Valentine's Day

Make some bacon hearts for your special Valentine - or make a valentine for your special bacon.

Bacon’s Brain Building Business

Bacon is full of a very important nutrient called choline, which helps increase our intelligence and memory and has been shown in University studies to help fight off the debilitating effects of Alzheimer’s Disease and other chronic mental impairments.

Bacon’s Blood Balancing Bounty

Several university and medical center studies have shown that including bacon as a regular, moderate part of one’s diet, naturally works to lower the body's blood pressure and blood sugar levels, helping to prevent and / or alleviate the effects of diabetes, as well as heart disease, and stroke.

Pig Squeals

Experts have determined that the average pig squeals at a level of 100-115 decibels. A jet’s engine only reaches about 112 decibels at takeoff. Bacon does not squeal, it sizzles.

Bacon and the N Words

Most discussions of eggs are followed by bacon and vice versa. Nitrates and nitrites may be unhealthy for your body, but what most nutritionists fail to tell you is that you can easily avoid nitrates and nitrites by simply not burning, charring, or over cooking your bacon or by baking your bacon in the oven.

By including some dairy and citrus with a bacon meal, the vitamins A, D and E work to effectively prevent conversion of “nitrates and nitrites into nitrosamines in the stomach, rendering them harmless to the body. Yea!
#bacon

Bacon Elevator

Bacon is an effective mood elevator. Bacon makes us feel happy, satisfied, and blissful, which greatly reduces stress and effectively relieves the negative effects of frustration.

Bacon Brain Building

Bacon is full of an important nutrient called choline, which helps increase intelligence and memory and has been shown in University studies to help fight off the debilitating effects of Alzheimer’s Disease and other chronic mental impairments. Bacon helps me to remember to eat more #bacon.

Bacon's Blood Balancing Bounty

Several university and medical center studies have shown that including bacon as a regular, moderate part of one’s diet naturally works to lower the body's blood pressure and blood sugar levels, helping to prevent and / or alleviate the effects of diabetes, as well as heart disease, stroke, and heart attack.

International Bacon Day

August 30th, 2014 is International Bacon Day. (Homer Simpson: I’ll have the smiley face breakfast special. Uhh, but could you add a bacon nose? Plus bacon hair, bacon mustache, five o’clock shadow made of bacon bits and a bacon body. Waitress: How about I just shove a pig down your throat? (Homer looks excited) Waitress: I was kidding. Homer: Fine, but the bacon man lives in a bacon house.) Enjoy!

More Egg Facts

Since it is the day before International Bacon Day, thought it would be appropriate to discuss eggs. Hens lay eggs whether they have mated with a rooster or not. Eggs produced without help from a rooster will never become a chicken. These become our breakfast eggs.

A hen must mate with a rooster in order for her egg to contain both the male and female genetic material necessary to create an embryo inside the egg. An egg laid after mating may or may not become a chicken.

Chickens develop only from eggs that have been incubated (heated). When a fertile egg is incubated under precise, steady temperatures and humidity levels for 21 days, a chick may be developed.

A fertile egg that is never incubated will never contain an embryo and will never look like anything other than common breakfast food. In fact, we all likely have eaten fertilized eggs. There is no harm and we cannot tell the difference between fertilized and unfertilized eggs, unless the fertilized eggs have been properly incubated. There is no difference in look, taste, or nutritional value between fertilized and unfertilized eggs. All foods, including eggs go well with bacon.

Bacon Fueled Motorcycle

Hormel created a motorcycle that is fueled by bacon grease and is sending it on a journey from Minnesota to the San Diego Bacon Fest just in time for International Bacon Day, August 30, 2014. Should be some interesting exhaust fumes coming from the bike.

Free Friday Smile

Yumm! Bacon Ice Cream for a hot summer day.

Types of Bacon Sandwiches

 A bacon sandwich (also known in parts of the United Kingdom and New Zealand as a bacon butty or bacon sarnie, in Ireland as a rasher sandwich, and as a bacon sanger in Australia and parts of Scotland is a sandwich of cooked bacon between bread that is usually spread with butter or margarine, and may be seasoned with ketchup or brown sauce. It is generally served hot. The BLT is a popular variant of the bacon sandwich with the additional ingredients of lettuce and tomato, but served cold. It is also called piece 'n bacon, bacon cob (made with bread roll rather than slice), grilled bacon and cheese.

