"bacon" news and stories

Here's a question for all you Freakonomic's fans out there: what do this week's stultifying heat indexes across much of the country have to do with the price of pork bellies?

If you answered that both are at or near record highs, then you get a gold star (you deserve something if you know the price of pork bellies). But you get two gold stars if you answered something along the lines of what was reported in Monday's Wall Street Journal...

On the list of foods that immediately conjure the taste of summer -- strawberries, peaches, watermelon, etc -- bacon is probably about as far down on the list as pumpkin pie. But, when the mercury is knocking on 95 and you want to get out of the kitchen as fast a possible, what do you turn to? A good old B.L.T.

According to BaconToday.com, Neil Caldwell, a graphic designer and bacon lover, has created a "color wheel of bacon." For now Caldwell's staying mum on how he gets the bacon strips to transform into shades of red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet, and how the color stays true even after cooking.

For more on the colored bacon phenomenon, check out the full article on AOL News.

• Bachelor parties are increasingly turning to a new celebration of the flesh -- that of suckling pigs and ornate indulgent feasts.
• Though America is not universally lauded for its gewurtztraminers, writer Eric Asimov reveals a "thin field" of varieties that "would make almost anybody fall in love with this unusual, idiosyncratic grape."
• In the continued trend of porcine power, new varieties of bacon hit the U.S. market.
• Ten years and one fire later, Annisa rise again.
• Subway reaches new heights atop the growing 1 World Trade Center.

Between candied bacon and bacon cupcakes, it may seem as if we're on a bacon jag around here. Dear Vegetarians: My apologies. I promise more non-omnivore posts ahead. But when blogger iammommy (as in, "hear me roar?") added roasted chicken, smooth avocado and peppered bacon to a classic BLT, we changed our lunch menu. If you can get your hands on some of the peppered bacon from venerable Wisconsin maker Nueske's, it may be BLTs from here on in.

And if you like things on the spicy side, try a Gail Simmons recipe for a BLT with avocado and slathered with chili mayo.

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Pancakes and bacon are a classic breakfast combo, so why not cupcakes with bacon for the same salty sweet rush in a dessert? Blogger Garrett at vanillagarlic puts the pork (complete with a little rendered bacon fat) and maple syrup into a buttery cupcake, and tops it with an ultra-sweet frosting made with maple syrup, turbinado sugar, powdered sugar and, for balance (which, I suppose, is balance on some sugar-addled planet), some sea salt. But this is dessert, people, so for today, abandon the guilt and enjoy something over the top. (We featured this cupcake in 2007, when it was introduced, but liked it so much we're bringing it back for an encore.)

Check out our other posts for baconistas, including a recent Feast Your Eyes post on how to cook with candied bacon. And share your weird bacon combos in the comments section below.

Become a member of the Slashfood Flickr pool for a shot of having your photos featured in Feast Your Eyes.