Bacon. Bourbon. Yep. It’s bacon infused bourbon. C’mon, you have to know this isn’t a new concept. With all the new infused vodkas ranging from sweet tea, to whipped cream, to P.B. and J., and to Unicorn Barf; you have to know that bacon would sneak in there somewhere. After all, the world is a better place with bacon in it. Yes, there’s a Bacon Vodka. But did you know that you can make your very own delicious Bacon Bourbon? Of course you could make your own bacon infused vodka, but that takes infinitely longer than bacon bourbon (weeks). And you want to have a nice Bacon Old Fashioned this weekend!

Here’s how you get to making that sexy drink. A bacon with more smokiness creates a better and more sophisticated drink. It also amps up that bacony good flavor. Look for a Hickory Smoked Bacon. And make sure you’re hungry because you’re only going to be using the bacon fat to infuse your bourbon. You could always drink your cocktail with a plate of bacon. Or save the bacon for later. Do whatever you want; you’re your own person.

The process of infusing the bacon into the bourbon is called fat washing. Sounds gross but the result is absolutely delicious and delightfully intoxicating. To do it right, follow these steps:

Bacon Infused Bourbon
.33 cup of rendered bacon fat
3 cups of bourbon

Cook a pound of bacon and reserve the rendered fat. Add .33 cup of hot fat to a jar and fill with bourbon. Seal and allow to stand until it reaches room temperature. Place the jar in the freezer for 24 hours. The fat will solidify but the bourbon will remain in a liquid state. Open the jar and pour off the bourbon, straining through a coffee filter or cheesecloth to remove any loose fat particles.

Bottle it and slap on a cool label. Or get to the mixing:

Bacon Old Fashioned
2 oz bacon-infused bourbon
.25 oz Grade B Maple Syrup (A syrup darker in color and containing more of a caramel flavor)
2 dashes Angostura Bitters
Orange twist

In a cocktail shaker filled with ice, combine all the ingredients except for the orange twist. Shake, then strain into a tumbler glass filled with a couple of ice cubes. Garnish with the orange twist. Then enjoy bacony, boozey goodness. It’s the perfect man drink. Or even a sexy drink for an awesome lady.

Now, sit back and… Ahh. Enjoy.

As if there weren’t enough decadent bacon concoctions out there in the world… Actually, no there aren’t. There’s no such thing as “enough” when it comes to bacon. We feel that the world could use more bacon recipes. Therefore we created the Bacon Pretzel Rolos. Some of you may have heard of the Rolo Pretzel Turtles. Delicious little candy morsels with layers consisting of a pretzel, Rolo candy, and then topped with a nut.

Sound good? Sure. But we’ve got one better. Check it: A pretzel topped with a bacon piece, then topped with a Rolo candy. Bake a cookie pan full of these guys and you’ve got yourself gooey, chocolatey- caramel- bacon- pretzel- candy things that will take anyone into bacon-candy euphoria. We’ve aptly named them the Bacon Pretzel Rolos. We wanted to name them “Happiness” but thought that was a little too general. But that’s exactly what these candies will do for you. Give you mouth- happiness like no other. We realize that statement sounds a little… off but we don’t care. We have no shame when it comes to bacon.

What’s that you say? You want to fill your mouth with happiness too? Perfect. Here’s how:

Ingredients:
Rolo candies
Mini pretzels (for more bacony flavor, use Maple Bacon Pretzels)
A pound of delicious bacon
Cookie sheet or nonstick cookie pan

Directions:
Fry up that bacon until it’s only slightly cooked. Keep in mind that you’re going to be baking the bacon morsels in the oven afterward so you don’t want your bacon overcooked.
Chop the bacon up into pieces about the same size as the pretzels.
On a cookie pan/sheet line up the pretzels as if you would cookies, layer with a slice of bacon, then top with a Rolo candy.
Bake in the oven at 250 degrees for 10- 15 minutes. Keep an eye on your candies because you don’t want to burn them. There’s nothing worse than burnt candies… Well, we’re pretty sure there are worse things but we don’t want to think of them.

