MY LIFE WITH BACON continues this week with some gift bacon from
Pennsylvania, and some bacon news.
BACON IN THE NEWS
An interesting news website listed the biggest dud products for 2014 on
this site. They include the Pumpkin Carver,
the Bacon Wave and the Bacon Griller, among other products. It’s worth a read!
Des Moines, Iowa is having its bacon fest at the end of January (picture above); get your
tickets now if you’re interested. Sounds
like a lot of fun:
“The eighth annual festival — which includes bacon sampling,
bacon-inspired wrestling, bacon lectures and a bacon queen — will be held at
the Iowa Events Center in Des Moines on Jan. 31.”
AND THEN WE MADE SOME CHILI
FIRST, I STARTED WALTER MCILHENNY'S CHILI, which I've been making for many years. It's a recipe by the eponymous Walter, who was a U.S. Marine. When his friends visited him on Avery Island, he would always make this chili. It does not have any bacon, so no further mention right now. This link has the recipe.
PALEO MAGAZINE HAD A CHILI RECIPE that looks great. Here it is:
Son Sam Murphy and I cooked it up. He chopped the veggies, shown here, and we used heinen's bacon, directly below.
I'll tell you how it tasted in the future. Double chili weekend, with daughter Caitlin and son Sam home for the holidays, with other son Jack hanging around with friend Mead. Other two daughters Jill and Jenn will be back after Christmas; then we'll have even more fun!
THIS WEEK’S BACON IS KUNZLER BACONfrom Pennsylvania. My friend Rich Braden, with whom I work, was gracious enough
to send it to me, just in time for the holidays! The only thing is, that all of it will be
eaten before Christmas (and I think it already has as I write this).
The first one I cooked was the
KUNZLER
ORIGINAL SLICED bacon, which was packed as 16 ounces of goodness, sliced
very thinly. The only downside of thinness
is that I often cannot cook it all in one batch on my large flat skillet.
The package says 16 ounces but it
weighed in at 14.6. Their quality
control leaves something to be desired as I lost a couple of slices. Post, it weighed 4.4 ounces, which isn’t
bad. It produced 130 ml of bacon fat.
Upon opening, the package had a
meaty scent, not bacon-y at all. The
smell wasn’t altogether pleasant. The bacon didn’t stick when cooking, which
was pretty cool, and had minimal curling.
Classic appearance. Great flavor,
and my son Sam, home after graduating from University of Denver, called it “outstanding”. I felt that it had a slightly oily,
petroleum-like aftertaste; Sam called it “oily woody”. Good, solid bacon; 3 on flavor; 3 on
crispness, 3 on succulence. Very good in
all respects.
The second bacon was the
KUNZLER “AUTHENTIC
SELECTS” CENTER CUT coated with coarse black pepper. This one was labelled at 12 ounces
and weighed in at 10.7; altogether between these two packages, I’m out a total
of 2.7 ounces of bacon bliss! A
problem. Post cooking it weighed 3.1
ounces and 115 milliliters of bacon fat.
I’m not generally a fan of peppered
bacon, but this one was pretty good.
Classic aroma out of the package with non-overpowering pepper scent and
flavor. This was clearly better than the
traditional bacon, and crisped up nicely.
Thicker sliced with a great finish, this is highly recommended. I give it a 3.5 in flavor, 3 on crispness,
3.5 on succulence. Excellent bacon. Thank you, Rich Braden!
