Not too long ago, a reader came to us with the idea that we should write a bacon book. You know, a book about bacon. We tossed around a few ideas that all centered around bacon and books and how to combine them into a book about bacon but we haven’t nailed down a bacon book concept just yet.

Today we received an email from Boss Hog over at BaconFreak.com announcing that he’s released the first edition of his Bacon Cookbook. What better book about bacon could there be than a bacon book that helps you cook the meat candy?

According to the web site (with the oh-so-catchy URL of BaconCookbook.com) they’ve got recipes from some renowned chefs that will help you get your bacon fix for breakfast, lunch, dinner, appetizers, and even bacon desserts.

We got a chance to peek at the bacon cookbook ahead of time and were impressed with the quality of the bacon recipes included in the book. Don’t be surprised if you see a couple examples of bacon dishes we test out here at Bacon Today. We’re planning to cook up a few of the meals to give them the official Bacon Today taste test.

The Bacon Freak Bacon Cookbook is available in both downloadable PDF and paperback formats. Head on over to BaconCookbook.com and get your copy today!

In January I shared an exploration of bacon tofu with you and, based on available evidence, was able to conclude that bacon tofu is not a reasonable product.

What I’m going to share with you today takes the proof of this theory eleven steps further. Thanks to the Houston Press, we now have eleven very convincing reasons to elevate our love of the candy of meats.

Fry on, my friends!

– Mike

You may remember our last bacon hunt in Elk River, MN. This time we went to new locations but the mission was the same — find the best bacon in town.

We started the day at Elk River Meats. Our hunt took place on Sunday, and unfortunately Elk River Meats was closed. A couple of interesting items though…

1. The hours of operation did not list Sunday. I guess the town just assumes nothing is open downtown on Sundays.

2. A “rabbits for sale” sign was in the window of the meat shop. That was slightly disturbing.

After our bacon fail at Elk River Meats, we went to Sonic Drive-in for our grilled cheese with 30 slices of bacon. That was a complete success.

Our last stop of the day was Cub Foods, a regional supermarket. We wanted to check out their meat counter and see what kind of bacon selection they had to offer.

About 20 different brands of bacon were represented at Cub Foods. From maple to hickory smoked from “Neuske’s” to “No Name” brands, Cub Foods really came through with a quality selection of bacon.

Elk River is definately a bacon-loving town. We’re happy that next time we visit we’ll know exactly where to go.

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The place…Elk River, MN. We’ve been hunting for bacon there before, but hadn’t noticed an obvious choice for our bacon excursion — Sonic Drive-In. Way back in August 2008 a Bacon Toaster Sandwich was ordered from Sonic in our honor and we’ve always meant to find a Sonic to taste the food ourselves. We happened to drive by one today so we decided to go all out.

The line at Sonic was incredibly long and we were concerned that we wouldn’t find a place to park. We didn’t see the Bacon Toaster sandwich on the menu, though the Bacon Cheeseburger Toaster did look tasty. We noticed that a side of bacon was available for just 60 cents and we had about $20. We figured a grilled cheese sandwich with as much bacon as possible would give us our best bacon-to-dollar ratio. We didn’t want to do the math so we just ask for 20 orders of bacon with our meal.

Our meal arrived with only 10 orders of bacon which ended up being quite fortunate. Turns out you get 3 slices of bacon with every side order of bacon so we ended up with a grilled cheese sandwich and 30 slices of bacon which was nearly impossible to eat. That didn’t stop us of course!

We gave the Sonic Grilled Cheese and 30 Slices of Bacon a Smaste™ rating of 41.2. The bacon was excellent, greasy, and cooked to perfection. A pleasent surprise for an impromptu first stop at Sonic Drive-In.

Watch the video of me ordering, assembling, and eating a Sonic Grilled Cheese with 30 Slices of Bacon.

Six all-beef patties and plenty of bacon. That’s the way to start an amazing meal.

Scott was at it again this week, taking on another daunting food challenge. This time his target was the Fatburger Triple King Challenge — the largest burger offered at the Fatburger chain with triple the burger patties stuffed inside.