A Fool's Gold Loaf, mostly in Colorado, US consists of a single warmed, hollowed-out loaf of bread filled with one jar of creamy peanut butter, one jar of grape jelly, and a pound of bacon.

Bacon Gerber in Saint Louis, Missouri, US half section of Italian or French bread with garlic butter, containing ham, provolone cheese, topped with paprika, then toasted.

Hot Brown in Louisville, Kentucky, US open-faced with turkey and bacon, topped with Mornay sauce, and baked or broiled

Bacon sandwiches are an all-day favorite throughout the United Kingdom. They are often served in greasy spoons, and are sometimes recommended as a hangover cure. Australian hamburger shops sell a bacon sandwich, which is made much like a traditional Australian hamburger with fried bacon, fried onions, lettuce, tomato, tinned beetroot and barbecue sauce or tomato sauce. In some places the sandwich is made from bread toasted on only one side and other establishments serve it on the same roll as used for hamburgers. In Toronto, Canada, peameal bacon (rolled cured and trimmed boneless loin in dried and ground yellow peas) is served on a Kaiser roll.

Irish formula - Place at least three carefully chosen bacon rashers on grill pan. Insert grill pan under grill (broiler). Cook until sizzling, then turn over (the rashers, not the pan), and cook other side until sizzling.
In the meantime, cut two hunks of Kelly's small loaf. Butter liberally with real butter (none of that low cal crap). According to taste, apply your chosen sauce to the bread. Evenly spread the rashers (still sizzling) onto the bread. Apply the upper part of the sandwich. Turn off the TV and the radio. Tell the wife / girlfriend / dog etc to go away.

Perfect Bacon Sandwich - Experts at Leeds University discovered the secret to the ideal sandwich, after four researchers at the Department of Food Science spent more than 1,000 hours testing 700 variations of a traditional bacon sandwich. They tried different types and cuts of bacon, cooking techniques, types of oil and a range of cooking times at different temperatures. They found that two or three back bacon rashers should be cooked under a preheated oven grill (broiler) for seven minutes at about 240C (475F). The bacon should then be placed between two slices of farmhouse bread, 1cm to 2cm thick. They concluded  that is not only the taste and smell of bacon that consumers find most attractive, but that texture and how crispy and crunchy rashers are. Side note - A rasher of bacon can also be used to mean a "portion" or "serving" of bacon, not just a single slice. Also, streaky bacon is the British term for American style bacon.

Mason Jar Cooking

Mason jars have been around for years and only recently have folks begun to use them for cooking things in a microwave. Taking soup to work and heating in a mason jar is an old standby for office workers, but have you thought of doing this for the family?

Many other things can be cooked in mason jars for individual servings and no mess. It works for mac and cheese (with bacon bits of course). Try cobblers and pies, just be sure to put the fruits on the bottom and dough on top. Same trick for pizza, put the dough on top, so it can rise.

Have not tried this, but will do so soon. The recipe calls for putting fruit in the bottom of a small mason jar and filling it halfway with pancake mix (the mix rises from cooking), or dropping in some chocolate chips on top of the mix, then microwaving for 60 - 90 seconds. Great way to make individual pancakes quickly and with less dirty pans. A side benefit of Mason jar cooking is strict portion control, which is good if you are trying to watch your weight.

Ten Teeth Facts

Teeth in a growing fetus begin to develop at six weeks after conception

About one in every 2,000 babies is born with natal teeth.

Not everyone loses their baby teeth. By age 3, the average child has a full set of 20 temporary teeth.  Children typically start losing teeth around 5 or 6 and finish in their early teens. If a person does not have a replacement permanent tooth, that baby tooth will stay put.

Thirty five percent of people are born without wisdom teeth.

About 2,500 years ago, the Maya already had a very advanced understanding of teeth. They would have their dentists use a primitive drill to decorate their teeth. Sometimes they would have parts of the tooth cut out or shaped to make it look more interesting. Their most extreme modification was the bejeweling of teeth.

Ancient Egypt people were using primitive tools made from twigs to brush their teeth. Many countries still use twigs from trees with antibacterial properties, such as cinnamon and neem, and they have been found to be as effective as modern toothbrushes.

Acidic foods, like sour candy, soft drinks, and fruit juices soften teeth. The result is enamel erosion and diminished tooth size.

Paul Revere, in addition to earning a living as a silversmith and copper plate engraver, also worked as a dentist. Revere is the first person known to use dental forensics to identify the body of a colonial colonel killed at the Battle of Bunker Hill by his dental bridge.

