Mmmmm.... bacon... caramel?

With all this real estate stuff going on lately, I haven't had much time for cooking anything new. But when I saw this recipe for Bacon Caramel, I decided to make the time. At first, I thought it was a joke. (Now that I've cooked and eaten it ... I'm still not so sure.) But I couldn't resist, and since my friend Scott is a bacon fiend, I knew he'd help me eat it even if it was terrible.

Bringing home the bacon
A nice plus to making this recipe was that I got to buy a package of bacon. Bacon is not usually something Amy and I have around the house, but it is one of my favorite foods. The recipe only called for about 12 slices, so I got to eat the other 6 in slice form. I decided to cook them before eating.

In the interest of scientific research, and as practice for the main event, I cooked these other slices using a few different methods to see which came out best: Microwave, baking on a rack, and baking on the Kevin Cooney bac-o-matic (patent pending) -- a pan with wooden skewers instead of fixed metal rods, to allow the bacon to shrink, rather get stretched thin by a normal rack.

Amy and I preferred both baked methods to the microwave (too rubbery). As for the bac-o-matic, Amy couldn't tell the difference between those slices and the other baked slices. I thought the bac-o-matic was a bit better, but I'm partial. I'd like to try metal instead of wood next time, though.

Candy time
I have some nice pictures of the process below, but if you'd like to see more, you can head on over to the original recipe from VisualRecipes.

I gathered the caramel ingredients for a final family photo before the big melt. (The cream was still in the fridge). The brown stuff up front is a combo of maple syrup and bourbon, since the recipe called for either, and I happened to have both. I lightly toasted the almonds on the stove beforehand. I feel I should point out that I prepped way more almonds than I needed, but I doubt you'll actually be making this recipe, so I don't think it really matters.

What 11 slices of crumbled bacon looks like.

Since the bourbon was already out...

The melting pot. Note the ingenious use of paperclip for the thermometer probe. FoodNetwork, here I come!

Prepping the pan with some bacon on bottom. We wouldn't want it all on top, now would we?

Viola! Caramel, 10 slices of bacon, and some toasted almonds. Combined together, for some reason.

Dining
I finished cooking pretty late in the evening, and it needed 3 hours to cool, so I had to wait until the next day before trying my new creation. So I stashed it in the fridge and went to bed. This morning I brought the pan to work and had my first piece with my morning coffee (bacon is a breakfast food, after all).

The result? After only a 1.5"x1.5" piece, I feel like I've had a blood transfusion, but they hooked me up to the pickle juice machine by accident. I now have a bad case of the jitters, and I think my heart rate is up. (maybe coffee wasn't the best pairing).

In other words, it's delicious.

Okay, no, it's not delicious, but it's not bad either. The general opinion of those that have tasted it so far seems to be: "Hmm... it's not bad. I'll finish the rest of my piece later."

So, Bacon Caramel recipe, back to the recipe file you go. The big, circular file that gets taken out on Mondays and Thursdays.

Posted by Kevin at March 13, 2006 12:31 PM