When your Bacon Rolo Pretzels are done, take them out and let them cool so they can harden. Once they’re done; serve, wrap, eat, whatever. But there you have awesome, delicious one-of-a-kind bacon candies!

You’ve probably heard of those sugar-coated brightly colored marshmallow birds of Easter joy. But have you heard of a way to make them even better? Add bacon! Seriously, add the bacon.
Of course you need to throw in some chocolate for extra delicious flavor (and so those bacon bits can stick to that little chicky butt).
It may sound a little overwhelming, but we assure you- the result is sweet, salty goodness.

Ingredients:
Peeps
Melting Chocolate
BACON!
Baking sheet or Baking pan
A pot of water
Bowl

What you need to do:
Fry, bake, or microwave the bacon. Doesn’t matter how you cook it- you can even cook it to your own preference. You like chewy? Go ahead. Crunchy, crispy, and blackened? Eww… but go ahead! When your bacon is all cooked and cooled, chop the bacon up into bits.
Boil the water in the pot, and then put the bowl of chocolates over the steam to melt the chocolate.
Once you have the chocolate melted, dunk your Peeps into the chocolate to cover the bottom and tail of the peep. You can actually cover as much of the Peep as you’d like if you’re a big chocolate fan.
Afterward put the bacon on the tail of the Peep then place the Peep on the Baking sheet to cool.
Repeat with as many Peeps as you’d like.

And there you have it! Bacon Chocolate Peeps! Have fun with the many different colors of Peeps and really make people notice your… Peeps!

Yeah, you read that correctly. Bacon soda float. If you’re sitting there, scratching your head, with a ridiculous befuddled expression painted across your face, think: “Root Beer Float”. But instead of Root Beer, you use Bacon Soda.
Ahhh.
Now do you understand? Good. If not, you should probably stick to picture books.

Bacon is the new badass food all over the internet. It’s in your email, invading your memes, clogging up your Facebook feed with photos of its glory, and transposing its allure into something almost enigmatic. Some could argue that bacon is the hipster of the food world. Others would say it’s more like a pirate. Plundering food booty for its pleasure! Arr! Ok, that last one we made up. We just wanted to use the word “booty” and thought that a bacon strip wearing an eye patch would look cool.

Anyway, you get it. Bacon is awesome.

So check it! This recipe is so easy, a dog with thumbs could make one!

Ingredients:
Bacon Soda
Ice Cream (We used Ben and Jerry’s Cinnamon Buns Ice Cream and it was the most delicious float we’ve ever tasted. You could try other ice cream flavors but this one paired the best with the bacon soda. If you want to start simple, go with vanilla.)

Directions:
Really? You really need directions for this part? Fine, we’ll indulge your dependency.
Put a couple scoops of ice cream in a cup. Fill with soda. Start slowly. You may have to move the ice cream around a bit with your straw to ensure that the soda gets to the bottom. Garnish with a bacon strip if you want.

Then suck down the sweet, sweet glory of bacon in a glass. You’re welcome.

The foodie trend has been all about comfort food. Blame it on the economy… Blame it on the previous decade’s pop culture appeal in Veganism. Whatever the reason; the infiltration of food trucks and immersion of comfort food TV shows has turned bacon into one major player in the food game. We don’t question why… it’s like looking a gift horse in the mouth.

Bacon has been paired up with more foods than you can think of. And sweets seem to offer just the right complimentary flavor to bacon’s unmistakable saltiness. The idea of pairing something salty and sweet isn’t exactly new, but adding bacon into the mix just makes the marriage new again and ultimately clever. There’s nothing like feeling hip and smart while you’re eating, right? And bacon has an attitude that just screams “Awesome”. Don’t deny it. You know it does.

Now let’s move onto the good stuff: The Bacon Milkshake. Yeah, you’ve probably heard of it. Jack in the Box decided to make their own and sell it to the quick and thrifty bacon loving masses. So of course we had to try it.

It was like Umbrella Corp had spliced Bacon’s DNA with the T-virus and infused it into Jack’s vanilla milkshake. The result was not on the Alice level, but more of her nefarious counterpart. Sorry, nerd reference there. Basically if you like a steroid induced, artificial bacon flavor, mixed with a thick vanilla shake, then this bad boy is for you. Being the bacon zealots we are this was not acceptable. We had to create our own.

