Stoic Bacon 6. Initiated

MY LIFE WITH BACON continues! February 26, 2013 was the date of my first post in this blog. Ten years ago this past February. Time flies! During that time I've reviewed lots of different bacons from around the country, visited numerous bacon-fests, gave a presentation at Zingerman's Camp Bacon, and reported on many crimes involving bacon.

Bacon will continue to be the theme here, but with the addition of Health & Fitness, as well as sprinklings of Stoic Philosophy throughout my posts. And of course, I will report on crimes involving bacon.

TODAY'S CRIME STORY. This one is pretty dumb. A 'career' criminal (anyone with more than three or four convictions for theft qualifies) gets arrested for stealing 'multiple packs of bacon' is currently held on a $10,000 bond in the Wichita County Jail. If this were Chicago, San Francisco, or LA, I don't think she'd even be arrested. It's interesting how criminal behaviors are enforced and treated differently based on where the crime is committed in the USA. Story here.  

And some BACON. 

This goes back a while back to when the movie Tenet came out: I hadn't had any bacon in a while (the main reason I haven't posted) but did that night. A friend and I went to see the movie Tenet (me for the second time, him for the first). A second viewing cleared most things up for me, but not all. I'll wait for it to be available streaming before watching it another time. After the movie, we went out for a quick drink.

The bacon sat atop a wonderful Old Fashioned at Lucky Dog in Vernon Hills, IL. Nice place!

I OVERCOOKED SOME BACON one SUNDAY. Yes, it's a sin. A friend recommended The Meat Hook in Brooklyn as one of the best butchers in NYC, and since son Jack lives there, I asked him to procure me some. He did so, and I prepared it on Sunday in my usual way (see previous posts for my take on the best way to cook bacon.) The Meat Hook looks like an absolutely fantastic place, and I will definitely be visiting on my next NY trip.

The packaging was standard, although the butcher paper was thicker than most places. Out of the package, the bacon elicited a nice, smoky aroma, although I wouldn't want it as a deodorant (someone once did give me bacon scented deodorant once). You can see how I overcooked it. I won't go into the details of how that happened; it's irrelevant.

We know the saying "don't cry over spilled milk" - and it applies to overcooked (some would say 'burned') bacon too. I didn't cry over it, I ate it. And it was good. Have I referred you to a terrific motivational talk by Jocko, which theme is "good"? If you haven't experienced it, you must take two minutes and nineteen seconds to watch it. A discussion of the video requires its own post, for later.

That's it for now! 

Bacon Crime still Happening

MY LIFE WITH BACON continues after a VERY LONG HIATUS with a quick review of more crimes involving bacon. I'm not talking about the Bacon crime family (a family of people whose last name is "Bacon"), although that's a very interesting topic. I'm talking about crimes that have to do with the improper use of bacon. The only proper use of bacon is for eating! I've written a bunch of posts about bacon crimes, and even spoke at Zingerman's Camp Bacon! (Here's an article about it, and here's my full presentation, which includes a fun video of a perpetrator throwing bacon at the cops, while calling them pigs.)

Subscribers take note: the next post, and those going forward, will be different.  Different.

McDonald's Cook Arrested: So here we go: a cook at McDonald's (one of my favorite Quick Serve Restaurants) decided to eat the bacon. Eat the bacon she cooked. All the time. Her manager had a small issue with that. Aside from the unsanitary nature of eating while cooking (a pet peeve of mine) she was literally eating the profits. A fascinating confrontation ensued, which can be reviewed here. This happened in the UK. I do like McDonald's bacon (photo from the link).

Manager fined £80 for spitting out extra crispy bacon while choking.
In another recent case, a manager was 'arrested' for spitting when he was actually spitting out a piece of bacon he was choking on. While not really a crime, I'd call it a crime against humanity. Poor guy.

Enjoy your bacon and I will see you in this space soon.

SAVE YOUR BACON DRIPPINGS

MY LIFE WITH BACON continues with an excellent Lifehacker post on why you should save all your bacon grease, and ends with some bacon in the news.

SAVE YOUR BACON DRIPPINGS! I've been doing it for years. Here's why: it's excellent to cook with. Imparts incredible flavor. Fry bread in it for your egg sandwich. Fry the eggs in it. It's called "Eating Trash With Claire"... you'll have to put up with a commercial first, but worth watching! BACON BUTTER. Yum. Nice mayo recipe. Link.

I have a large bacon dripping jar in the fridge.

DOUBLE CRISP YOUR BACON: Read this interesting article about a restaurant in Austin, TX called Joe's Bakery (nice name). They lightly coat their bacon on both sides with flour, and then fry it normally in a pan. Link.

On the menu there, this is the Joey Rocha plate, which includes Two eggs any style served with pork carne guisada, potatoes, beans, sausage, or bacon and two tortillas. The place is pretty nondescript from the street, located at 2305 E. 7th Street Austin, TX 78702. Right next to a PayLess shoe store.

