Too much bacon. Is there such a thing? I’ll go with yes, as this cured and salted pork deliciousness is everywhere. Every. Where. While much of what you’ll find is amazing (bacon chocolate? bacon waffles? bacon ice cream? bacon bourbon? I say yes times four.), there are some combinations that just seem wrong. (Talking to you bacon bubble gum, bacon bikini, bacon band-aids.)
That said, I hopped on the bacon bandwagon today after reading Words Become Superfluous. Amb’s mention of bacon (dipped in chocolate!) inspired me to tackle a project that’s long been on my to-do list.
I’d first seen bacon jam on a Cooking Channel show featuring Skillet Street Food, one of Seattle’s many phenomenal food trucks. Though I considered purchasing via mail order, it seemed spendy and I figured I could make it myself. It’s been over a year since then and recent mentions of bacon jam in articles I’ve read brought it all back.
I. Heart. Bacon Jam.
Knowing I wanted bourbon in my bacon jam, I hunted down this recipe. Save the bacon, which I wasted no time in buying, I had everything on hand. Putting the jam together was easy enough, though a longer process as there was plenty of measuring and simmering involved.
starting the simmer
cooking down
and down
But all time spent was so worth it. I never dreamed I’d find a food I liked better than ice cream, but it seems Ben & Jerry’s has met its match. This bacon jam is out-of-this-world crazy good.
Spooning it straight from the jar is lovely, but spreading it on crackers, toast, bagels, waffles, etc gives it another layer of flavor and texture. I’d stir it into ice cream, use it to frost a cupcake (suggestion given in one of the articles I read and while I laughed when I read it, I can see now that it would totally work), dollop it on a baked potato, spread it on pizza crust. This is mighty fine jam and methinks you need a jar in your refrigerator, too.
My plan is to hold on to as much of the jam as possible for a get-together later this week. The jam will accompany DIY crackers, so am looking for recipes. (hint hint) If you can help me out here, please leave your recipe link in comments or circle back with a message at deLizious facebook. I hope to have a cracker story or two next week in this space. Until then, go get yourself a jar of bacon jam and a spoon and enjoy!
food for fun 
WOW your bacon jam looks amazing! I love bacon, so there could never be too much bacon for me. So far, every type of bacon combination I’ve tried is either good or great (although I have never tried bacon bubble gum, bacon bikini, or bacon band-aid). I need to try out this recipe soon!
Thanks, Ada. The sandwich you mentioned on facebook had me swooning. The bikini, band-aids, and bubble gum are probably best skipped 😉
Ha — Skillet Street is one of my customers! =) They buy tons and tons of bacon at a time for their marvelous jam. (Yes I’ve had it and yes, it’s to die for.) Your version though has the added benefit of booze — which means it wins the battle in my book. Yum!
Love love love that your company supplies Skillet Street! YOU are responsible for their bacon jam 🙂 Will probably pony up the cash for a jar eventually, even if just to compare. (And it’s a business expense, right?) Though the bourbon seemed non-negotiable. Holler if you make–I’ve decided I will never again not have bacon jam on hand. There is nothing it wouldn’t go well with!
So….bacon jam mixed through Ben & Jerry’s?
Yes, saucy!!!!!!! I like that idea very much 🙂
Bacon can make a lot of things taste so much better. It gives a good flavor to the right foods.
agreed 100% Thanks for coming by 🙂
Ooo, I am intrigued. My boyfriend and his friends tried bacon crumbled on top of ice cream a few years ago, and I thought it was ridiculous. However, this does sound like it would be great on crackers. Sorry, I would help you with a cracker recipe, but I am still working on perfecting my technique on those. Let me know if you find a good recipe/technique!
