After I tell someone I’m in a book club, I can almost guarantee the response: “What book are you reading now?”
That’s when I have to explain that we haven’t read a book since our first meeting two years ago, at which point we realized that we were all much more interested in eating than reading. At every get-together since then, we’ve been far too concerned with our latest cooking and dining adventures to talk about anything else, let alone a book.
It was at one of our meetings that I was first introduced to bacon jam. At the time, bacon was having a moment. It was the hot new ingredient on dessert menus, the inspiration behind dozens of bacon-lovers’ websites, and the main component in wacky products like bacon mayonnaise and bacon chapstick. I’d always been a fan of bacon, but I’d never had it in this jammy form: smoky-sweet, with a stick-to-your-teeth, spreadable texture. I was hooked.
Bacon jam isn’t exactly what it sounds like. (Unless it sounds delicious. Then it’s exactly what it sounds like.) It’s essentially rendered bacon simmered in its own fat along with lots of other flavorings, and then processed to a paste. After making a few batches inspired by food blogs and Bacon Marmalade (a Brooklyn company that makes a mouth-watering, chewy, sweet version of the stuff), I settled on my final recipe.
Bacon, onions, garlic, coffee, vinegar, maple syrup, and brown sugar made a substantial foundation, as they did in many of the recipes I found. These ingredients, along with shallots, honey, allspice, and chili powder, made for a recipe that was rich and meaty, and also sweet and smoky. I’ve been introduced to many new foods and restaurants since joining my “book club,” but bacon jam will always be one of my favorites.
And as for the book club, we’ve decided to break from our two-year tradition and assign some actual reading for our next gathering—a cookbook, of course.
Step 1 CRISP IT
Step 2 ▼
Allowing the bacon to crisp before transferring it to a paper towel-lined plate is particularly important—and difficult, since I am not a patient cook. The bacon needs an occasional stir as it renders, but since there’s so much of it, it can take almost 20 minutes to crisp up. So to keep myself from removing half-crisped bacon from the pot prematurely, I slice the onions, garlic, and shallots (that I’ve already gathered and have on hand) while the bacon cooks. It’s an efficient use of time, and it keeps my hands busy so they don’t touch the bacon before they should.
Step 2 FRY IT
Step 3 ▼
The kind of oil used in a recipe should serve a purpose. For example, the mild flavor of extra-virgin olive oil doesn’t overwhelm other ingredients, so it’s often drizzled over final dishes, whereas the high smoking point of vegetable oil lends it to deep-frying because it won’t burn like other kinds of oils. In bacon jam, the bacon fat serves two purposes: It boosts the rich bacon flavor and gives it a smooth but textured consistency.
Step 3 SIMMER IT
Step 4 ▼
This recipe takes a couple of hours to prepare from start to finish, but most of it is walk-away cooking time. The bulk of that is spent waiting for the bacon mixture to cook down to a glazy, jammy consistency. The addition of water serves to prevent the bottom of the simmering mixture from scorching, and it evaporates as the mixture cooks down and starts to darken in color. I know it’s just about ready to puree when the rubber spatula I’m using to stir the pot leaves a distinct trail.
Step 4 DRAIN IT
Step 5 ▼
Simmering the ingredients in the rendered bacon fat infuses them with meaty flavor, but pureeing the whole mixture—bacon grease and all—would make it overly greasy. To limit the amount of fat in the final product, I use a slotted spoon to transfer the mixture to a food processor. This leaves behind the excess grease, but also ensures that it retains some fat, which is important to the texture of the bacon jam after it’s pureed.
Step 5 PROCESS IT
I prefer the texture of my bacon jam on the chunky side, when it’s got texture but is still spreadable. I always pulse it for a couple seconds, take off the top of the food processor, and check the jam’s consistency. If the bacon pieces are still a little too big, I process it for another couple of seconds and check it again. I can always puree it more, but I can’t go back once I’ve pureed it too much for my liking—but it will taste the same either way. The texture is completely a personal preference.
About the Author: Mari Levine
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This bacon jam looks amazing. I can’t wait to try making it. I love how you wrote about needing to occupy yourself with prep tasks while the bacon was cooking — I’m the exact same way!