We did.

And it was good.

         

You want to know how? Oh, we’ll tell you how! And you better rush to your kitchen and do it!

Ingredients:
(For 4 servings)

- Get a pound of bacon!
- ½ Cup of Whole Milk (Skim or lowfat for the wussies. But, c’mon, it’s bacon! Your diet went out the window when you started reading this article.)
- 2 ½ tablespoons of Maple Syrup (the darker, the better for syrupy goodness)
- 1 teaspoon of salt
- 9 scoops of Vanilla Ice Cream (this you can vary on how creamy and Vanilla-y you want it)
- Whipped Cream (as an optional topping, but we strongly adhere to using it)

Create!

Fry or microwave that bacon. We don’t care how you cook it; you just need to get lots of that delicious bacon fat. You really won’t be using the bacon strips, but they’re fun to eat, aren’t they? Collect all the fat in a bowl/cup and set it aside. You want the fat cooled a little- still in liquid form but not piping hot. Do whatever you want with the bacon. Eat it, store it, use it as a mustache, create a likeness of Kevin Bacon with crumbled pieces, use them for swordplay… we don’t care. Just don’t throw it away. That’s blasphemy.

Put the milk, maple syrup, salt, and ice cream in the blender. Now gather 4 Tablespoons of the bacon fat and pour it into the mix. Blend it up! Pulse it on a lower setting. You will have to occasionally push down the mixture into the blades to get it fully blended. (Obviously when the blender is off, you dolt!) Continue the transition between blending and pushing down until it’s all blended up into an even, delicious mixture.

When it’s done, pour it into glasses and top with whipped cream if you so desire. Crumble up some bacon and garnish the whipped cream with the pieces. Get a straw… Pretty sure you know how to take it from there.

So if you haven’t started already, go make one! You’re welcome.

Bacon Freak is an online store you can go to for all your bacon loving needs. And they have the Bacon Brownie for you to order online! Think of it as a long distance pizza. No need to wish. Just “click, click” and you can have a bacon brownie right in your lustful hands.

If you’re the proactive type, you can always make your own. Here’s how! (Seriously, there are pictures.)

First you need bacon. Use as many strips as you would like. This recipe has 4 strips. You may as well cook all the bacon because even if you don’t use all the strips in your brownies, you’ll still want to snack on them while making this delicatessen.

Next, you need to get the brownie mix. Use your favorite. Be fancy and get the Turtle Brownie mix. This mix comes with a bag of caramel to pour on top of your mix. Delish!

Next up, eggs and vegetable oil.

Okay, time to get down to it.

1) Pre-heat your oven to 350°F.

2) Grease a 13”x9” baking pan. (8” and 9” square pans will also work just fine.)

3) Heat up a frying pan. Pre-cook some bacon for about 3 minutes per side. Not too much – you don’t want to totally fry it, you just want to get it a little past raw. Raw is bad for taste as well as for your intestinal tract. The bacon should just be starting to brown and might be a little crispy.

4) When the bacon is ready, set it aside on a plate lined with paper towels to help drain some of the grease.

5) Following the directions on the box, combine the brownie mix, vegetable oil, water and eggs.

6) When the batter is ready, pour slightly less than half of it into the pan.

7) Now add the bacon. You can go as big or as small as you would like. That’s the great thing about bacon – there’s no wrong amount unless you don’t have enough!

Now add the rest of the brownie batter on top of the bacon. Be sure to cover it all up.

9) A little tasty caramel to finish it off.

10) It’s ready for the oven, so take another look at the box and bake it for however long it says. Betty Crocker suggested 27 minutes, but these were done in just 22.

11) Let the brownies cool for a few minutes, then dig in! Yep, it’s good isn’t it?

Bacon Brownies are a definite must in the bacon and dessert world. You can’t call yourself a bacon lover until you’ve tasted these.

Life is good. Bacon is better.

