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!

A mouthful both in name and flavor-packed taste, the Baja Chipotle and Sun Dried Tomato Bacon Wrapped Chicken I made tonight was absolutely killer. Here’s a meal fit for a king but simple enough even for the court jester to pull off with ease.

Start with two or three medium sized chicken breasts. Marinade them in a tangy chipotle marinade. Slice the breasts open sideways, kind of like you’re filleting a fish. Do the same thing with an equal number of string cheeses and slide the cheese halves into the chicken pocket you’ve created.

Get yourself some quality bacon. I recommend Rocco’s Sun-Dried Tomato bacon to add a little zest to your meal. Wrap the stuffed chicken breasts with the bacon and place in a baking dish.

Bake the bacon-wrapped chicken in a pre-heated oven at 375 degrees for 20 minutes. While the chicken is baking, make your side dishes. You’ll probably have a couple extra slices of bacon after wrapping the chicken, so I suggest making some sauteed carrots with fresh garlic, pepper, and tasty bacon. Combine all those elements along with a couple tablespoons of butter and a some olive oil and let all that saute for 15 minutes or so.

I also warmed up a few sweet potatoes to balance out the meal. Overall this was an amazingly delicious and extremely simple meal to make. It will be sure to impress bacon lovers and casual porcines as well.

Smaste™ rating: 49.842

One of the nice things about writing for the world’s best bacon news site is that people occasionally send us free stuff.

Our most recent form of free stuff was a set of coupons to go try out the new Applewood Smoked Bacon Deluxe burger at Wendy’s. No complaints here; I really like Wendy’s to begin with. They have variety – you can get a burger, chili, a potato or all three. Plus, they still have the best dessert deal in all of FastFoodia – the junior Frosty. Where else can you get the perfect amount of post-meal suckable ice cream for $0.53?

But, let me assure you that bacon remains king, and even though I like Wendy’s (and they had sent me free coupns), I went in with the mindset that if it sucked, I would tell the world about it. Frankly, I had very low expectations – I have rarely (if ever) had fast food bacon that really passes the test. Sometimes it is acceptable, sometimes it is limp and soggy, but never has fast food bacon been amazing.

Until now.

I’m not kidding.

WOW!

Here’s the thing – the Bacon Deluxe starts off like any other bacon burger. It has meat, cheese, lettuce, ketchup, tomatoes, onions, mayo, pickles and buns.

And then they add bacon. Applewood smoked bacon. CRISPY, thick, straight-from-the-breakfast-table Applewood Smoked Bacon.

At a fast food establishment, I have never met its equal. The truth is that rapid, high-volume production and bacon are not a match made in heaven. Fast food bacon is usually limp and soggy as a result. In order for bacon to be truly delicious it must be given some time, love and attention in the kitchen.

With this burger’s bacon, Wendy’s seems to have bridged the great fast food bacon divide. I don’t know how they did it, but it seems like they stole it from somebody’s kitchen table.

This is my friend Jonathan inspecting the quality of his burger before tasting. His only complaint was that the lettuce was kind of pale green in comparison to the thick, rich, Al Gore green that was depicted on the Bacon Deluxe standee that was on the floor a few feet away from us.

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And then it was time for the taste test. We were both blown away! I think it’s worth mentioning again that Wendy’s sent us free coupons for the burgers, but the burgers were ALSO delicious. No kidding. I loved this thing. The burger itself was up to snuff with all the other standard burgers on the Wendy’s menu, but the bacon blew this thing off the charts. The Bacon Deluxe unequivocally has the best fast food bacon I have ever tasted.

This is one of me testing out the bacon by itself. Mmmm…

It’s good, fellow Baconites. It’s really good.

Jonathan’s Smaste™ Rating: 38.000

My Smaste™ Rating: 44.971

– Mike

You remember it, don’t you?

It’s the fabulous Bacon Today turbaconducken!

And it’s coming back this Thanksgiving, only this time it called Turbaconduckensgiving. This year the glorious gorgefest will be held on November 26th, and we want to make it AMAZING, so we’re holding an online gathering, of sorts.

Here’s what we want you to do…

1) Check out the original article on the great Turbaconducken.

2) Get your hands dirty and make your own Turbaconducken for Turbaconduckensgiving, or make one now just for fun.

3) Send us a picture or video of yourself with your Turbaconducken. It can be of you making it, cooking it, eating it – whatever! Try any variation you like and be sure to tell us the whole story.

4) We’ll share all the great Turbaconducken pictures and stories with the whole BT community, and you will officially be part of Turbaconducken history.

– Mr. B

We first talked about chocolate covered bacon last June, and we’ve seen more about it in other articles since then. I thought that it was kind of a novelty thing that existed in rare spaces. Then I went to the OC Fair, and look what I saw…

At one magical booth they sell both Churros AND chocolate covered bacon!

