Bacon Explosion

I suppose it's an index of how busy I have been that I failed to notice that a recipe for something called the "Bacon Explosion" has been sweeping the internet. Thanks to a piece in Wednesday's New York Times food section by Damon Darlin (here), I now feel up to date. The "Bacon Explosion"--two pounds of pork sausage wrapped in two pounds of bacon--was created by Jason Day and Aaron Chronister of the Kansas-based BBQ competition team Burnt Finger BBQ. It contains about 5000 calories and 500 grams of fat, and is either something that will make your mouth water or turn your stomach in disgust. The NYT article is largely dedicated to the mechanics of the recipe's spread throughout the country via the internet and text messaging. More germane for my purposes, of course, is the recipe itself, which reflects both the surging popularity of bacon and a carnophallic backlash to vegetarians, the health conscious, and friends of animals. 

The image of the "Bacon Explosion" on the smoker comes from the bbqaddicts.com website where the recipe first appeared. The NYT also has lots of instructional photos and video in case you want to make one of these for Sunday's Super Bowl.

Salon's Pork Week

Salon.com has been running a series of pig-related stories this week under the broader heading Pork Week. The week began with an essay called "Bacon Mania" by Sarah Hepola that sought to explain American's current fascination with bacon. On Tuesday, in "Belly of the Beast," Rebecca Traister described how she has started to cure her own bacon. Today, the entry is a video about Veritas Farms in New Paltz, New York, where they raise Gloucestershire Old Spot and Large Black pigs. The video "Not the Other White Meat" by Caitlin Shamberg and Rebecca Traister, is quite lovely in that the pigs seem quite happy to be pigs. Just be sure to turn the volume down at the start, as the clip is prefaced by an incredibly loud and irritating vodka ad.

It will be interesting to see what else they discuss in this "Pork Week." So far the stories have been interesting but fairly light, perhaps because they seem to take it as a given that Salon readers are familiar with the industrial production of pork and are looking for natural, free range and do-it-yourself alternatives.

FDR on the Proper Use of Pigs

At the blog Lawyers, Guns, and Money the other day the "Presidential Statement of the Day" came from Franklin Roosevelt in a speech to farmers in Washington, D.C. on May 14th, 1935. As part of his response to the concern that food needed for relief may have been destroyed wastefully, he noted:

The crocodile tears shed by the professional mourners of an old and obsolete order over the slaughter of little pigs and over other measures to reduce surplus agricultural inventories deceive very few thinking people in this country, and least of all the farmers themselves.

I have always supposed, ever since I was able to play around, that the acknowledged destiny of a pig is sausage, or ham, or bacon, or pork. It was in those forms--as sausage, ham, bacon, or pork--that millions of pigs were consumed by vast numbers of needy people who otherwise would have had to do without them.

I'll have to dig a bit to see what this specific issue was about. I'd note here that the timing of the LGM post happily coincides with the passing of the Farm Bill by the Senate yesterday. While I'll eventually post separately about what this iteration of the farm bill means for America's pork producers and pigs, for now, the NPPC (National Pork Producer's Council) seems pleased, describing the bill as "favorable" to the industry. You can find their press release here.

The "Everything's Better with Bacon" Flickr Pool

My friend Sean e-mailed me concerning a photo pool on Flickr about bacon. You too can fritter away valuable time by perusing the tons of photos in the "Everything's Better with Bacon" group (here). There are over 1400 "members" contributing almost 2300 images of bacon and bacon-related items to this Flickr site. The photo to the right is from (and of) Mr. Bacon Pants, who tells the tale (here) of his participation in the Blue Ribbon Bacon Festival, held in Des Moines, Iowa last month on National Pig Day. There is a Des Moines Register article previewing this event as well that you can find here.

DIY Bacon, British-Style

Yesterday the Guardian featured an article by Tim Hayward (pictured above) about his efforts to cure his own bacon at home. The essay, perfect for do-it-yourself-ers, begins by noting an increase in the amount of bacon being eaten by Brits, something attributed to the emergence of "premium and organic bacon." Noting that "my granny salted pork in a council house," Hayward figures "If she could do it... then so could I." After a week of carefully tending to two kilos of boned loin from an organic Tamworth, Hayward seemed delighted with the results. It does, however, seem like a bit of work...

Pigs, Bacon & Aesop's Fables

A conjunction of several e-mails to yours truly, featuring another great pig-related tattoo, one that goes nicely with Lisa's recent submission of one of Aesop's fables:

The Pig and the Sheep

A pig found his way into a meadow where a flock of sheep were grazing. The shepherd caught him, and was proceeding to carry him off to the butcher's when he set up a loud squealing and struggled to get free. The sheep rebuked him for making such a to-do, and said to him, "The shepherd catches us regularly and drags us off just like that, and we don't make any fuss."

"Not, I dare say not," replied the pig, "but my case and yours are altogether different. He only wants you for wool, but he wants me for bacon."

A Bacon Candy Bar!

Here's another product in the line of thought that says everything is better with bacon: Mo's Bacon Bar, a milk chocolate bar with chunks of Applewood smoked bacon in it. Lisa found this on Boing Boing (here), although the best description comes from the website of the manufacturer, Vosges, where the owner and chocolatier, Katrina Markoff, writes this about her invention:

Crisp, buttery, compulsively irresistible bacon and milk chocolate combination has long been a favorite of mine. I started playing with this combination at the tender age of six while eating chocolate chip pancakes drenched in maple syrup. Beside my chocolate-laden cakes laid three strips of fried bacon, just barely touching a sweet pool of maple syrup. Just a bite of the bacon was too salty and yearned for the sweet kiss of chocolate syrup. In retrospect, perhaps this was a turning point, for on that plate something magical happened: the beginnings of a combination so ethereal and delicious that it would haunt my thoughts until I found the medium to express it--chocolate.

You can get your own for $7.00. Let me know if any of you try it.

Bacon Bracelets

Another bacon-related item. Thanks to Sean for pointing me to this one. According to the Hipster Haircuts blog where he found it (here), the bacon is printed on a leather band, so it's non-vegan. For more on bacon, also see the blog I Heart Bacon (here).

Gummy Bacon (Strawberry Flavor)

A new item in the famed Archie McPhee catalog. You can order your own gummy bacon here. I'm now wishing I'd stopped at the Archie McPhee store in Seattle when I drove by it earlier this summer. They've got lots and lots of toys, gifts, and novelties.

Bacon-of-the-Month Club

When I first heard of the Bacon-of-the-Month club I assumed it was a joke, but it's not. For $140 the folks at Grateful Palate will send a different artisanal bacon to your home each month for a year. You also get a membership card, a monthly comic strip, a pen, t-shirt, and, for the Year of the Pig, a pig nose to wear around. Seems like quite a good deal for the pork connoisseurs out there. The club is "curated" by "Captain Bacon," Dan Philips, who chooses each year's bacon selections after a big "fry-up" of about 100 different bacons. You can also purchase over 40 different bacons from "The 2007 Dan Philips Ultimate Platinum Premium Bacon Collection" which you can find here.

There's a great NPR piece (here) about bacon from All Things Considered back in January 2007 featuring John T. Edge, director of the Southern Foodways Alliance. Edge explains the difference between the usual store-bought, mass-produced bacon and the artisanal versions, which taste like "the sweet, sweet essence of pig." The on-line version also includes a list of "Six Weird Ways of Makin' Bacon," including bacon peanut brittle and bacon baklava.