Bacon

[Denny]

@dwest

@Denny

you can move on to stuffing the dates later

First that launch vehicle and now this?

would you rather have an other go at the meaning of life?

[scheky]

Chocolate Covered Bacon does indeed sound bad at first. Then you realize that salt and chocolate go very well together (Chocolate covered chips, pretzels, nuts). Bacon is just the next logical step.

[Ronbo]

@Jack

@scheky

That’s not food.

Sure it is. It’s made from the same stuff most bacon bits are (bacon bits also have no meat in them).

Interesting that the second ingredient (second in total volume)in that stuff is a preservative.

[djm]

Salt is also a preservative. Neither is particularly good for you in these quantities.

djm

[Ronbo]

@jim stone

I lived in Katmandu for awhile, on the block
where the butchers lived, so I saw lots of
pigs slaughtered. Heaven knows why pigs are
so smart but they definitely know the score
well in advance, and every pig for blocks
screams when a pig is slaughtered.
If you can imagine being dragged off and
tied up so that, in the morning, your
head will be crushed with several blows
of an axe, then it happens as you scream
and try to roll away, that’s what pigs go
through. They feel what you would feel.

One doesn’t have to be a vegetarian not
to want to be involved in this. I don’t eat pigs.
Too much pain and terror.
Pigs are the last animals we should eat.

That’s how they kill them in katmandu, not here. They still know what is going to happen, though. Much smarter than beef. That is why pork is brain food.

[Ronbo]

@djm

Salt is also a preservative. Neither is particularly good for you in these quantities.

djm

But salt is not a manufactured product, cobbled together from bits of oil, and dribbled all over otherwise naturally rotting food. With or without preservatives, it isn’t food anyway. Soy is an imitation of lots of things, but it isn’t anything. And you quit trying to change the subject.

[mutepointe]

Wisdom about bacon:

1. I bake my bacon in the oven on large cookie sheets with a lip. I can cook more bacon than with a skillet and there is next to no chance of burning the bacon. If I have the time, I cook it between 250 and 300. If I’m in a rush, 350 and watch it. The bacon only needs turned once.
2. Mom used to flour her bacon before frying to abosrb the grease. Now why have three people in our family had bypass surgery? I forget.
3. Buy the thick slice bacon. It’s worth it.
4. I miss the bacon that was sold in cans. The paper started a campfire like nobody’s business and let everyone know breakfast was being prepared.

Comments about veggie bacon:

1. You don’t want to eat bacon but you’ll put those chemicals in your mouth?
2. Why do you still want to eat foods that taste like meat? I would think a real vegetarian would want to stay far away from meat type things, especially if there were some moral, ethical, or religious reason fore being meat-free.

[emmline]

@mutepointe

Comments about veggie bacon:

1. You don’t want to eat bacon but you’ll put those chemicals in your mouth?

Ingredients (Smart Bacon)
Water, soy protein isolate, wheat gluten, soybean oil, textured soy protein concentrate, textured wheat gluten, less than 2% of: natural smoke flavor, natural flavor (from vegetable sources), grill flavor (from sunflower oil), carrageenan, evaporated cane juice, paprika oleoresin (for flavor & color), potassium chloride, sesame oil, spice extractives, fermented rice flour, tapioca dextrin, citric acid, salt.
Contains: Wheat, Soy, Sesame

I grant you, there are quite a few ingredients. But which of those chemicals would you worry about?

2. Why do you still want to eat foods that taste like meat? I would think a > real vegetarian > would want to stay far away from meat type things, especially if there were some moral, ethical, or religious reason fore being meat-free.

There’s a type of real vegetarian? You mean there are fake ones? Like fakin’ bacon?
Well, speaking personally, I ate all meats until I was 30, then stopped all but a little fish, for a variety of reasons–some ethical, some health-related.
I enjoyed eating meat. Why wouldn’t I still like a BLT if something tasty approximates it?
Food choices are very individual, and people who thoughtfully consider what they want to eat reach different conclusions. That’s okay.

edit: Anyway, this is a thread about what people like to do with bacon, so, except for answering the question I’m not going to the veg/non-veg debate thing. The non-meat bacon alternatives were just thrown in there as options.

[Jack]

I’ve changed a lot in the last couple of years. I think am no longer a vegetarian for religious reasons. I’m a vegetarian “just because.” It’s something I’ve been for most of my life so I don’t ever question “should I eat that dead cow?” I just don’t. I do not stay with my vegetarianism for any specific reason, but more out of habit and choice to keep that habit.

[djm]

The best comes from Macon, I hear.

djm

[mutepointe]

I knew I’d get someone wound up, never thought it would be you.

That’s just too many ingredients. Once I see more than three ingredients in anything that don’t sound like honest to goodness foods, my eyes glaze over. I never heard of a couple of those things like carageeeeeeean (what’s up with all those e’s?) and why would you need to evaporite cane juice. spice extractives? that’s a bit vague. and potassium chloride, what tree does that grow on?

I know there aren’t “real vegetarians” and thanks for the answer. I know there are lots of things about being a vegetarian that I have never contemplated or even tried to understand. I do wish animals were treated much better and they were killed more humanely.

[chas]

My Lord, three pages and no other good bacon ideas? These are far from original except for the first, but here goes:

Modified colcannon – mash some potatoes with a little milk. No need to add butter, as you’ll see. Cook up 1/2 lb bacon. Drain as much grease as you might need to, then add some chopped cabbage or kale. Cook till it’s as crunchy or not as you want, then add to the mash poes. Crumble the bacon in.

Peanut butter and bacon sandwich. Make it exactly as you’d think.

Franks and blanks – slit hot dogs 1/2 way through, lengthwise. Put strips of sharp cheddar in the slits, wrap with slices of bacon, and broil till the bacon is crispy.

