Bacon Bit: Cooking genius recommends waffle iron for bakin' bacon

Normally we wouldn't question the genius of Good Eats host Alton Brown. He's taught us about roasting our own coffee, how to make pickles, aging our own steaks, and the best way to bust open a pomegranate--all fantastic advice we use on a regular basis. However, when we saw the video our friends at Lifehacker picked up on, showing Mr. Brown touting the benefits of cooking bacon in a waffle iron, we balked. What about the mess? The grease drainage? Waffle-patterned bacon? Granted, the waffle iron in BDJ Labs was procured at Target for $8, so it's not very big and doesn't have removable, dishwasherable plates in it, but still--sounds weird to us. We stand by our recommendation that bacon be cooked in the oven--on a nonstick-sprayed cookie sheet or jelly-roll pan, at 350, for 12 to 15 minutes. Below is the video, or you can click here to go watch on Lifehacker.

Test #188: Bacon and CAULIFLOWER

The subject
Cauliflower is among the prettiest vegetables. It's also one of the more--how can we put this delicately?--gas-inducing. Seriously, if a person were to eat a whole head of cauliflower at once, about 45 minutes afterward, he could be considered a biological weapon. Happily, the flavor and texture more than make up for the embarrassing side effects (in the opinion of most BDJ Labs staffers, anyway). Eat it with friends, and you're all in the same, potentially poot-filled boat. Just be sure to keep a window open, and stay away from open flames. And if you're having a cauliflower party, you might feel inclined to wrap a bit in bacon--which is just what we did.

The results
Pretty darned good--the cauliflower gave up hardly any of its slightly earthy taste, but took on plenty of bacony flavor throughout. The only downside: in order to crisp-cook the bacon, the whole shebang had to stay in the oven a bit longer than the cauliflower could take, so rather than the crunchy texture that lightly steamed cauli takes on, the veggie was pretty darned wilted. Also, as cooked cauliflower usually does, the nugget coming out of the oven smelled. Kind of like a fart wrapped in bacon. It tasted much better, thank goodness.

The conclusion: Bacon + cauliflower = smells like a winner

Bacon Bit: A Visit from the Bacon Fairy

Good morning, my bacon-loving children! I'm Porcina, the Bacon Fairy, guest-blogging on BDJ today. I just wanted to let you know that while the staff of BDJ Labs is sleeping off their bacontini and bacon Mary hangovers this morning, I'm leaving them a fridge full of delicious, magical bacon, so that they can perform their crazy bacon experiments every day for the next week, at the very least. Isn't that wonderful? La la la. I'm a fairy! La la la.

Happy baconing!

B.F.

Aside of Bacon: Gay-larious Comedy Show!

Like our beloved pork strips, Gayco is salty and delicious. Also like bacon, once you've had a taste of Gayco's unique flavor of comedy, you'll want to nom on it again and again. AAAAH, RUNAWAY METAPHOR!! Anyway, here's a clip that doesn't begin to describe how funny they are. Click here for more info about the show, and to get yourself some damned tickets.

BREAKING BACON: Wendy's Loves BDJ

So you saw that we blogged about Wendy's and global bacon domination earlier today, right? Well, the burger-slinging, bacon-loving broad with the red pigtails saw we sent her some bacon love and sent us some love right back--namely, the fast-food giant used that posting as a tidbit in the Wendy's Twitter-based bacon contest. Which is pretty danged awesome. Almost as awesome as winning the big bacon-lovers prizes Wendy's is doling out (almost). Anyway, here's photographic proof:



Yeah. We know when it's real.

Bacon Bit: Wendy's Bacon Deluxe

After the minor disappointment that was the Third Pound Angus Bacon Burger from a certain fast-food establishment (no names, but it rhymes with Schmick Schmonald's), we decided to try the new Bacon Deluxe from Wendy's. In a word: it's awesome. While we fully acknowledge no sandwich could ever have enough bacon on it to satisfy our appetite for salty pork strips, we do have to admit that this sandwich does better than most in delivering the bacon boom.

Also, we applaud Wendy's for doing better than any other national fast-food chain in furthering the cause of worldwide bacon domination; however, it can't stop at just a couple of sandwiches. We at BDJ Labs humbly submit the following suggestions to help Wendy's in its quest to baconate the universe:

1. Bacon Frosty: We already know that one of the most delicious combos available through a Wendy's dining experience is dipping one's fries into a Frosty. Take the salty/sweet sensation to the next level by adding crispy bacon bits to the mix.
2. Bacon-wrapped fries: Before you dunk the potato spears into the fryer, take a few moments to wrap a bacon life preserver around each one.
3. Bacon bits for the baked potatoes: Total no-brainer
4. Bacon Tenders: Wendy's has the tastiest chicken nuggets, but imagine how much better they'd be if they were wrapped in bacon before being battered and friend.
   
5. Bacon Supermegawesomedeluxe: Just like the current fabulous sandwich, only fabulouser. Chop bits of bacon and add it to the beef before forming the patty. Wrap the patty in bacon before frying. Top the patty with 42 strips of bacon. Melt bacon-cheddar cheese over that. Add french-fried onions that have been cooked in bacon grease. Douse with bacon-ranch dressing. Top with genetically engineered tomatoes that have been cross-bred with the nation's finest Yorkshire hogs to impart them with bacony goodness (see the "tomacco" episode of "The Simpsons" to get an idea of how this would work). Then, instead of a top bun: more bacon.

We were going to tell you about Wendy's Twitter contest to find the nation's biggest bacon lover, but since we want to keep the prize money and not share, we're not telling after all, and instead we cordially invite you to go F yourselves.

Have a bacony day,

BDJ Labs

Bacon Bit: "Bizarre" bacon products

We at BDJ are sick of bacon getting a bad rap. Top Chef winner Richard Blais declared via his Twitter status on Oct 14 that bacon is "overrated." Flippant news commentators refer to H1N1 as "bacon pox." We won't even go into how a certain parent of one BDJ lab staffer uses her Facebook page to deliver motherly grief over the bacon love. No respect.

And then there's food writers like this Kiri Tennenbaum of Delish.com. In her piece, she lists a bunch of bacon-laden products and terms them "bizarre." Slapping such a label on the tantalizing bacony items indicates that for a food writer, she's can't be much of a food adventurer. If she was, she wouldn't think the addition of bacon to ice cream, hot dogs, and other edibles is a mind-blowing concept. Sigh. Don't tell her about Bacon Salt's lip balm, or her head might explode.

The good news: This piece gives exposure to great products like Archie McPhee's bacon gumballs, the Mo's Bacon Bar at Vosges, Das Food's maple-bacon lollipop, and the fabulous-looking bacon ice cream pictured in the article, and above (note McPhee's Mr. Bacon lurking in the background).

We're still steamed about bacon's bad rap. It's not weird, it's not a passing trend, it's a way of LIFE, God dammit. Wake up and smell the salted pork, people!