BACON! All things bacon thread

bacon is a yummy thread

Once upon a time, vodka was popular for being virtually tasteless, delivering all the punch of alcohol without all of that annoying flavor. It was the ultimate blank canvas, melding with pretty much any mixer a bartender could pair it with. As vodka popularity grew in the ‘80s and ‘90s, liquor distillers realized there was money to be made through product extensions, so companies dove in head first. Thus, the tidal wave of flavored vodkas was unleashed.
Flavored vodkas have actually been around for a long time, they've just not been as popular as the straight stuff here in the New World. The first of these were fairly innocuous - based on fairly traditional liqueurs and flavors from vodka producing countries like Russia, Poland and Sweden such as lemon, pepper, black currant, and a few others.

With vodka firmly established as the number one selling spirit in the country, the recent added attention from “Sex and the City” wannabes swilling down Cosmos by the pitcher opened the floodgates for flavored vodkas to be the next big thing. Today, shelves are packed full of some of the most bizarre flavors known to mankind - cilantro and green tea are just the tip of the iceberg. And with bacon vodka hitting the market recently, who knows what could be next? Navigating this minefield can be a brutal exercise in trial and painful error. The following are a few flavors worth trying, assuming you're not too busy making homemade Skittles vodka.
Medos Honey Vodka - Supposedly a traditional Polish drink, this honey flavored vodka ranges anywhere from $17-$40 per bottle and goes down ridiculously smoothly. Or at least as smoothly as 80-proof vodka can. It's a rich gold in the shot glass, with a slightly syrupy texture. It's traditionally warmed and drank straight, but can certainly be iced down in the freezer like any other vodka. It's far less sweet than expected as well, herbal extracts added to the mix that giving it a slightly bitter edge and making it a great ingredient for cocktails. Drop it in a glass of Coke, lemonade, or ginger ale for a tasty spring drink.
Hangar One Kaffir Lime Vodka - Most lime flavored vodkas are vile concoctions so sweet that the hangover hits you long before you hit the sheets. Luckily, this is one of the exceptions to the rule. Hangar One uses Kaffir limes to flavor the vodka. These Southeast Asian fruits look vaguely like the limes seen in most grocery stores, only smaller, uglier, and they are far more acidic. Only slightly sweet, pepper and basil flavors are mixed in to add some complexity and balance. It doesn't get much better than nights spent relaxing in the backyard with a glass of this mixed with tonic, especially if you're on your second or third.
Ciroc Red Berry - A slightly more familiar approach to flavored vodkas, Ciroc is flavored with raspberries and strawberries. Unlike other berry-flavored vodkas, it actually tastes like the source material, without any of the bitter or metallic edge others usually feature. It also doesn't lose the underlying characteristics Ciroc is known for - a light medicinal tinge that makes it almost gin-like. Luckily, that herbal flavor plays off the berries nicely without tasting like the unholy union of a compost heap and a berry patch.
Black Rock Spirits Bakon Vodka - Dear lord, it really does taste like bacon. Floating over the top of that familiar vodka burn is pure smoked porky goodness. In fact, the bacon flavors are a bit too pronounced to make this vodka to sip straight up, let alone as a shot. However, it begs to be mixed creatively. When paired with the right ingredients, there’s all sorts of fun to be had. Not surprisingly, it makes for what is quite possibly the best Bloody Mary of all time. Better yet, 1.5 ounces of Bakon with a raw oyster and a few dashes of Tabasco just begs to be a remedy for a brutal morning after. For mixed company, a better approach might be to swap the usual vodka in a Mudslide for the pig-laden variety, blending 1 ounce each of Kahlua, Bailey's and Bakon over ice for an incredibly creamy pork-bomb. Just don’t forget to check if any of your guests keep Kosher before you do.


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2010/03/18/flavored-vodka-round-bacon-vodka-berry-vodka-honey-vodka/#ixzz1Znlx2B4X

http://www.chow.com/stories/11340

10 Ways to Eat More Bacon

1. Maple-Bacon Lollipops. Courtesy of online retailer Lollyphile, they include generous chunks of bacon encased in a maple-syrup shell, delivering a full maple-syrup-drenched pancake-and-bacon breakfast in candy form.