]]> http://bacontoday.com/bacon-brownies/feed/ 68 http://bacontoday.com/bouquet-of-bacon-roses/ http://bacontoday.com/bouquet-of-bacon-roses/#comments Mon, 13 Feb 2012 12:00:20 +0000 Brianne http://bacontoday.com/?p=3333

On your next anniversary or any other special occasion, don’t get your sweetheart the traditional bouquet of red roses. Get them some bacon roses.

Things you will need. (Because there’s more to this than just bacon… Duh.)
- BACON – regular pack and thick cut if you want different sizes of roses. Otherwise, just use the same kinds of bacon- 2 packs
- Rose Stems (Find a bouquet of fake roses at Walmart, Joann’s, or any other craft store.)
- Mini Muffin Pan
- Broiler Pan
- Drill with bit (1/8″ bit, but any similar size will work)
- Glass Vase (If you want it to look nice.)
- Gravel or marbles (Or any other item of similar weight and size to put inside the vase… Again, this is only if you want it to look like a classy bouquet of bacon roses. Presentation is everything, buddy.)

Drill holes in the bottom of the muffin pan. This will allow the grease to drain when cooking the bacon.
Place the muffin pan on top of the broiler pan.

Preheat the oven to 375 Degrees Fahrenheit

Open the bacon and begin tightly rolling the roses, one piece at a time. Start with the widest end of the bacon, with the fat edge down. The different cuts of bacon will create different sizes of roses. Some will look more “bloomed” than others.

Place all of the bacon in the muffin pans pushing down slightly to “seat” them. The bottoms will flair out a bit.

Place in the oven and cook for 30-40 minutes. Check in on them occasionally. Sometimes you will have to lift the rose so the grease will drain out the pan.
While waiting for the buds to cook, you can start working on the stems.
Pull all of the roses off from the stems.
Pull the green backing off from the rose and then separate it into individual parts.
Discard the petals and center red piece. Reassemble the remaining green parts as shown.
Put the green piece back on the stem, but force it down so that roughly 1″ of the stem protrudes.
You can tape the stems together at this point, but this is optional.
Put the stems in your vase and fill with gravel or marbles to hold them in place.
When the bacon buds are done, remove from the oven and place on paper towel to cool.

You’ll now have a variety of rose buds to choose from. Pick your favorites and slide them onto the protruding stems. Arrange the roses to your liking and then present the aromatic bouquet to your favorite bacon fanatic!

Enjoy.

Step-by-step photos and instructions from:Instructables

For those of you who haven’t heard of this delicious gluttonous meal; you’ve obviously been hiding behind an extremely slow bandwidth. No, this burger is not made out of turtle meat. We did say that it’s a gluttonous meal, not an exotic one. The Bacon Turtle Burger is an amazing burger that combines hotdogs, beef, and bacon all in one. A combination of multiple meats for the over zealous carnivore. And this particular version even brings melted cheese into the mix. Have you heard of the Juicy Lucy? Yep, it’s just like that. But different. And by different, we mean wrapped-in-bacon and steal-your-heart different. Don’t know what we’re talking about? Look at the pictures, follow the recipe below, and be your own Gluttonous Meal Master. C’mon, it’s covered in bacon. ‘Nuff said.

Ingredients:
4 oz. lean beef
1 pack of Hot Dogs
1 package of Bacon (at least ten strips)
Cheddar cheese (or any cheese of your choice)
1 egg white
Spices (salt, pepper, garlic salt, Worchestire sauce)