However, I have put it on my "Want to Go" list on Google Maps. I do love their logo.

Trying it this weekend and here are my results.

ANOTHER AUSTIN BACON-TOTING RESTAURANT

There's another place in Austin to check out: El Primo at 2101 S 1st St, Austin, TX. Nice looking breakfast barbacoa taco. According to the reviewer:

"The neon yellow trailer in front of Once Over Coffee on South First is small -- like, tiny -- but its loyal customer base is enormous. The family-operated El Primo makes classic breakfast tacos that cost only $2.25, with corn and flour tortillas that are purchased locally but bear the flavor, texture, and imperfect edges of a made-in-house 'tilla. El Primo opens at 8am, but unlike other taco spots, stays open until 5pm Monday-Thursday, 4pm on Saturday, and 10pm on Friday. Also worth noting: El Primo is closed on Sundays and only accepts cash, so plan your brunch runs accordingly.

Must-Try Taco: Barbacoa Taco

As a South Texas native, I know barbacoa is the ultimate breakfast taco, and this one is done right. The tender texture of the meat is punctuated by their house salsas, a tangy tomatillo, and smoky chile de arbol."

Fayetteville, Arkansas: Wright's Barbecue

MY LIFE WITH BACON continues with a visit to Wright's BBQ in Fayetteville a few months ago. Sorry, I'm just getting around to posting this. Lots of backlog material in the queue.

THIS PLACE IS THE BOMB. Outstanding BBQ. On the plate you can see some brisket, ribs, tips and of course, there was also BACON. Highly recommended location; real hand-crafted smoked BBQ on site; if in Walmart-land, stop by.

BACON IN THE NEWS There are LOTS of bacon stories out there. Just two interesting ones
:

KOSHER BACON possible? Maybe, according to Rabbi Gavriel Price of the Orthodox Union. He's in charge of determining if 'clean meat' could be turned into bacon."Clean meat' is not really meat; it's grown in a lab. The "Impossible Burger" is in this category; not really meat, but tastes like it. Interesting article. Some lab meat in a test tube above.

SUBWAY CUSTOMER MAD ABOUT UNDERCOOKED BACON: Yeah, I hate undercooked bacon too, but it's unfortunate that people get so rude about such a trivial matter. Video here. It almost turned into a bacon crime story, but not quite.

See you around!

Greenwood: American Kitchen and Bar in Highwood, Illinois

MY LIFE WITH BACON CONTINUES this week with a visit on my wedding anniversary to a new place in Highwood: Greenwood.

The site of an old bowling alley, Greenwood is naturally a complete makeover. And the interior wood paneling is actually greenish. It was very busy on Saturday night, but the noise was not overwhelming. Our server Sarah and her able assistant-in-training, Matt, were very attentive and even watched me do a bar trick (with which they will make lots of money).

The meal was excellent and very reasonably priced. Owner and head chef Mark Newman came out to visit when I asked where the bacon came from. Turns out that it's from the North Country Smoke House in New Hampshire! I was given some of this bacon as a gift in the past from my friend Bob at NEPS, and it was excellent. You can find my evaluation in the archives.

For my main course, I ordered the skirt steak, and in an attempt to go low carb, I did not want the potatoes; instead  I ordered a brussels sprouts side, which contained the aforementioned bacon. The sprouts were a little more cooked than I prefer, but the dish was excellent.

I highly recommend Greenwood. They certainly know how to source their ingredients!

Marrying Bacon, and A New Location for Bar Bacon in NYC

MY LIFE WITH BACON continues with an old tweet by a justice and a new twist, and a new location for Bar Bacon.

BACON IN THE NEWS

Aside from Kevin Bacon being selected for a new Tremors reboot pilot, it appears that bacon has made it to Congressional testimony this week. Interesting article in Business Insider:

"Patrick Leahy, a top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, on Wednesday questioned a federal judgeship nominee's ability to interpret Supreme Court precedent over a tweet about wanting a constitutional right to marry bacon."

Back in 2015, Texas Supreme Court Justice Don Willett tweeted a satirical comment, basically saying that same-sex marriage was a slippery slope and that he'd support marrying his bacon. 

Funny - if you look at the tweet, 76 people "loved" it at that point in time.

This is pretty funny, and reminiscent of the young man in the UK (about whom I've written previously) who changed his name to "Bacon Double Cheeseburger" and that his fiance was having a little trouble with that.

In other news, one of my favorite Hells Kitchen bars in New York, Bar Bacon, is opening a new location in the West Village in NYC. 

Robber Shoots Himself in Wiener at Hot Dog Stand

MY LIFE WITH BACON CONTINUES this week with another crime story.