Oh wow. This looks amazing! I def need to try this at home.
Do you have some serving suggestions? Like an egg sandwich? Or some kind of date in a blanket appetizer?
Would love to hear more about serving suggestions. Also, should this be served warm, room temperature or cold? Should it be made in advance and allowed to sit, or day of serving?
Serving Suggestions: As a general rule, bacon jam works in any application you’d think to use bacon. More specifically: folded into an omelet, in a “date in a blanket” appetizer (great idea, aprilhall!), spooned over seared scallops, as a sandwich condiment (perfect on burgers and egg sandwiches, in grilled cheese, and as the “B” in BLTs), smeared on a baguette, incorporated into mac and cheese, mixed in with brussels sprouts, and stuffed in French toast. I’ve never combined it with chocolate, but I bet that would be delicious, too.
Serving Temp: I like to serve it at room temperature because it spreads more easily. I also find that it tastes better when it’s been out of the fridge for a couple hours because its flavor isn’t being muted by cold temps. (But I would recommend keeping it refrigerated until the day you’re going to use it.) It can be made well in advance and keeps in the fridge for a couple weeks- if it lasts that long!
Gonna have to give this one a try. The adventurous side of me wants to frost a chocolate cupcake with it and go to town!
peanut butter and bacon jam sandwiches! on a pretzel. dipped in chocolate.
On a homemade everything bagel. Or on toasted baguette slices with a good, earthy hard cheese. Mmmm.
I haven’t tried to make this, but have had the Bacon Marmalade and loved it. A little mixed in with mashed potatoes tastes just like my Grandmother’s German portato salad.
Pure E.V.I.L., sounds like something I will have to make only when a crowd of people will be there to eat it with me. This is up there with my potato chip cake!
I recently had this on a sandwich in a local restaurant: smoked chicken, gruyere, bacon jam, Kaiser roll. To die for. I had never heard of bacon jam, but it made the sandwich. Can’t wait to make a batch!
After you remove the jam with a slotted spoon, save the bacon jam grease. I added some water to it and boiled some diced skin on red new potatoes. After they were done I added a little more honey and reduced the liquid down then tossed the potatoes in it. Also, the bacon jam Is great with mushrooms, spinach, herbs and cheese used to stuff pounded out chicken breasts.
Made two jars of this, brought it to Maine with some homemade dill pickles and dilled carrots as accompaniments – also good with manchego on top of BJ spread on toasts.
I don’t think I should be left alone with the jam I just made… Curiosity raised the cat’s cholesterol! Love it.
This was amazingly good. Going to try it spread on pancakes this weekend!
Made this recipe, it was awesome!!! So good. A couple notes:
- For the smoked bacon, used Nueske’s bacon…. it’s the best bacon around – you can order it online
- Couple adjustments for the cooking times.. it will be different on everyone’s stovetops… bacon got crisp a bit earlier.. only needed 15 mins… then the simmer, I cooked it another 30 mins longer to get it more jammy.
A winner.
I would like to send you a bill for a pound of good bacon. Cook for twenty minutes over medium-high heat?? After ten minutes, mine sure looked done–but you were SO adamant about don’t touch, leave it alone, cook it good and crisp, so I gave it a stir and went back to chop the onions. At fifteen minutes on the timer, when I checked it again, the bacon was smoking and charred–a total loss.
Guess someday I’ll learn to trust my own instincts and common sense over a recipe that sounds wonky!
Will you marry me?
Definitely a keeper!!!
I just drooled on my keyboard
To cook the bacon, just spread it out on parchment paper on a rimmed cookie sheet and bake for 15-18 minutes at 400 degrees. That’s how I always cook my bacon.
I searched the internet trying to find out what bacon jam tasted like and not how good it tastes. I know people love it but no one really told me how it tastes. I made this recipe and let me tell you it is very sweet. I guess that should be obvious with sugar, honey and syrup in the recipe. Think bacon meets caramelized onion and add lots of sugar.
To be honest it was too sweet for me. The second time I made it I left out the sugar honey and syrup and let the natural sugars in the onion provide the sweetness. It tasted better on my hamburgers and hotdogs (at least for me and my family). I realize this may not be the true “bacon jam” but think about it and you can modify it to your tastes.