Saturday, November 20, 2010

Zingerman's Bacon of the Month Club: Broadbent's Dry-Cured Hickory Smoked Bacon (Bacon #2)

Broadbent's Dry-Cured Kentucky Hickory Smoked Bacon
What's better on a Saturday morning than freshly cooked bacon?

Not much!

This week, I received an early holiday gift -- the delivery of my second bacon installment from Zingerman's. I received their Bacon of the Month Club as a fabulous wedding gift, and boy does this one keep on giving.

This month I received Broadbent's Dry-Cured Kentucky Hickory Smoked Bacon. Broadbent's is a small family run operation based in Kentucky. Their bacon recipe dates back to 1909, if you can believe it! Here's how they make their bacon in owner Ronny Drennan's own words (as told to Zingerman's):
"We hand rub each belly with salt, sugar and a bit of nitrate. Then we stack 'em on the shelves about 7 or 8 slabs high. We leave 'em for one week, then we wash all the salt off and hang 'em up on the bacon hooks. Then we let 'em sit overnight and a day to set. Then we smoke 'em for 3 or 4 days."
This bacon is dry cured, and not for the weak of heart. If it were a wine, it would be a big, aged Bordeaux, pungent and funky, bursting with flavor. If it were cheese, it would be Hook's 10 year aged cheddar. You get the point. We're talking some major bacon flavor here. Apparently, it's great in stews and places where you need big flavor, but for my first taste, I decided to go straight up so that I could taste the flavors without any dilution.

I set my oven to 450 degrees and baked slices of the bacon for about 10 minutes (I prefer oven cooking for perfect, super crispy bacon). Then, I served the bacon for breakfast with scrambled eggs with spinach and my vegan Apple-Walnut Corn Muffins. Wow, was this bacony bacon! Kuzak and I both loved the bold flavors, rich and chewy, deep and powerful. I can't wait to try cooking with it, maybe in a braised white bean stew? Hmm... that sounds promising! Stay tuned...

Read about the first installment of Zingerman's Bacon of the Month Club here!

2 comments:

  1. um amazing! I may need to see if they deliver to across the border!

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  2. I bet they do -- they're in Michigan, so that's close to Canada! Their Rueben Sandwich kit is a great gift, too. :)

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