Bacon and ice cream are good together, Jenny, really! I remember your cracker post–thinking the only thing we both needed to do differently was roll thinner. I’ll let you know what I try. Need to get crackin’ on that! (food pub alert, haha)
have to try this when the kids come over for brunch – they are bacon lovers and will love a new alternative. you’re the best! hugs
yes, make bacon jam, Mimi 🙂 You certainly don’t have to wait for guests, though if you’re concerned about eating the entire jar yourself in one sitting and making shopping for jeans even harder, then maybe put it off until you have help eating it. Though that didn’t stop me–jar is already halfway empty! But some things in life are so amazing you just need them in your life, no matter the consequences 😉 Bacon jam is one of them, I’d say. (oh, but keep it away from sir Bogart etc)
GIven that SIr Bogart woke me at 2:30 this morning to go potty – trust me, the little one gets no bacon jam…;-)
Bacon jam sounds absolutely amazing! I am truely impressed!!
Just wondering if you could expand the concept one step further? What if…..you could come up with a combination of bacon and egg marmalade? Just think, for those people with minimal time in the mornings this could provide bacon and eggs on toast for that “complete” one-stop breakfast?
Thanks, Steven. Am stuck on this egg marmalade thing–can’t even imagine. I’m all for frying up (or poaching, scrambling, whatever) an egg and putting it on toast already spread with bacon jam. Or putting bacon jam into an omelette. Or spooning it over scrambled eggs. Can we do that instead?
Though your idea made me curious, so googled “egg marmalade.” Not a new idea at all! http://www.cruditas.com/2011/01/21/egg-marmalade/
Will let you take it from here, Steven 😉
Hi Liz, I am really impressed with the research and had a look at the link – what surprised me more was that someone had actually tried to do it – amazing! By the way, after reading your blog you inspired me to have some fried bacon for breakfast and visualised the thought of the bacon jam – I think that you have a potential global winner with this one! Can’t wait to read your next blog post, whatever that may be! 😉
I get a shout out and get to talk about bacon for the second day in a row?!? My goodness Liz, you spoil me !!! 😀
This looks amazing. I have never heard of bacon jam before and now I’m wondering where it’s been all my life!!!
I, too, am wondering how I got this far in life without knowing about bacon jam. It will now be a staple in my pantry as I can’t imagine a world where I can’t have a spoonful or spread it on bread, etc.
Happy to spoil you as you deserve it 😀 Wish you could be here tomorrow (Fri) night as then you could eat the bacon jam spread on crackers!
bacon jam on homemade crackers and getting to hang out with you?! now that would be a recipe for a perfect Friday night!!! see what I did there?! recipe?!? the food puns don’t just stop at BoFN, my friend! although I may have gotten a tad carried away over there. Rob is sulking now, I think. 😉
Wow does that look amazing. I’d never heard of bacon jam before. Sometime when I’m in Seattle next I’ll have to track down Skillet Street and test theirs out for comparison.
If you get to Skillet Street, let me know. Would love to take a tour of west coast food trucks! Bacon jam will make you swoon, Tracy! Maybe Fannie, Bunny, etc would like it, too.
Thanks for putting the link in your post for Skillet Street. It looks like they have a restaurant too.
I’ll put it on my list for reconnaissance on my next trip to Seattle. We seem to get up there about once a quarter.
Seattle evny!!!
Oh no, and it’s not like I don’t have Minneapolis envy…who has Garrison Keillor in their “back yard”. 🙂
because there’s so much to envy about living in Minnesota: huge snowfalls that stay on the ground six months or more. Lots of snow in April (this past year), subzero temperatures for weeks on end. I guess that’s the worst of it–everything else is pretty good 🙂 Though Seattle, Portland, etc has the very best food truck scene ever. And they also have Voodoo Doughnuts which I can only imagine!
Voodoo Doughnuts is legend in these parts. I’ve only driven passed and sampled the smell, never had time to stop. (It’s on my wish list.) Usually on the way to a family function.
this sounds incredibly wonderful, i am a bacon fanatic and i imagine the consistency of this would be amazing.
yes, amazing it is, Beth. Thanks for coming by! Once again, wishing I could host a cocktail party here where I could hand out REAL crackers and REAL bacon jam to all the lovely and awesome commenters 🙂 (REAL cocktails would be served too, of course)
I love Kevin’s recipes a lot too! He inspired me to begin a foodblog!!! 🙂
Bacon jam , what a neat & tasty idea! I would never have thought of that! 😉 x A must make! x
Love that Kevin started you on your (awesome) path. Yes, make yourself a batch and circle back. Am sure you’ll do wonders with yours. Lots of recipes online, so you could tweak it to make it exactly what you like best.
