meat

Apparently August is bacon month. Maybe it’s fate, but without even knowing that I had come up with several different bacon-centered recipes for this month. I guess on some level, I must have known.

Bacon marmalade might sound bit unusual. You don’t normally put bacon and marmalade together (semantically nor gastronomically), but it is quite extraordinary. It isn’t actually bacon mixed with a traditional fruit-based marmalade. It is bacon cooked down with some onions and garlic, then glazed in whiskey, maple syrup, brown sugar, and a bit of vinegar. Or processed candied bacon.

I started by cooking 1 inch pieces of bacon, then draining them on some paper towels. I reserved about 1 tbsp of the bacon grease for cooking the onions. The pieces will end up back in the pan and keep cooking, so I didn’t over cook the bacon to be too crispy.

In the same pan with that reserved bacon grease, I sauteed the onion and garlic until the onions were soft and translucent. Then I poured in the whiskey (shhh…don’t tell my husband I used his good stuff) and maple syrup and let that simmer and reduce a bit. After about 5 minutes, I added back the bacon as well as the vinegar and brown sugar.

I let this all cook on low heat for another 5-10 minutes until all the liquids formed a glaze. Then I spooned the bacon into a food processor and pulsed until I got the desired consistency. This would definitely be a personal preference, but I wanted my bacon marmalade to still be slightly chunky.

Before my husband and I could find a fun way to use this, we just slathered it on some bread. Which really was the perfect way to eat it. Keep it simple, stupid!

But, in case you are wondering, this bacon marmalade would be wonderful on a hamburger, pizza, brussel sprouts, sandwich, a spoon…really, you could put it on anything. Its delicious. Obviously. It’s pretty much just candied bacon!

What would you put bacon marmalade on?

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When we lived in Dallas, my husband’s and my favorite burger was from Twisted Root. Not only did they offer fairly unique burger varieties, they also offered other different meats. Some typical, some exotic (like kangaroo, crocodile, etc). Twisted Root was the first place I ever had a bison/buffalo burger. At the time I really thought I was branching out and being adventurous. Really, bison tastes a lot like beef, maybe a little gamier, but also a heck of a lot leaner. Did you know that bison has less fat than chicken? It is one of the healthiest meats you can eat, which is surprising to some people since it is a “red meat”.

After having my first bison burger at Twisted Root, I never went back to beef. If we are at a burger place and bison is on the menu I will order that without a second thought and with a lot less guilt.

My only issue with bison is that it is not very readily available. In Texas we could buy it from the butcher counter at Central Market. Here in North Carolina, the only place I have seen it is Whole Foods (Trader Joe’s sells frozen burger patties, but I just want raw, ground meat). And it’s not cheap, around $10 a pound, which means that you probably can’t eat it every day. For us, though, it’s nice to splurge on bison every few months to be able to indulge, but also be a bit healthier.

If you have never had a bison burger, I encourage you to try one. Or if you are too intimidated to cook bison yourself, don’t be! Treat is like very lean beef. You may want some extra seasoning to make up for the lack of fat, but I doubt you will miss it!

So for Father’s Day, instead of grilling up Dad a hamburger, why not splurge a bit and make Dad a bison burger?

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Bacon Marmalade

Bison Cheeseburger