Weird bacon pic

You're welcome--or we're sorry, either way.

 

Incidentally, cooking bacon while naked? Never a good idea. NEVER.

Stop! Bacon thief! (or, Purloined sirloin)

From the Chicago Tribune:

Around 1,500 pounds of meat stolen in central Iowa

 

MELBOURNE, Iowa — Around three-quarters of a ton of steak and other meat was stolen from a Melbourne meat company.

Barry Sedlacek (sed-LAH'-chek) owns Sedlacek's Wholesale Meat Co. He told the Marshalltown Times-Republican that the thief or thieves got in last weekend and took the meat, a scale and some cash.

The Marshall County Sheriff's Office estimates the loss at $1,900, but that didn't include the meat cost. Sedlacek says that adds several thousand more dollars to the total.

He says whoever took the beef and bacon has to sell it somewhere, so he's hoping for help from someone on the community who is offered a meat bargain.

Shakin' and bacon

Almost as much as she loves bacon, Head BDJ Lab Tech Jenni S. enjoys shakin' her plump rump to some sweet, sweet grooves. Which is why she's very glad she's discovered the wonder that is Dance Dance Party Party--a few nights a week, a bunch of broads gather at a dance studio and get their groove on in the name of fun and fitness. No dudes, no drinking--just getting jiggy with it. Last night, she made her DJ debut, under the moniker "DJ Bacon Strippa." So sad you couldn't have been there--but if you read the lovely entry the nice ladies that run DDPP Chicago wrote about her, it's just like you're there. Click here for the playlist, and some more sweet bacon mashup pics.

"First rule of the farm, don't name your food!"

Words of wisdom from Chicago native and chef extraordinaire Art Smith, which he handed down via tweet to Head BDJ Lab Tech Jenni S. He's a bacon guy and farm lover, so he would know. Plus, it just makes sense. Who'd want to munch on a plate of savory pork strips and exclaim, "Boy, Wilbur sure is tasty!"

Here's a pic of the adorable Chef Smith, with some random woman.

Bacon's magic pans out

Macheesmo.com is a great site geared toward helping timid, amateur chefs become bolder about kitchen activity. The site recently featured a wonderful, magical tip about the healing powers of bacon--specifically, the power to help restore a cast-iron skillet to useful life.

First of all, if you don't have, or regularly use, a cast-iron skillet, you're missing out. Not only do these heavy-duty beauties make great murder weapons (heavy, solid, balanced--no skull can stand up to a good swing!), they're just about perfect cooking tools, because they retain heat and cook stuff evenly. However, they need tender loving care--neglect, overuse, washing with soap, and other things can dull a skillet's lovely black sheen. When that happens, it needs to be recharged, or "seasoned," to bring it back to its former glory. Scrub the rust away, and use bacon grease to revive it. Click here for the full details.

Bacon-eating champ? We're not impressed.

Watch the below video and witness the World Bacon Eating Championship, which went down in St. Louis yesterday afternoon. The winner--charmingly named Dave "Coondog Dawg" O'Karma--wolfed down 40 rashers in the five-minute time frame. Frankly, we're not impressed--we've done that many strips in far less time. We don't even find the world record of 54 pieces in five minutes all that daunting. Look for BDJ lab techs to enter the world of competitive bacon eating soon.

Incidentally, the event was sponsored by Beggin' Strips; however, the strips consumed were real meat, not the faux-pork canine treats.

Get down with the thickness

Paper-thin bacon is fine for some things--wrapping around a Cadbury Creme Egg, for instance--but if you're going for the simple, undeniable pleasure of straight-up bacon eating, thicker is almost always better. Those few extra millimeters give you a crispy outside, chewy inside, and all-around better flavor.

You can procure a package of Oscar Mayer's Super Thick Cut stuff (available at fine grocers everywhere!), but your best bet is to head to your local butcher or specialty-grocer meat counter and have them slice for you. The beauty at left was born at Gene's Sausage Shop in Chicago's Lincoln Square neighborhood. They smoke the lean, Danish-style bacon themselves and offer it up for $4.99/lb. (about what most grocery-store brands will run you, but with MUCH higher quality). Just ask the nice man in the paper hat to slice it about 1/3 of an inch, take them home, and bake them in the oven.

The only tradeoff with thick bacon: Patience. Your average thin-slice strip will take about 12-15 minutes when baked in a 350-degree oven. For thick slices, add about 10 minutes to that. The wait, however, is well worth it.