Test #121: Bacon and DILL PICKLE

The subject
Pickles are the king of condiments; they're great on burgers and whatnot, but we prefer to eat 'em plain--sometimes right out of the jar. The refrigerated kind are awesomest, leaving their shelf-dwelling cousins out in the room-temperature grocery store in the dust. The generic "pickle" is a cucumber transformed by vinegar, salt, and assorted spices, but you can pickle just about anything--onions, cauliflower, carrots, peppers, hard-boiled eggs, whatever. [BDJ note: If you'd like to learn more about the whole pickling thing, catch the "American Pickle" episode of one of our favorite foodie shows, Alton Brown's "Good Eats."]

Pickles are fabulous on sandwiches--but how does a Claussen mini dill stand up to baking with bacon? Well, we'll tell you right about now...

The result
The Claussen (our favorite dill pickle over at BDJ Labs) didn't let us down. That hardy little cucumber stood up to the power of bacon while hardly losing any of its essential pickleness--it was hot, obviously, but it still tasted like a well-crafted pickle, and the thing--despite about 15 minutes in a 425-degree oven while wearing a pork-fat shawl--still crunched like a sonufabitch. This is a bacon-food pairing we'd confidently recommend to friends and family...or hell, even people we don't like all that much. It's awesome.

The conclusion: Bacon + pickle = terrific

Friday: Bacon and cheese danish
Saturday: Bacon and Doritos