BACON IN THE NEWS

Ok, while this one isn't exactly bacon (but it could contain pork), a man was arrested after having robbed a hot dog stand in Chicago. After robbing the place, he reached for his pistol and apparently shot himself in the leg and in the pecker. Even though this isn't directly about bacon, it is about a smoked meat product, possibly pork, and the story is too good to pass up. The robbery happened at Maxwell's Classic Polish on the South side. Here's a picture and a quote from the Chicago Tribune:

"Police were called to 700 block of West 116th about 6 a.m. Tuesday  regarding a person shot and found Pouncy with two gunshot wounds, one to the right thigh and one to the penis, according to his arrest report."

Home Smoked, Home Cured, Home Cooked, Cooking with Gas

MY LIFE WITH BACON continues by cooking up some great home cured, home smoked, home cooked bacon, about which I blogged recently.

This is on cast iron. Jack's high school football team won its state playoff game; COOKIN' WITH GAS: http://jwcdaily.com/2017/10/27/spotlight-charleston-scouts-had-a-good-time-in-playoff-win/

Home-Cured Bacon, Inovasi, and More Bacon Crime

MY LIFE WITH BACON continues with some good, old-fashioned home-cured and smoked bacon, plus the standard Bacon In The News section.

I really like the flavor profile of the spice cardamon, so I searched for a bacon cure recipe using that ingredient. Check out the Wikipedia article on cardamom; pretty interesting. Had no idea it was commonly used in Scandanavia. Apparently lots of folks from the middle east and India visited the nordic countries as far back as Viking days. A quote from the article:

"It is a common ingredient in Indian cooking. It is also often used in baking in the Nordic countries, in particular in Sweden, Norway and Finland, where it is used in traditional treats such as the Scandinavian Jule bread Julekake, the Swedish kardemummabullar sweet bun, and Finnish sweet bread pulla. In the Middle East, green cardamom powder is used as a spice for sweet dishes, as well as traditional flavouring in coffee and tea. Cardamom is used to a wide extent in savoury dishes. In some Middle Eastern countries, coffee and cardamom are often ground in a wooden mortar, a mihbaj, and cooked together in a skillet, a mehmas, over wood or gas, to produce mixtures as much as 40% cardamom."

The recipe I used for the cure is as follows (and of course I added curing salt), from here. This is apparently an "Old School" "Old World" recipe.

Black Forest Spice Mixture
125gm White pepper
 25gm Ground nutmeg
 25gm Ground mace
 15gm Ground cardamom
200gm White sugar

And a picture of the cure in a small bowl:

I obtained my pork belly from Inovasi, a terrific restaurant located in Lake Bluff, IL. The proprieter, Jon des Rosiers, is continually changing his farm-to-table recipes, and uses only locally raised meat.

This belly is from a pig farm in Wisconsin, and here's the raw belly. Lookin' good:

Carefully coated with the cure:

Packaged up and ready to sit, flip daily, for a total of ten days:

After the ten days, I rinsed it off thoroughly, and set it in a separate refrigerator for another week, with a pan of kosher salt underneath, to dry cure a little longer. The belly really firmed up and smelled wonderful.

Then it was time for the smoker. 225 degrees until the internal temperature hit 150, with large applewood chunks. Here is what it looked like after coming out of the smoker. The aroma was 'to die for'...

Pan frying in cast iron. Incredible flavor, great color, used in a brussels sprouts recipe too.

BACON IN THE NEWS

This week, a woman was reported to the police for assaulting her boyfriend with a package of bacon. As usual, you 'can't make this stuff up'. This crime was, of course, pretty tame compared to attempting to KILL your boyfriend using bacon (see my presentation at last year's Camp Bacon in a recent post). Here's the link.

GO EAT SOME BACON. See you next time...

Summer 2017: My Full Presentation from Camp Bacon!

MY LIFE WITH BACON CONTINUES with the full presentation I gave at Zingerman's Camp Bacon. This is mostly self-explanatory, but I've added a little text to help you. If you want to invite me to a BaconFest to present this, I'm happy to do so!

First, a photo of Debbie and I with Ari Weinzweig, founder of Zingerman's deli in Ann Arbor, with Jordan, one of Ari's co-workers.

Scroll down for a really funny video of a crime involving bacon.

Yes, my presentation was indeed about bacon-related crimes and incidents.

Burned bacon is extremely unhealthy. Don't do it.

There are a lot of chemicals in bacon, most are good for you. In fact, bacon is extremely low on the insulin index. Nitrates and nitrites are not bad (many studies have proven), but Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons are truly bad news. So don't overcook your bacon.

Every hear of Di-Hydrogen Oxide? 

But PAHs are truly bad.

There is actually a parody site about Di-Hydrogen Oxide.

I need to follow up with this guy to see how his engagement worked out.

This girl actually threw raw bacon at the 'pigs' and was arrested.

Here's a news report with video!

 There really is a lot of crime involving bacon.

 Stranger than fiction. I have the police and court reports is you want them.