Bacon 24/7: Recipes for Curing, Smoking, and Eating
The celebrity meat of contemporary carnivorism, bacon figures prominently in recipes and on restaurant menus. It’s not just with eggs at breakfast or with slices of tomato and lettuce leaves at lunch, but it shows up ubiquitously at meals from morn to midnight and beyond, as Gilliam documents. Truly dedicated bacon fanatics can follow Gilliam’s instructions for turning a slab of pork belly into smoky rashers over the course of a week. Those less motivated have dozens of recipes for waffles, salads, soups, sandwiches, appetizers, entrées, and desserts. Some dishes, such as Alsatian onion tart and spaghetti carbonara, faithfully reproduce classics. Crab and corn chowder would not be out of place on any New England table. On the other hand, Gilliam’s transformation of the classic BLT into a cold soup befits a modernist kitchen, and bacon baklava pushes the boundaries of fusion cooking. Anyone ready to belly up to the bar for a bacon Manhattan? --Mark Knoblauch