Macaroni-cheese muffins with bacon
Bacon meatballs with raisins and pine nuts
Pasta sauce with beer and bacon
Nachos with cheese and bacon sauce
Potato skins with soured cream and bacon
Cauliflower pancakes with bacon
I’LL NEVER FORGET THE SIGHT. My son – totally uninterested in food up until this point – playing on the floor at his grandparents’ house. Suddenly, the bacon hit the frying pan. It was intended for the top of a cauliflower gratin. But then, after a few minutes, came that familiar, wonderful smell that comes whenever heat and bacon are brought together. A smell people have loved since we were still living in caves. Call it a Maillard reaction, call it a miracle … or just call it an irresistible smell. It makes no difference to the magic.
Without warning, in the otherwise silent living room, the boy began to turn around. It was as though some sort of dense magnetic field was dragging him, bodily, out of a world of childish fantasy.
And so, in fully formed words (his vocabulary, unlike his diet, was unusually advanced for his age), he half-stuttered, half-demanded …
‘What … what’s that beautiful smell?’
And with that, the boy was uncontrollably, irreversibly lost. We’re all born with a desire for bacon. All of us. Not raised. Born.
We love bacon. That magical smell of frying bacon is equally irresistible to us all. It’s not something taught, or learned – we’re born this way. The appeal of the smell of cooking meat is deeply engrained, and no other cooked meat compares with bacon. Bacon is in a class of its own.
Writing a book about meat right now is at odds with the Zeitgeist. No smart person on earth would seriously deny that we should be eating less meat, and quite rightly so. Meat production consumes huge amounts of space and energy, and we know full well that it’s bad for the planet.
At the same time, most people aren’t going to stop eating meat altogether. Which is where bacon comes in: bacon gives more bang for the buck than any other sort of meat. A few rashers of bacon in a pasta dish with asparagus give it a body and flavour that would be missing without it. Bacon fills a gap, making the dish deliciously filling. It doesn’t take much bacon to give a modern, green plate of food that little bit extra. Just a few good, crispy rashers. That’s the beauty of bacon.
Some might ask what bacon can be used for, but the answer to that question could go on forever. Instead, we can turn the question back on itself: what isn’t bacon good for? Sushi? Dessert? Drinks? Nope. Not if you use it properly.
It’s difficult to argue with bacon’s sheer, fabulous versatility. The point of this book is very simple: everything does taste better with bacon.
CHRISTOPHER SJUVE
«That magical smell of frying bacon is equally irresistible to us all. It’s not something taught, or learned, we’re born this way.»