I came across an article in The Dallas Morning News that made my arteries and taste buds jump for joy. It announced something that as a good friend of the infamous Mr. Cutlets, I already knew. Just as there were the Roaring Twenties, we too are privileged to live in a momentous era: The Golden Age of Bacon. Having smelled, seen and tasted the house-cured bacon at New York City's Righteous Urban Barbecue I concur that we are indeed living in especially meaty times when it comes to bacon. Not to mention the recent emergence of such new preparations as country-fried bacon on menus. It seems like cured pork belly is everywhere these days. Why just the other day I enjoyed five slices of Black Forest Bacon with a half liter of Spaten Oktoberfest.
The article lists a staggering 17 varieties of bacon ranging from such familiar types as applewood, maple and hickory smoked to such less common types as wild boar and peameal bacon, a Canadian specialty of unsmoked lean pork belly that has been sweet-pickle cured and coated lightly in corn meal. The ones that intrigued me most on the list were corncob smoked, cinammon bacon and bourbon vanilla bacon. Bourbon vanilla bacon! Pardon me while I wipe my drool from the keyboard.
The article notes that despite bacon's unhealthful reputation America's consumption of what some like to call pig candy has increased 40 percent in the past five years. As further evidence of the Golden Age of Bacon the author cites the prevalence of bacon-oriented gifts such as the Grateful Palate's bacon of the month club. One gift available at GP that the article doesn't mention truly speaks to the importance of this new era: bacon toilet paper. Nuff said.
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