For many years I've had a personal theory about food which I call the "bacon-chocolate hypothesis." There exists no food that cannot be improved by the addition of bacon or chocolate. If a food would not taste good with added bacon, then it will taste good with added chocolate. If a food will not taste good with added chocolate, then it will taste good with added bacon. Some foods (pretzels come to mind) would be improved either by being wrapped in bacon or dipped in chocolate.

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IMHO, the best bacon is baked bacon; it's crispier without being over cooked, and not sitting in its own fat.

To do this, lay bacon out on a cooling rack that is set in a sheet pan, and put it into a cold oven that you then set to 400˚. The fat will render out onto the sheet pan, and the bacon will crisp up on the rack. This should take 10-15 minutes, depending on how fast your oven heats up.

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Hee! I wrote the piece, and I'll fess to having tried and/or made most, if not all of these things. The bacon ice cream was INSANE - especially with the addition of maple sugar and bourbon-soaked pecans. If I were to make it again, I'd consider adding some of the smoked salt I made and stockpiled this summer.

Also - mixing 1 part bacon salt to 3-4 parts kosher salt adds a really special somethin' to the rim of a margarita glass.

And Berkana - I totally agree w/ your bacon baking method, and before I got a cooling rack, I used to crumple up aluminum foil so the grease would have little channes into which to drain.

If anyone else has any more bacon tips or weird recipes, I'm your guinea pig.

And if you're ever at the Double Down in Las Vegas, try the bacon-tini and thank me later.

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You all should check out the book 'seduced by bacon'. I got it last year for christmas, a must for bacon lovers.

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And line that baking pan with foil if you don't want to spend an hour scrubbing the pan. 2 years ago, we came home to find my daughter's boyfriend, the darling man, scrubbing it out after I'd let it soak all day!

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I made bacon vodka this summer. Very interesting.

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You'd think that by now Pam or one of those companies that make spray-on grease would make Bacon Flavored Spray and just forget about canola and olive oils and garlic oil.

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