starkraving_mad (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} starkraving_mad) wrote,@ 2007-11-07 09:15:00 |
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more bacon than YOUR BODY HAS ROOM FOR
I never thought I'd actually say this, but I had entirely too much bacon last night.
A month or so back I was challenged by a co-worker to make a fruit pie with bacon. This is because another co-worker made an apple pie with bacon that 'tasted like bile'. So I got to thinking about how I would do it. I quickly settled on pear as the fruit to use. And I decided that perhaps a custard pie would be best. Bacon custard with pears on top.
So last nightmirror_self and I got around to trying this out. We ended up making 3 different pear and bacon dishes.
Dish 1: Pear and Bacon Clafouti
Based loosely on this recipe. This one turned out quite well. The bacon was a distinct, but not overpowering flavor and the maple pears were AWESOME. Although we did make waaaaaaaaaay too many pears, which led to some PowerThirst style hilarity, such as "more pears than YOUR SKILLET HAS ROOM FOR."
Dish 2: Bacon Custard and Pear Tart
This one was a more limited success. I didn't have a tart pan. (I was sure I had a tart pan.) So I ended up using a torte pan. The pan didn't work so well. Presentation was a mess. But the flavors were pretty solid. Did a pastry crust, a sweet bacon-flavored custard and topped it with the same maple pears from the clafouti.
Dish 3: Bacon (Fat) Ice Cream
When we had finished all that and were waiting for things to come out of the oven I realized there was extra bacon fat. And we can't let bacon fat go to waste. So what did I decide to try? Ice cream. I took a fairly standard ice cream recipe, sweetened it with maple syrup instead of sugar and just dumped in a ton of bacon fat. Needless to say, this did not end well. Eating a bite of it was like eating a mouthful of cold bacon-y buttercream icing. It left a thick coating of bacon grease firmly covering all interior surfaces of the mouth. Not a success. BUT. The flavors were actually good. Texture and mouthfeel: horrid. Flavors: good. So what does this mean? Well, it means I have my work cut out for me to perfect this, but I think I may just have the beginnings of a lovely recipe for maple-bacon ice cream. This definitely merits a second try at minimum. (Oh, and did I mention that the bits of bacon grease kinda congealed in chunks to make the final texture of the ice cream somewhat like sugar cookie dough? No? Well, it did. MMMMMMMM.)
So by the time we had eaten much bacon in the course of preparing things, then sampled everything at just about every stage in the making, and when it was finished, we were both feeling rather ill. So much bacon. Such small stomachs. But much fun was had. And both the first two did turn out well. Brought them in to work today and several people agree with the tastiness.
I also think that based on the success of this, I may try a straight up pear and bacon pie soon (with maple - the maple is key.)
So, as a parting note I will leave you all with a song.
Bacon, Bacon, Bacon
I made you out of Pig.
Bacon, Bacon, Bacon
I'll eat you and get big.
I never thought I'd actually say this, but I had entirely too much bacon last night.
A month or so back I was challenged by a co-worker to make a fruit pie with bacon. This is because another co-worker made an apple pie with bacon that 'tasted like bile'. So I got to thinking about how I would do it. I quickly settled on pear as the fruit to use. And I decided that perhaps a custard pie would be best. Bacon custard with pears on top.
So last night
mirror_self and I got around to trying this out. We ended up making 3 different pear and bacon dishes. Dish 1: Pear and Bacon Clafouti
Based loosely on this recipe. This one turned out quite well. The bacon was a distinct, but not overpowering flavor and the maple pears were AWESOME. Although we did make waaaaaaaaaay too many pears, which led to some PowerThirst style hilarity, such as "more pears than YOUR SKILLET HAS ROOM FOR."
Dish 2: Bacon Custard and Pear Tart
This one was a more limited success. I didn't have a tart pan. (I was sure I had a tart pan.) So I ended up using a torte pan. The pan didn't work so well. Presentation was a mess. But the flavors were pretty solid. Did a pastry crust, a sweet bacon-flavored custard and topped it with the same maple pears from the clafouti.
Dish 3: Bacon (Fat) Ice Cream
When we had finished all that and were waiting for things to come out of the oven I realized there was extra bacon fat. And we can't let bacon fat go to waste. So what did I decide to try? Ice cream. I took a fairly standard ice cream recipe, sweetened it with maple syrup instead of sugar and just dumped in a ton of bacon fat. Needless to say, this did not end well. Eating a bite of it was like eating a mouthful of cold bacon-y buttercream icing. It left a thick coating of bacon grease firmly covering all interior surfaces of the mouth. Not a success. BUT. The flavors were actually good. Texture and mouthfeel: horrid. Flavors: good. So what does this mean? Well, it means I have my work cut out for me to perfect this, but I think I may just have the beginnings of a lovely recipe for maple-bacon ice cream. This definitely merits a second try at minimum. (Oh, and did I mention that the bits of bacon grease kinda congealed in chunks to make the final texture of the ice cream somewhat like sugar cookie dough? No? Well, it did. MMMMMMMM.)
So by the time we had eaten much bacon in the course of preparing things, then sampled everything at just about every stage in the making, and when it was finished, we were both feeling rather ill. So much bacon. Such small stomachs. But much fun was had. And both the first two did turn out well. Brought them in to work today and several people agree with the tastiness.
I also think that based on the success of this, I may try a straight up pear and bacon pie soon (with maple - the maple is key.)
So, as a parting note I will leave you all with a song.
Bacon, Bacon, Bacon
I made you out of Pig.
Bacon, Bacon, Bacon
I'll eat you and get big.