Since he had already polished off the Fatburger Triple King before, Scott decided he needed to take it a step further. Being a bacon fan, adding meat candy is a must. Not only did he add the bacon however, he also multiplied the Fatburger Triple King by 2 — making it a six-pattie burger that stood nearly half a foot tall!

You may remember Scott from his recent food challenge at The Counter burger joint. Well, his reputation as a standout competitive eater is growing and he’s up for just about anything. He took this double triple king burger and cleaned up every last bite. In fact, he even saved a piece of bacon to use as a scoop to make sure he got every last morsel of tastey goodness.

Take a look at the image gallery and see for yourself what a $20 hamburger meal is made of. Scott, once again we salute you.

Not to belabor the point, but I would like to reiterate how relieved we all were to learn that there was not, in fact, a bacon warehouse on fire, and instead it turned out that through a strange game of bacon telephone there was really a vacant warehouse on fire.

Imagine my delight today when I found this picture…

Which shows bacon and fire coming together in the only way they really should – for cooking. This picture, according to the rough English translation on the original page, depicts a medieval bacon celebration of some sort.

Once again, all is right in the world of bacon.

– Mr. B

Meet Frank.

Frank is a cat… a cat who loves bacon.

Frank has lived a long and happy life. He’s largely avoided the standard fish & chicken canned foods and will never reduce himself to that dried stuff that comes in crinkly bags. Frank holds out for the finer things in life. Frank waits for bacon.

Frank lives with a nice, older, single lady named Myrtle. She cooks Frank bacon every night just before bed. Frank likes extra-crispy bacon that he can crunch between his pointed cat teeth. Frank always finishes every last piece of bacon Myrtle prepares for him.

One night, Myrtle forgot to cook Frank bacon. The next day Frank was very sad. Myrtle saw Frank’s sadness and vowed never to forget Frank’s bacon again.

Frank is one happy cat. He’s thinking of starting a web site. Do you think he should?

– Mr. B

We have great fans here at Bacon Today. Recently, our good friend Ron Ploof ran into Bacon Today fan supreme -- Ngan. She’s so enthusiastic about bacon that we had to share it with you all.

Come to think of it, if you love bacon let us know. Record your video testimonial and load it to YouTube with the tag “bacontoday”.

The mission was simple: find bacon in Elk River, MN. The players? Corey James and his cousin Travis Rand. We donned our sunglasses and set off on a sunny, 15 degree day in our hunt for nature’s meat candy. First stop? Von Hanson’s Meats.

Von Hanson’s had an awesome selection of meats. Chicken, beef, and of course bacon. We chose thick sliced, double smoked bacon and friendly staff member Dale wrapped us up a pound of the good stuff.

After Von Hanson’s we only made one additional stop. Super Walmart. Yes, I know we should have sought out additional small meat markets and deli counters with bacon around central Minnesota, but when we arrived at the bacon section of the Walmart Supercenter we were overwhelmed…and my wallet was soon emptied.

This Walmart Supercenter had over 30 varieties of bacon on the shelf. I turned the corner and their was another whole bin of bacon. I went to the deli counter – more bacon. My mind was racing. I only had a few hours left on my Elk River trip and needed to make quick decisions.

From fully cooked hickory smoked bacon to turkey bacon to the jumbo 3 pound pack of bacon ends & pieces, I grabbed as much bacon as I could carry and made my way toward the door.

I was stopped in my tracks yet again when I spied even more bacon varieties at the deli counter. Deli worker Paula helped us out by thin-slicing some Canadian back bacon and pointing us toward the pre-cut prosciutto and pancetta. Oh man were we going to have a bacon festival that night.

When all was said and done we left the store with two grocery bags stuffed with about a dozen packages of a variety of bacon products. That night we made bacon-wrapped filet mignon, bacon wrapped bacon wrapped bacon (BWBWB), and fried up some plain old strips of applewood smoked bacon, turkey bacon, and so on. We purchased so much bacon that I left an entire shelf of my family’s refridgerator stuffed with bacon. No one complained.

Have a great bacon shopping story? Contact us or write your story in the comments area below.

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!