Welcome to my first post! Given the title of this blog, I assume it is only appropriate for the first post to about candied bacon. I am sure this is not the only reference to candied bacon on the internet, but here are my thoughts on the subject. CANDIED BACON ROCKS. In case you did not understand that the first time, CANDIED BACON ROCKS!!! For those of you who have no clue what I am talking about, candied bacon is the wonderful result of baking some sugar type substance on top of a salty meat possibly with some extra flavoring. You might be wondering my the description was so vague, it is simply because there are so many variations to the recipe. My standard concoction consists of bacon (pork or turkey), sugar, molasses, and a pinch of crushed red pepper. I hope you will learn from my experience and find your own variations that work. Here goes...
1) Preheat oven to 400 F
2) Cover a baking sheet with aluminum foil. This will make your clean up far, far easier. Ideally a single sheet of foil is best. Trust me, I have learned from experience, that hot sugar mixtures will find a way to stick to any exposed surface.
3) Lay out the bacon slices next to each other so the maximal surface area is available for the sugar.
4) Mix your sweetness and flavoring, in this case we will use sugar and cayenne pepper.
5) Brush a thin layer of molasses onto the bacon. Pile the mixture from step 4 onto your bacon slices. Don't worry about using too much, the excess flavoring will just melt off.
6) Place the bacon into the preheated oven and bake for about 20 min. The sugar will turn dark and bubble. If you see too many black spots you have overcooked it. Remove them with a spoon. This step brings up the finer points of accurate and precise oven temperatures in addition to cooking times vs determining when something is done cooking.
7) OK this one is very important: wait for the bacon to cool to the touch to eat it. I will not be placing silly lawyer type warnings on my posts, I expect you people to think before acting. If you comment about burning yourself on hot bacon that just came out of the oven I will have fun with you. Enjoy!!!
There are two people who deserve credit for this, a foodie friend Annie who introduced me to candied bacon. The other person is my wonderful wife who suggested the blog name, due to my love of sweet and salty tender meat. While I am sure you will love the candied bacon, my wife enjoys the candied bacon ice cream. She describes it as sweet and salty bombs in a sea of rich creaminess. I suggest you choose your favorite ice cream base and try ading your candied bacon.
