Zingerman's Bacon of the Month Club: Sam Edwards' Dry-Cured Berkshire Bacon from Virginia (Bacon #5)

Sam Edwards' Dry-Cured Berkshire Bacon from Virginia

I'm back with more bacon porn for you bacon lovers!

This installment of Zingerman's Bacon of the Month Club featured Sam Edwards' Dry-Cured Berkshire Bacon from Virginia (my home state, as it happens).

Like most of the bacon from the club, this one is produced by a family operation. Edwards still cures and smokes his bacon the same way that his father and grandfather did. He's also always experimenting with new ways to improve his product -- recently introducing peanut-finishing of hogs and going back to old breeds of pig like the Berkshire.

The Berkshire pigs used to produce this bacon are an heirloom variety that have been grazing fields in this country for centuries. They're renowned for their concentrated, porky flavor, which has mostly been bred out of white pigs. Many chefs revere these pigs for their fattier meat and superior flavor.

Zingerman's Bacon of the Month Club: Allan Benton's Dry-Cured Bacon from Tennessee (Bacon #4)

For this installment of the "best wedding gift of all time" a/k/a Zingerman's Bacon of the Month Club, we received Allan Benton's Dry-Cured Bacon from eastern Tennessee.

Owner of a down-home family operation, Benton is a self-taught baconeer (he also makes killer country hams). His bacon can be found gracing the tables of some of the top restaurants in the nation, like David Chang's Momofuku (a DD favorite) and Bobby Flay's Bar Americain, both in NYC.

If that's not endorsement enough, here's my two cents on his bacon.

Zingerman's Bacon of the Month Club: Ozark Trails Hickory Smoked Peppered Bacon (Bacon #3)

Ozark Trails Peppered Bacon

This week, an early gift arrived from Santa. That's right, we received our third installment of Zingerman's Bacon of the Month Club!

This time, the featured bacon was Ozark Trails Hickory Smoked Peppered Bacon. Now, I'm a big time spice lover, and pepper is one of my favorite things, especially when paired with meat in large quantities. I quickly concluded that this was a bacon for eating (rather then cooking) and roasted it up in the oven for breakfast (425 degrees for 11 minutes = perfectly crispy). I prefer oven cooking bacon, especially for larger quantities. It's faster and cooks evenly.

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!

Zingerman's Bacon of the Month Club: Nueske's Applewood Smoked Bacon! Plus Recipe for Sauteed Shrimp with Bacon Succotash!

Sauteed Shrimp with Bacon Succotash

Great food can enter our lives in many different ways.

Kuzak and I were recently graced with what might be the best wedding gift ever -- Zingerman's Bacon of the Month Club (thank you Gruhl family). Even Bobby Flay is quoted calling this is a "fantastic gift!"

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Zingerman's, a humble deli in Ann Arbor, Michigan, I consider them to be the epitome of great food. Their standards of excellence apply to everything they do, and that includes their bacon club.