Directions:
1. Start by weaving the bacon just like a basket. Cut some of the fat off the outside of the bacon if you need to in order to make it straight. Make it into a square. (5X5 strips of bacon usually work.)
2. Mix the ground meat, spices and egg white together in a bowl. (The egg whites are used to help hold things together.)
3. Make a thin, flat meat patty with part of the meat.
4. Place the meat on the center of the bacon weave.
5. Place some cheese slices on the center of the patty. Make sure there is a “crust” of burger meat around the cheese.
6. Place another thinly formed meat patty on top of the cheese and form it into one meat patty. (Form the edges of the meat together- causing the meat patty to be “filled” with the cheese.)
7. Fold the bacon weave over it.
8. Take out three hotdogs. Make 2 cuts on both ends of two of the hot dogs (acting as the “feet”.) Cut the two hot dogs directly in half. Now you have the feet.
9. With the other hot dog, cut it in half, and on one end, cut the hot dog into a point to act as the tail. The other end will be the head.
10. Make holes in the bacon weave, (one each for the head, tail, and four legs), poke hot dogs into the body- embedding them into the meat by about 1/2 and inch to 1 inch.
11. Use extra bacon to cover the gap and bring stray ends of bacon into the weave.
12. Use a spatula to get it onto the pan.
13. Put toothpicks (that have been soaking in water) into the body to secure the hot dogs and keep the bacon ends secure.
14. Cook the Bacon Turtle at 400 to 450 degrees (depending upon oven)
*Cooking time will vary so check the turtle to see how well done you want your burger to be. For less cooked, make sure it’s still juicy. If juices aren’t flowing, your turtle will be well done.

And what’s beautiful about this Turtle, (aside from the sexy bacon), is that you can make a regular burger as opposed to the cheeseburger. Skip the egg whites and just make a meat patty for the center of the Bacon Turtle Burger. After it’s cooked, throw cheese on top, or an egg, or peanut butter… We don’t care what you put on it, just do it. You only live once and this baby just might bring you closer to that final date, but who cares? Go ahead and walk on the wild side.

How and when bacon was created, we’re not exactly sure. We think that many years ago, upon searching for the Holy Grail, man found bacon instead. And with it, the knowledge to make more bacon. We know. It’s quite a miraculous thing; the human race hasn’t been the same since.

And now, in the 21st century, bacon is sweeping the nation with its salty, bacony goodness. It’s one of the biggest, baddest meats around. Coiling itself around other foods, creating a whole new edible beast; transforming dishes into something that is almost otherworldly in flavor, and laying the smack down on vegetables. Who knew asparagus could be so bold and… sexy? But have we really exhausted all of bacon’s resources? I really didn’t think so. Therefore, I wanted to take bacon to a greater, more adult level. I wanted to pair it with something boisterous and jovial. With the help of a few good friends, I went on a quest to combine two treats many of us Americans adore: Bacon and booze.

Booze is the quintessential ingredient of good old fashioned tom foolery and comical shenanigans. However, she can be quite the temperamental vixen and must be treated with the utmost care. Otherwise she’ll turn on you just when you think all is fun and copacetic. In order to avoid this drama, (and not to mention headache), you must pair her up with other ingredients in just the right way. However, I decided to throw caution to the wind and dance with the devilishly good pork candy. You throw in bacon, and things just get a little crazier. Like when someone decides to use a piece of frozen bacon as a ninja sword… Yes, this happened. No, we don’t have video… unfortunately.

So within my bacon dreaming and boozy scheming, I wanted to take on two bacon drinks: The Bloody Mary Sue-eee and the Hawaiian Luau. Since I didn’t have six weeks to create my own bacon infused vodka, I went on a liquor store hunt for it ready-made. Instead of looking online, I went the old fashioned way of driving from location to location searching for this alcoholic enigma. (I did say this was a quest, right?) After what seemed like a dozen locations, and many puzzled expressions, I finally had it within my possession. Ready to take on the beast, I needed a small group of fellow soldiers to help me in this battle.

After I had gathered a few eager guinea pigs, err… I mean, soldiers, we were ready for our bacon drink challenge. However, much to my chagrin, a few of my fellow comrades got cold feet and decided to play the game of, “Oops, we broke the bottle of bacon vodka”. Not cool, guys. Not cool. Way to back up your Captain, soldiers. Luckily, after they saw my Lieutenant’s wide-eyed incredulous expression, as well as my mounting anger, they laughed and admitted that the bottle was hiding in the freezer. Good thing too. We definitely didn’t need mutiny among us, let alone the fact that we were quite thirsty. Finally the bacon drink challenge was going down and we were eager to face the beast.

