Test #166: Bacon and LEMONHEAD

The subject
Before super-pretty Evan Dando and his bandmates came forth with their easy-to-swallow alt-rock, to the delight of 90s college students 'cross the land, we had Lemonheads the candy. The good people at Ferrara-Pan have been making these sour little nuggets of deliciousness for nearly half a century. They consist of hard candy surrounded by a soft, bright-yellow coating, and the dual textures makes them light years more interesting to your mouth than dumb old lemon drops. We're a little sad that the other candies in the 'Heads line lost their former fun names (i.e. Grapeheads used to be Alexander the Grape, and Cherryheads used to bear the fun-if-slightly-racist moniker Cherry Chan), but they're still all delicious. They're all delicious, and we dig the jelly-bean-like chewy 'Heads, but the original Lemonheads will still be nearest and dearest to our sweet hearts. What better way to show our love and appreciation to these beloved confections than to wrap one in bacon?

The result
As is common with sugary test subjects, we wrapped the tidbit tightly but didn't completely prevent a wee bit of goo from oozing out between the bacon gaps. However, our new BDJ Labs cooking staff heeded our instructions to keep a close eye, and they reacted at the first signs of oozeage to shift the subject from the puddle to a clean section of the test pan, to prevent a nasty burnup. We learned our lesson from previous tests and waited until the bacon-baked Lemonhead had a chance to cool, so by the time we bit down, the candy had returned to its previous soft-around, hard-inside state, only slightly misshapen. As it turns out, the pairing of lemon and bacon is a fitting one--the flavors mingled a bit, but they stood strong against each other for a nice pas de deux of sweet and savory. However, the textures were just short of awesome. We might, for a Sunday recipe, try sprinkling bacon with crushed lemon candy and baking to see how THAT goes. Stay tuned.

In the meantime, we think Ferrara Pan should come out with BACONheads. Do you agree? Go to their Web site and tell them so.

The conclusion: Bacon + Lemonhead = neato

Next up: Bacon and Starburst