Bacon Ecstacy and Winner of the “Toast of the Town” VIP Tickets
Four words: Bacon. Jam. In one.
If that doesn’t make your lips smack, it should. When a pork-happy colleague of my husband’s happened to mention how much he loved a most unusual spread called Bacon Jam, well, I just had to spring for a jar to see what the fuss was about.
It’s made by Skillet Street Food of Seattle, which was founded by Joshua Henderson, a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America at Hyde Park. Turns out working in restaurants wasn’t all that it was cracked up to be. So, Henderson took to the streets — refurbishing an old Airstream trailer with a full commercial kitchen to rev up to office parks and farmers markets to sell freshly made bistro-style food. Consider it a cooler, retro version of the taco truck.
Bacon Jam, a concoction that Henderson has been making for years, tops the burgers he creates. Thankfully, he started selling this magical stuff in jars for those like me who aren’t in Seattle.
It’s almost like a thick, ropey ragu in texture, with wonderful smokiness and the sweet-tangy flavor of a relish. Henderson renders bacon, then adds onions, brown sugar, and balsamic vinegar, before letting it all cook down for six hours until it’s concentrated and jammy.
My husband’s colleague, Bruce, enjoys Bacon Jam slathered on Triscuits. It was a great addition to a spinach and cheese omelet I made one weekend. Now, I’m dreaming of it in a tart with crumbles of blue cheese.
An 8-ounce jar is $12. A 1-ounce serving has 140 calories, 120 of which are fat calories. But don’t think about that. I know I won’t as I reach for one more little spoonful.
And now for the winner of the pair of VIP tickets to “Toast of the Town”:
As you recall, I held a contest to give away a pair of VIP tickets to that upcoming food and wine extravaganza, which will be held in San Francisco on April 22. Contestants were asked to answer the question, “What gets you most enthusiastic about wine?”
The winner of the tickets, who gave the best answer, is Carol (CG the Foodie), who wrote: “Love the question, perfect after a day of tasting in Paso Robles! Wine is community. You can ask friends and colleagues to meet over a glass of wine. You welcome people with a glass of wine (at least I do!) when they come to your home. You celebrate life with wine.You don’t have to be an expert to love wine. It is accessible and inaccessible all at once because it is subjective. Which means it is also a topic of conversation. That brings me full circle in my analysis that wine is community because even if you have nothing in common with the stranger next to you, you can create community by sharing your thoughts on wine.”
Congrats! And thank you to everyone who participated.
Just went to a bacon themed cooking class in SF on Friday night. We made bacon ice cream!
Yum! I sure need to try this bacon jam!
Bacon jam…..sounds very much out of the world…haha. I would love to try. Looks really delicious on toast…mmm. Thanks for sharing. Congrats to the winner!
Congrats to the winner, and you are so right, sounds like bacon ecstasy!
Mmmmmm. I’m planning on making homemade bacon again soon so I may have to experiment with turning some of it into this. Yum!
Delicious .. on toast prefect for afternoon brunch .. love to try .. thank you for sharing ..
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Would be a guy to come up with this! 😛
I am so excited and grateful to have won! Eek!!! Thank you!!!
And I am drooling over the thought of bacon jam. Seriously I am imagining all of the uses. How would it pair with a dark chocolate drizzle?
Bacon and sweet are a great, and often underestimated, combination. Like honey-baked ham but more!
Just this weekend I made bacon pine nut brittle. Ah, yum, I’ll write it up in a few days.
And then there’s pig candy. Or Alton Brown’s take on it — praline pig candy. Bacon, brown sugar, pecans, baked to crunchy, gooey onenness. That’s next weekend…
Bacon jam on triscuits. Oh my. You blew my mind. ALthough I think I could eat bacon jam on anything. I’ll need to look for this, thanks for posting!
Bacon jam sounds really interesting. I definitely want to try it.
My lips are definitely smacking! So happy they sell it online. Or I might just pick some up in person at the trailer (planning to be in Vancouver next month, probably worth doing the 2 hr drive across the border)
Bacon jam? Sounded weird at the beginning, but I’d love to try it 🙂
how very awesome. i first heard of this on top chef, but i certainly didn’t realize it was available already made! hooray!
Must be exciting flavors going on….*finger reaching out to the bacon jam”…2 seconds later…*licking fingers*
Oh, I see another trip down the sorry sorry road to overindulgence coming up with this one! Thanks (?) Carolyn.
And Moe, pig candy is a staple at our holiday brunch gatherings, but I’ve never thought to add pecans to the mix. Sounds delicious!
Congrats to the winner!
I keep forgetting. I made Bacon Jam and gave it out at Christmas. Loved it. Need to post it soon.
Mrs. L: Oooh! You MUST share your bacon jam recipe. Soon!! 😉
Woohoo! I love bacon. I hope I can have a bite in that toast. lol! 🙂
If you have never been to the actual Skillet Truck, I highly suggest it if you ever get out the Seattle way.
Peabody: Have not yet had that great experience. But after hearing about the souped-up Airstream, I want to book a flight to Seattle right now! 😉
Congrats to the winner, and I look forward to checking out Bacon Jam.
Bacon in jam form just sounds so good!
I ended up buying a jar of bacon jam by mail (S&H was $7!) but I was desperate: since it was my husband’s birthday and I couldn’t think of anything to get for him. He likes bacon. A lot. So I’m glad I saw this on FoodGal – gift idea!.
We tasted it, and he wasn’t crazy about it, but I loved it. He said it reminded him of corn beef hash in texture He doesn’t like tangy/sour as much as I do. The vinegar does stand out.
After I finished off a box of triscuits, I still have half a jar of bacon jam left, so I’ve been slathering it on tortillas I have lying around (reminds me I need to find a recipe to use up tortillas . . .)