🙂 x
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This really does look – and sound – excellent. I’ve also resisted making bacon jam up until now, but this is pretty persuasive!
I’d go for it, Georgina. Resist no longer 😉 Appreciate your comment very much. Somehow it got lost in the shuffle–wish I’d found it sooner!
this has me so curious…i havent heard about bacon jam before! i think i would enjoy this on my toast in the morning:)
yes, Trace, it’s fantastic on morning toast, noon sandwich, evening baked potato, etc. Served it at a party last night and a friend and I were trying to think of something it wouldn’t taste good with. Could only come up with jelly beans! (this was really funny to us as we’d had a few drinks in at that point)
Thanks for coming by 🙂
Hmmmm. Now you have me curious. I have seen Skillet Bacon Spread in the markets around Seattle and never made the purchase. I’ll give it a try. Skillet really is a wonderful food truck (airstream)…haven’t seen it in awhile now that I think about it. They have expanded into a couple of diners and a walk-up counter too! Good stuff. Lovely post Liz!!
If you do buy, let me know. Wondering if I should go ahead and splurge and make the purchase, even if just to compare what I made with what they make. Very cool that Skillet is expanding. Could you buy the spread from the truck?
Thanks for your kind words. Love to find fellow bloggers who share the same passions.
Bourbon and Bacon wow. Great idea!
Thanks Mouse 🙂 Wondering if you were around for this post: http://wp.me/p2dvv9-sV
The two flavors are meant for each other, yes.
I’m so glad you wrote this because there is something I’ve been wanting to get off my chest, and I think you can take it: Bacon Jam sounds repulsive to me! I keep seeing it all over the place and gag a little every time. This is absolutely not a comment on your rendition here, which I’m sure is as delicious as bacon jam can possibly be. I just can’t get past the words bacon and jam put together!
It doesn’t sound good, does it? But I still remember how the Skillet Street version was talked up on the food truck show. Figured it must be really amazing to garner so much praise. Then lately recipes seemed to be turning up everywhere. Wonder if you’d like if you tried? Do you like bacon? Though if you’re not eating any, that leaves more for me 🙂
I do like bacon, but I don’t like spreading meat onto things. I guess I could try to compare it to tuna salad, which is made of meat and spreadable, but tuna salad doesn’t remind me of jelly. I don’t know if I’m going to come around on this one.
It’s no tuna salad. More like peanut butter maybe? Spreading meat on things sounds gross to me, too. No need to come around. Though if you ever make it to Minnesota for Happy Hour, I’ll have bacon jam in my spread 😉
Love your honesty. Makes for good table talk 🙂
What an intriguing… thing! I think my boyfriend would really enjoy this!
you’re an awesome girlfriend if you make this for him 🙂 I made it for myself, lol. Thanks, Winnie!
I think my brother would be spooning bacon jam haha what a crazy idea 😀
Sounds awesome though and very popular 🙂
Cheers
CCU
Not even going to ask what you’re talking about with your brother 😉 It was indeed a popular spread at the party, but I’m the only one who eats it in my family, so the rest of the jar is mine 🙂 Heck, I would spread this jam on your chocolate chip cookies! Thanks for your kind words.
Liz, I am so excited!!! I don’t know if you saw on my post today that I mentioned bacon jam was in one of the courses. It was with the yummy goat cheese and cracker. It was so good! I was telling my friend that I wanted to have it at home on a piece of toast topped with a fried egg in the morning and now I have a recipe from you 🙂 So happy and hungry now!
I did see that 🙂 seems bacon jam is trending right now. Yes, make yourself a jar. It makes everything better!
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Your bacon jam looks amazing! I made this once (sans bourbon) a while ago and loved it so much! I’m going to have to revisit bacon jam soon, my mouth is watering!
Love that you’ve made bacon bourbon, too! No carbs 😉