2. Chocolate-Covered Bacon. There are chocolate-covered peanuts, chocolate-covered raisins, chocolate-covered pretzels—so why not chocolate-covered bacon? If you pass through Santa Cruz, California, stop by Marini’s on the Beach Boardwalk for its version, or try Mo’s Bacon Bar from Vosges Haut-Chocolat, featuring bits of applewood-smoked bacon and smoked salt immersed in a rich milk-chocolate bar.

3. Bacon Chocolate-Chip Cookies. Conceived of by Andrea Hockett, author of the blog Never Bashful with Butter, they include bacon chunks and a topping of maple frosting with a bacon garnish, and were an instant Internet hit. However, 10 percent of her readers, says Hockett, complained that the cookies “weren’t bacony enough.”

4. Bacon-and-Egg Ice Cream. One of the most memorable menu items at London’s triple-Michelin-starred restaurant the Fat Duck is the Smoked-Bacon-and-Egg Ice Cream, Tomato Jam, Salted Butter Caramel, Caramelized Brioche, and Tea Jelly—a complete English breakfast, deconstructed for dessert. If you feel compelled to try it at home, check out Chef Heston Blumenthal’s step-by-step video.

5. Chicken-Fried Bacon. At the Sodolak’s Original Country Inn in Snook, Texas, you can buy a steak twice the size of your head—but the true highlight is the appetizer platter of chicken-fried bacon. The bacon is dipped in seasoned batter and deep-fried, then served piping hot with a side dish of cream gravy. Check out this news report about the dish from Texas Country Reporter.

6. Bacon Vodka. If your cocktails seem a little lightweight, it might be time to meaten them up with some bacon-infused vodka. This intoxicating brew is easy enough to make at home with a few strips of cooked bacon and a bottle of store-bought vodka—visit the food blog Brownie Points for DIY directions—or if you’d rather imbibe on the town, bacon-flavored vodka is available at Baltimore’s Captain Larry’s Bar and Grill and Jake’s Dixie Roadhouse in Waltham, Massachusetts, where the liquor is used to beef up the popular Bloody Marys. Or try a bacon martini in Vegas or New Orleans.

7. Bacon-Wrapped Tofu. Food blogger Makiko Itoh of Just Hungry decided to bring the two ingredients together because she believed that “tofu was getting bashed too much, and bacon revered too much.” She wanted “to show how a marriage between the two could work.” Or try this: Next time you order a veggie burger in a restaurant, get it topped with bacon—what we like to call “The Hypocrite.”

8. Fool’s Gold Loaf. This specialty from the late Colorado Gold Mine Restaurant features an entire loaf of Italian bread hollowed out and filled with peanut butter, grape jelly, and a full pound of fried bacon. The loaf technically serves 8 to 10 people—but its most famous fan, Elvis, would often chow down on the 42,000-calorie sandwich alone, as a midnight snack. Serious Eats has the recipe.

9. Bacon-Wrapped Tater Tots. Get your fix of meat and potatoes in the same bite with these delicious snacks from the ode-to-all-things-bacon blog Bacon Unwrapped. Blogger Heather Lauer’s rendition features wild boar bacon, but the traditional variety should work just as well.

10. BLT Salad in a “Bacontainer.” Bacon is more than a simple ingredient: It can also serve as a bowl, as in this creative dish from Megan Reardon of the DIY blog Not Martha. In devising her dish for a fellow food blogger’s bacon potluck party, Reardon wrapped raw bacon around the bottoms of muffin tins and baked them in the oven, then filled the bacon cups with a lettuce-and-tomato salad. Although she received many suggestions for other fillers, such as eggs, potato salad, and meatloaf, “I’m a little afraid that anything other than a salad veers dangerously into territory otherwise reserved for KFC Famous Bowls and deep-fried things you can find at county fairs,” she says.