First up was the Hawaiian Luau:
1½ oz Bacon flavored vodka
3 oz Pineapple Juice
Splash (½ oz) Butterscotch Schnapps

Chill and serve in a hi-ball glass. Garnish with a pineapple wedge or other fruit. It can also be served as a martini or shot. I decided to go with the martini glass. We all agreed that this drink tasted just like you were at a Luau, eating succulent pork and juicy pineapple. We imagined ourselves surrounded by grass skirt and coconut top clad women dancing as the BBQ pit fire raged on. We could hear the drumbeat in the distance. It was an amazing combination; a genius creation of flavorful science. We rated this drink an eight out of ten points.

Second on the list was the Bloody Mary Sue-eee:
1 oz. Bacon flavored vodka
4 oz. Tomato Juice
1 oz. Bacon Hot Sauce (or more if you like it hot)
A couple dashes of Bacon Salt Peppered
A couple dashes of lemon juice
Garnish with a couple of strips (or more) of Coastal Caliente Jalapeno Bacon (cooked).

Grab a cocktail shaker and add ice. Combine ingredients into the shaker. Shake and pour into a glass. Add the bacon in place of a celery stick. You can add olives if you wish. We didn’t, we just wanted to get down to it! This baby was the ultimate crowd-pleaser. It was definitely the best Bloody Mary we ever had. We all mastered this one and gave it a ten out of ten. I’m not even sure I want a regular Bloody Mary anymore. Once you go with bacon, that’s all you’ll be makin’.

The Bloody Mary Sue-eee concluded our bacon drink challenge and we came out victorious. The beast had been conquered and we felt confident that we could do it again. However, the challenge wasn’t over yet… Our friend, Rev, from Burger Conquest, also decided to mix booze with bacon and created an edible beast of his own. Instead of Russia’s favorite toasting drink, he decided to use bourbon. With this magical meat and drink medley he created the Bourbon Soaked Bacon Beast- mini burger style. Talk about a seriously enticing challenger! His soldiers devoured this beast and were anxious for more. We recommend taking it on yourself.

Bourbon Soaked Bacon Beast Ingredients
3 TBSP Maker’s Mark Kentucky Straight Bourbon Handmade Whisky
1 pound ground Sirloin at least 20% fat
1 TBSP Brown Sugar
1/2 tsp Liquid Smoke
1/2 tsp Onion Powder
1 TBSP Crushed Garlic
2 Tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
Salt to taste
1 package of smoked Gouda Cheese
1 package of Bacon
Martin’s Mini-Burger or Hot Dog Potato Rolls
Rev’s full recipe of beastly flavor!

Honestly, we feel that the bacon and booze challenge may never be over. We encourage others to embark on this journey and to conquer their own beasts. Do you consider yourself a champion of bacon? Gather your own soldiers and create one epic battle. Bacon deserves nothing less. Bacon and Booze: Recipe for Champions. Seriously.

Bacon Jam Spinach Dip

Ingredients:
-Kosher salt
-1 10-ounce bags spinach, stems removed
-1 10-ounce bag of arugula
-1 tablespoon unsalted butter
-2 tablespoons minced onion
-1 clove garlic, minced
-2 teaspoons all-purpose flour
-1 1/4 cups whole milk
-1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
-1 1/4 cups grated Parmesan cheese
-1/4 cup sour cream, plus more for serving
-1/4 cup Skillet Bacon Spread
-1/2 cup shredded white sharp cheddar cheese
-1/2 cup frozen artichoke hearts, thawed, squeezed dry and finely chopped
-Tortilla chips and salsa, for serving

Directions:
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Stir in the spinach and arugula and cook until bright green, about 30 seconds. Drain and rinse under cold water; squeeze out the excess moisture, then finely chop.

Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion, garlic and 1/2 teaspoon salt and cook until the onion is soft, about 2 minutes. Add the flour and cook, stirring, until lightly toasted, about 1 minute. Whisk in the milk and cook, whisking constantly, until thickened, about 2 minute. Remove from the heat. Stir in the lemon juice, bacon jam, Parmesan and sour cream. Return the pot to low heat. Add the spinach, cheddar and artichokes and stir until the cheese melts and the dip is heated through, maybe 1 minute. Serve warm with tortilla chips, or a sliced baguette.

And enjoy! Who knew bacon and spinach could be so delicious together? Wait… we did.