Dessert - with Pig!

A while ago, Joe and I were discussing how to get some pig into dessert. At the time, Joe found this pork cake. I will eventually make that, for sure, but the other day I stumbled across an incredible thread on Chowhound: Bacon Brittle.

Durmonion was highly skeptical, and reasonably so if I may say so myself. I mean, in the end, sticking meat in sweets doesn’t really sound very appetizing. Being the stubborn ass that I am, I plodded on irregardless, picking up both corn syrup and bacon over at the Food Lion near our place, digging out the candy thermometer and prepping for my first experiment with candy.

For my first go, I figured I’d stick with a recipe from the thread. I picked the one using brown sugar, deciding to use turbinado, which according to its Wikipedia entry can be freely substituted for brown. I like turbinado and rarely use anything else, especially not for coffee.

Anyway, the cooking part of the experiment went well. Nothing tricky here, as long as one remembers to watch the candy thermometer. I mixed in the bacon and other ingredients, spread the mixture out and waited. Actually, I used the bacon fat to make another batch of my rich tomato sauce. No point wasting nice pig stuff!

At some point, Durmonion popped in and tasted a little of the brittle, proclaiming it ‘good’ when asked. I tried some myself while the sauce was simmering: it really is an interesting taste. The primary flavor is, of course, sweet with touch of vanilla. Then the pecans bring in a smooth wave of nuttiness, and then you realize there’s bacon in there when its light meaty smokiness hits your palette, taking you by surprise, even though you always knew it was there. Somehow, this little treat convinces you, post factum, that this was never a strange combination to start with, and you end up thinking that you’ve always been this way…

Over the last few days, I’ve been giving little surprises to pretty much every friend I bump into. I haven’t received a single bad response yet: ‘wow’, ‘delicious’, ‘that’s a complex flavor’, ‘you’re kidding, right? Damn that’s good’ have been typical.

So here’s the basic recipe, reproduced from Pistou’s post on Chowhound. Next time, I’m going to start messing with this, maybe adding things like cayenne, coffee, different nuts and so on. The possibilities are endless!

Bacon Brittle
(From Pistou on Chowhound)

MAKES ABOUT 1 POUND

1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup water
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking soda
1⁄2-3⁄4 tsp. salt
3/4 cup chopped pecans
1 cup cooked bacon bits (about 12 ounces uncooked bacon)

Grease or butter a large nonstick baking sheet (or use a silpat).

In a medium heavy saucepan, combine the sugar, corn syrup and water over medium heat. Stir until the sugar dissolves and the syrup comes to a boil. Attach a candy thermometer to the pan, increase the heat to high, and cook, without stirring, until the mixture reaches 290 degrees. Immediately remove from the heat.

Stir in the butter, vanilla, baking soda, salt pecans and bacon bits. Watch out, the mixture will foam. When the foam subsides, pour the hot mixture onto the prepared baking sheet as thinly as possible. Use a silicone spatula to spread.

Cool at least 10 minutes before breaking into pieces. Store in a covered container.

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Update from DurmOnion: Because I cannot reconcile the cognitive dissonance of having meat in my dessert, I prefer to think of this as having a bite of syrup-drenched bacon with pecan pancakes, minus the liquidity and the pancake. Hey, it got me there! It is a fascinating and, I concede, yummy treat.

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Another update: My friend A took the stuff to work today.  The response, fresh from my email client: “Everyone loves your bacon brittle!  One of our software developers said you should start selling it.  The south will love it!”

~ by durhamfood on October 11, 2007.