specs
• Speaking of Turbaconducken, it appears that we’ve officially entered the hallowed halls of pop culture as conservative columnist and Fox News contributor Michelle Malkin used our little creation as a metaphor for the U.S. government’s economic stimulus package. In her article “The Tiny Trillion-Dollar Turbaconducken You Don’t Care About” she stated:
  “If the stimulus plan were a Thanksgiving dinner entree, it would be a Turbaconducken — the heart attack-inducing dish of roasted chicken stuffed inside a duck stuffed inside a turkey, all wrapped in endless slabs of bacon.”

The only thing that would have been cooler is if she wrote the article while wearing one of our Turbaconducken Tank Tops. Oh, and as of this writing there are over 40,000 references on Google to “trillion-dollar turbaconducken”. How cool is that?

Thanks to all the loyal readers of Bacon Today. Its you folks that make this all worth while. Well, you & bacon.

–Mr. B.

At first I thought it was simply a toaster. Well, to be honest I didn’t even think of it at all. Who really THINKS about toasters? I was sitting around the kitchen table at my grandma’s house when I glanced up and saw something that caught my eye.

Yes, this is a rather bland toaster on the kitchen counter. Normally I see the toaster from the angle in the photo above. A steep, downward pitch when placing a slice of bread into the unit and pulling down the spring-activated handle.

What I noticed from across the room while sitting at eye level to the toaster at the counter was the decorative vent slots to the right of the Proctor-Silex brand name. Could it be…why yes I think it might just be…BACON!

I have yet to try my hand at cooking bacon in the toaster. As a matter of fact, the thought of imminent grease fires will probably always prevent me from doing so. You’ve got to love Proctor-Sliex’s homage to the perfect meat though. I mean, they could have chosen any shape for those vent slots. They chose bacon.

P.S. we salute you!