Some cheeses, including aged cheddar, Swiss, and Monterey Jack have been found to protect teeth from decay. Grilled cheese and bacon immediately springs to mind.

Every person has a set of teeth as unique as his or her fingerprints, and dental fingerprints of identical twins are different.

According to a Time Magazine Survey, 59% of Americans would rather sit in a dentist’s chair than sit next to someone on a cell phone.

National Hamburger Month

May is national hamburger month and it is also Barbecue month.

The term hamburger originally derives from Hamburg, Germany, from which many people emigrated to the United States. Hamburger, in the German language, is the demonym of Hamburg. Similar to frankfurter and wiener, names for other meat-based foods, being demonyms of the cities of Frankfurt and Vienna (Wien), respectively. A hamburger is typically made with ground beef. White Castle traces the origin of the hamburger to Hamburg, Germany with its invention by Otto Kuase. Many others have claimed to be the first in the US to make hamburgers.

The term "burger" is generic and may refer to sandwiches that have ground meat, chicken, fish, or vegetarian fillings other than a beef patty, but share the characteristic round bun. Other "burgers" are usually referred to as "chicken burgers", "fish burgers", etc.  Some fast food places more accurately call them "chicken sandwiches", "fish sandwiches", etc. An infinite number of fillings and toppings can be found in many locations around the block and around the world.

A veggie burger, garden burger, or tofu burger uses a meat substitute such as tofu, TVP, wheat gluten, beans, grains, or an assortment of vegetables, ground up and mashed into patties. This really stretches the definition of 'burger'.

Another variety of hamburger is the slider, which is a very small hamburger patty served on an equally small bun. This is the kind of hamburger has been popularized by White Castle. The name comes from their size (and sometimes greasiness) and are considered to slide down your throat in one or two bites.

A cheeseburger is a hamburger accompanied with melted cheese. The term itself is a portmanteau of the words "cheese" and "hamburger." The cheese is usually sliced, then added a short time before the hamburger finishes cooking, to allow it to melt.

In the US Upper Midwest, particularly Wisconsin, burgers are often made with a buttered bun, butter as one of the ingredients of the patty, or with a pat of butter on top of the burger patty, and called a "Butter Burger."

In Alberta, Canada a kubie burger is a hamburger made with a pressed Ukrainian garlic sausage, kubasa.
In Toronto the local eatery Dangerous Dan's Diner offers the Colossal Colon Clogger, 24oz burger served with a quarter pound of cheese, a quarter pound of bacon, and 2 fried eggs.

A slugburger is a traditional southern delicacy found in northeast Mississippi, US. It is a patty made from a mixture of meat or pork and an inexpensive extender such as soybeans and deep fried in canola oil.

My favorite is the Bacon Cheese Bomb, a cheeseburger with cheese inside the meat patty rather than on top. A thick chunk of sharp cheddar cheese is surrounded by the meat, which is a mixture of ground beef mixed half and half with finely chopped bacon. The smoky bacony flavor with a molten core of cheese within the patty is ooey gooey heavenly bacony food for the gods.

Did You Know?

Center-cut bacon has only 25 calories per slice. . . and usually causes human faces to break into a smile.

Great American Bacon 5k

 If you are looking for something to do on April 5, why not go down to the Great American Bacon 5k in Miami. Sounds like a fun time.

The truth About Egg Yolk Color

Americans eggs tend to have bright yellow yolks, because of what they feed feed the hens. Egg yolk color is almost entirely influenced by its diet. If you feed yellow corn it shows and if you feed birds white corn, the egg yolks are more white. In South America, hens that peck at red annatto seeds lay eggs with yolks ranging from pink to orange to deep reddish.

The yellow color in egg yolks, as well yellowish chicken skin and fat, comes from pigments found in plants.

In most parts of the world, diners prefer their yolks with a bit more color so commercial feeds often contain lutein as an additive, although yellow maize, soybeans, carrots, and alfafa powder will also add the color.

Many egg eaters assume that darker yolks are a sign of higher nutritional value. That is not true. Although chicken feed does influence the nutritional value of birds and their eggs, researchers say yolk color does not tell you anything about nutritional value. When it comes to taste, slap a few eggs next to a huge hunk of bacon and the taste becomes awesome, regardless of yolk color.

What's in a Name, Kummerspeck

This German word means excess weight gained from emotional overeating. Literally, 'grief bacon'. Seems to me, putting those two words together must be an oxymoron.