Or so they advertise.

Sadly, upon closer inspection, there was no chocolate covered bacon on display, and no happy vendor behind the counter to sell some of it to me.

I can only imagine that upon running out of chocolate covered bacon the seriously embarassed vendor tucked tail and ran for her life to find more bacon.

I’ll be back at the Fair next Thursday to see Huey Lewis (and the News!) at the Pacific Amphitheater, so you can bet I’ll have another walk by that booth to see if they have restocked by then.

– Mike

There isn’t exactly any bacon in this article, but given the subject matter, we felt it was important to bring you this news anyway, since pancake-batter-in-a-can is most certainly a gateway food to more bacon.

Here’s how it works:

You buy a can of pancake batter in a can.

You spray it onto a frying pan.

You wait a minute and flip.

You wait another minute and eat fluffy, yummy pancakes.

I was extremely impressed by the ease of preparation and the associated deliciousness. These pancakes were really very good – which I didn’t expect from a can. Other benefits include the fact that this batter is organic, and that it can double as waffle-in-a-can mix. It’s really a win-win for the breakfast table.

I think we need to do a canned breakfast taste test where we marry pancakes in a can with bacon in a can. We could wash it all down with canned orange juice and garnish with canned fruit. (Corey has the rest of the canned bacon right now, so I’ll have to get it from him.)

Organic Batter Blaster Pancakes in a Can Smaste™ rating: 42.467

–Mike

Move over, Erik Estrada, there’s a new CHiP in town, and it tastes like bacon.

Thanks for moving over.

San Francisco has been featured on BT several times, and the city that’s famous for bridges, earthquakes and food has done it again. This time it’s in the form of bacon potato chips. Granted, if a chip is made of bacon then, by definition, it is not a potato chip. Last-name-less “Bill” is seeking to change all that, though. From his street vendor cart in SF he is making waves in the bacon world with his genius combination of hand made potato chips mixed with hand made bacon chips. What a great combo!

Imagine a serving of fish and chips, hold the fish, add bacon.

Can you see it?

Can you smell it?

Now you can eat it, too. Bill came up with the combo while experimenting with new menu items. In his own words, “…it was amazing how it took off. People were literally rushing over to me.” And who could blame them? His new product literally is the meat and potatoes of snack foods. He drops chunks of bacon into his fryer right next to tasty slivers of potato.

Bill isn’t just an old-school vendor, though. He recognizes the power of social media and interweb connectivity, too; you can check him out on Twitter @BaconPotatoChip. This is good news for all of us, beause if you’re not lucky enough to live in the City By the Bacon Bay, you can at least live vicariously through his tweets.

– Mike

We’ve been writing about bacon here at BT for well over a year now, and in all that time we never thought to start a list of things that are flavored with bacon. Good thing we’ve got BT reader Sunnih F. to help us get started. This is the list of bacon-flavored things that she came up with, with links to articles we have written on those items, if available.

diet coke

mints

bubblegum

toothpicks

pancake mix

salt

jellybeans

lollipops

dental floss

bacon gummies

chapstick

bubbles

icecream

vodka

cotton candy

pillows

tattoos

chips

In addition, I can think of the following items off the top of my head…

bacon jerky

bacon mayonnaise (“baconnaise”)

bacon brownies

turbaconducken

yogurt

burger

Spam

…and I’m sure there are many other things that also taste like bacon. What did we forget? There has to be more things out there that taste like sweet, sweet bacon.

Leave a comment or reach out on Twitter (@bacontoday) to let us know what your favorite (or least favorite) bacon flavored goodies are.

– Mike

front page photo credit

Two bacon options in the Brussels airport.

Chicken bacon and Egg bacon!

Yay!!!!

Plus, it’s handmade by Mike’s Sandwiches, so they get points for that.

The bacon was undercooked, though, and was fairly chewy to the bite. But at least it was real bacon in a foreign land.

Smaste™ Rating: 22.249

I was in Liege, Belgium last week and had some degree of trouble locating any regular-old streaky bacon. The closest thing I was able to dig up was this smoked prosciutto, seen here as modeled by my Parisian friend Marc.

Any friend of mine is a friend of bacon, and Marc was very happy to have some of this fine cut of meat on his breakfast plate.

What the Belgians seem to lack in true bacon, they make up for in overall presentation. There was apple juice, orange juice, coffee, hot chocolate, assorted breakfast pastries, cereal, fresh fruit and lots of butter, yogurt and other dairy products.

The prosciutto was very tasty with just a hint of smokiness. We ate it on breakfast rolls with butter and it really made the meal.

Belgian Prosciutto Smaste™ Rating: 29.855

– Mike