Spaghetti Carbonara – fry up some bacon. In parallel, heat up some water. Drain some bacon grease and add some pepper flakes to that. You might also want to add some butter. Crack about 3 eggs and whip them, then add about 1/2 c of parmesan to that. Cook 1/2 lb spaghetti, drain quickly but not thoroughly. Add the bacon grease/pepper flakes and toss a little. Add the egg/parmesan mixture and toss quickly. The egg should get thick but should not set completely. Crumble the bacon over it when it’s served.

I suspect biscuits and gravy would be good with bacon instead of sausage, although you’d need to spice it up a bit.

I’ve never met a burger that bacon didn’t improve.

Unfortunately I don’t have the sort of lipid profile that allows me to enjoy bacon as often as I’d like (not nearly as often as my wife would like). I’m familiar with the veggie alternatives, but, honestly, if I want bacon, I want bacon, not some substitute. Same with cheese and burgers. I’ve had one veggie sausage that really almost tasted like sausage. But for the most part, if I don’t feel I can have the meat product, I’ll have a vegetarian dish, not a vegetable product disguised as meat.

[CHasR]

@jim stone

I lived in Katmandu for awhile, on the block
where the butchers lived, so I saw lots of
pigs slaughtered. Heaven knows why pigs are
so smart but they definitely know the score
well in advance, and every pig for blocks
screams when a pig is slaughtered.
If you can imagine being dragged off and
tied up so that, in the morning, your
head will be crushed with several blows
of an axe, then it happens as you scream
and try to roll away, that’s what pigs go
through. They feel what you would feel.

One doesn’t have to be a vegetarian not
to want to be involved in this. I don’t eat pigs.
Too much pain and terror.
Pigs are the last animals we should eat.

Ah, f*ck 'em.

Dey’re only pigs!

hae ye ever tried tae reason with any o’ em?

Bacon, Ham , Sausage, Scrapple,

yum.

.

[Jack]

@chas

My Lord, three pages and no other good bacon ideas?

Well, a lot of us are vegetarian and/or Jews. What’d you expect?

[cowtime]

I suspect biscuits and gravy would be good with bacon instead of sausage, although you’d need to spice it up a bit.

I think bacon gravy is a lot better than sausage gravy. All it needs is a little salt and pepper. Oh, and biscuits. Now I’m hungry and will be forced to eat something…wonder if we’ve got any bacon?

[I.D.10-t]

One thing that always bothered me about bacon is the grease. I have never found a good use for the half cup of fat that is left over from baking the stuff. I don’t care for the taste in corn bread, I haven’t tried making gravies from it, toasting bread in it is usually the way my BLT’s are made, but nothing seems to really be the best use.

[Jack]

@I.D.10-t

One thing that always bothered me about bacon is the grease. I have never found a good use for the half cup of fat that is left over from baking the stuff.

My mother made gravy with it. I used to call it hog gravy (which it is), to make her mad.

[CHasR]

SO this travelling salesman’s car breaks down in the rain, and he manages to find a farm in a remote part of Ireland (or Scotland, Cornwall, Luxembourg, Sweeden, where-ever), and the kindly farmer and his 3 beautiful daughters take him in for the night.
Problem is, there’s this 3-legged pig running freely around the house: in & out of bedrooms, on & off the couch, etc, which the farm fam pays no mind to at all.
Wile sitting at dinner being prodded by th epig looking for scraps, the salesman decides to bring it up, ‘Tell me, sir, so what’s with this pig , then ? How’d it lose a leg?’ he ventures as a start.

'OH, dat pig, ya mean", ‘says the farmer. ‘Vell- ya knoe one night the chimney caught fire in our old place, and dint ya know that pig made such a screamin’ and such a fuss, charged down our door and ran upstairs, thru the fire,an all that, woke us all up and saved wir lives?’

’ Incredible. I see why you let him have the run of the house. The pig lost his leg in the fire, eh?"

“OH, NONONONO” continued the farmer. “the secont time was when wee Aggie had gone swimmin, caught her foot on a log under the current an was almost drownin, I tell ya, almost drownin!. Dint ya know dat pig ran as fast as can go and fetched me in the far cornfield in da nick o time, and DEN jumped inta the water while I held her up and bumped that log clear out from under her?”
‘whew. Thats quite a pig you ve got there, sir. So that’s how the pig lost a leg, then?’

'Oh, NO. ‘course not’.

SO the salesman says, ’ Well would you mind telling me just how the pig came to lose that leg, then?"

‘ACH’, says the farmer, aghast:













‘A pig like that ya dont eat all at once!’

[djm]

I was passing a pigsty surrounded by a tall, weatherbeaten fence. On the other side of the fence, instead of oinking and squealing, I could hear the pigs chanting, "13 … 13 … 13 … "

I was amazed and intrigued. I just had to know what was going on on the other side. I walked along the fence until I came to a gap in the boards, and rushed forward to take a peek. No sooner had I put my face to the crack when some begger poked me in the eye with a stick.

I covered my face and fell back from the fence, screaming out in pain. From the other side of the fence, I could hear the pigs chanting, "14 … 14 … 14 … "

djm

[Jack]

@djm

I was passing a pigsty surrounded by a tall, weatherbeaten fence. On the other side of the fence, instead of oinking and squealing, I could hear the pigs chanting, "13 … 13 … 13 … "

I was amazed and intrigued. I just had to know what was going on on the other side. I walked along the fence until I came to a gap in the boards, and rushed forward to take a peek. No sooner had I put my face to the crack when some begger poked me in the eye with a stick.

I covered my face and fell back from the fence, screaming out in pain. From the other side of the fence, I could hear the pigs chanting, "14 … 14 … 14 … "

djm

This is creepy and sounds like a Flannery O’Connor story.