The Official Bacon Salt Blog

A spice of destiny

As the Puyallup fair ended, Justin and I had the opportunity to peruse the various booths and strange collections of things for sale and trade. One of the booths was a geneaology booth, which had thousands of last names and family histories. Imagine Justin's dismay when he learned that his family coat of arms was a simple green shrub, which paled in comparison to mine, which had winged birds and lightning and all sorts of really cool imagery.

Not content to let it rest, Justin investigated further. Turns out, the Esch coat of arms is actually much more than just a shrub. We're still trying to interpret its meaning, but there is some obvious symbolism and perhaps a bit of pre-determined destiny here. The only thing missing are slices of bacon where the stripes should be...

Bacon Salt Hall of Fame

Meet one of our newest disciples, Aaron. Aaron is single-handedly trying to tell the world about Bacon Salt, and has created a blog called I Heart BaconSalt to detail his adventures with our new seasoning. He's tried Bacon Salt on a variety of staple foods (eggs, steaks, fries, salads) but also in his coffee, on cranberry muffins, on Reese's peanut butter cups, mango candies and peanut brittle. In his spare time, he's trying to make Bacon Salt rock candy.

Is it crazy to be this obsessed with a bacon-flavored seasoning? If so, we're the really crazy ones. And we're really glad there's someone else out there besides us trying to figure out the good, the bad and the ugly (for example, 8 year old spam spread - which in our defense, nothing could have saved) of Bacon Salt! So we embrace him with open arms and have added him to our newly created "Bacon Salt Army" list, which will be reserved for only the most fervent disciples like Aaron.

Puyallup Fair ends for Bacon Salt

We just finished a stint at the Puyallup Fair here in Washington state, which lasts 17 days and sees over 1.3 million people pass through its gates. Some quick stats and info from the fair:

• We chose to serve frozen corn with Hickory Bacon Salt as a sample. This was very well received and is also delicious at home.
• Over 50,000 samples of Bacon Salt were given out. That's a lot of corn!
• At least 20 people that came to our booth and said that they came to the fair just to see us and buy some Bacon Salt. Really cool!
• Between the 3 of us (Justin, Kara and Dave), we ate at least 75 scones; 10 "apple wallups" (a delicious combination of dough, caramel, whip cream and sliced apples, cooked to a golden brown); 1 giant turkey leg; 15 hand dipped ice cream bars; 5 burgers; and 8 chicken fried steaks with sausage gravy and Hickory Bacon Salt - unbelievably delicious!
• One very cool video was produced based on peoples' feedback about Bacon Salt.
• Over 4,000 containers of Bacon Salt sold!

In all, a great event for us. As we meet with and start getting in stores, this was a great way to introduce and build buzz about the product locally and make some invaluable connections in the food and grocery industries. But after 17 days, we could use some footrubs, leg massages and new shoes! 

Mmmm... bacon cheese grits

OK, this recipe is good. We got this from Liz as part of the Recipe Contest - and incidentally, you have until Friday, September 28th to submit your entries to recipes@baconsalt.com (if you miss the deadline, don't despair - we'll do something with them down the road and will probably have another contest). Directly from the chef (thanks Liz!):

I ordered some bacon salt a few weeks ago, and I've slowly been experimenting with adding it to my favourite foods.  The other night I tried out a recipe for cheese grits with bacon salt, and it was so good I thought I should share it with you.  Feel free to put it on the website!

Best wishes,

Liz

INGREDIENTS

1 cup water
1/2 cup quick-cooking grits, dry
2 tablespoons butter
60g strong cheddar cheese, grated
1/4 teaspoon (or to taste) bacon salt (hickory or pepper)
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
Dash of Tabasco chipotle sauce
1 egg, beaten

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 175c, and lightly grease an ovenproof dish.
In a medium saucepan, bring the water to a boil. Stir in grits, and reduce heat to low. Cover, and cook 5 to 6 minutes, stirring occasionally. Mix in the butter, cheese, sauce and bacon salt, continue cooking for a few minutes more, until the cheese is melted. Remove from heat, cool slightly, and fold in the egg. Pour into the prepared baking dish.
Bake for 1 hour in the preheated oven, or until the top is lightly browned.

Bacon Salt eggs

When we first started formulating Bacon Salt, we said, "We want Bacon Salt to taste like the smell of bacon frying on a Sunday morning." Speaking of breakfast, another dish that Bacon Salt is ideal with is eggs. It adds a delicious bacony flavor that we don't think you can even get from cooking the eggs in bacon grease (which I've done many times and has probably taken years off my life).

Here are some tips to make your eggs Baconlicious:

• Although some may disagree, we think that Original flavor works the best in eggs, with just the right amount of savory and smokey flavors to complement and not overpower the eggs
• Mix Bacon Salt into your eggs before cooking, not after. This is absolutely key! It infuses the eggs with a bacony taste all the way through.
• If you do sprinkle Bacon Salt on your eggs at the end, use it a bit more sparingly as a little bit will go a long way, and try to do it while the eggs are hot so the salt melts into the eggs.

For a higher degree of difficulty dive, try out this great recipe for a Bacon Salt Ham & Egg Sandwich.

Happy eating!

J&D

Recipe: Bacon Salt Pork Tenderloin Sandwich

I went to school in Iowa, where there are lots of pigs and lots of corn. So as you'd expect, there are many recipes there that use both pork and corn.

One of the best things I've ever tasted that just doesn't exist anywhere but Iowa, Indiana and southern Illinois is the elusive pork tenderloin sandwich. It's a pork tenderloin that is butterflied, flattened about a molecule thick, breaded with cornmeal and Japanese breadcrumbs, deep-fried and thrown on a hamburger bun. For this to be authentic, the loin must hang at least 1-2 inches outside of the bun on all sides. It's best served with ranch dressing or barbecue sauce, and now that I've had them together, with Bacon Salt.

When I moved to Seattle, I searched high and low for a really good pork tenderloin sandwich recipe. About 2 years ago, I found this one, which is absolutely delicious (a more traditional format and back-story for this recipe can be found here). In honor of the Iowa-Iowa State football game on today, my college roommate and I (who also lives in Seattle) tried the recipe with some new twists and learned the following:

• First, we put Peppered Bacon Salt in the buttermilk marinade instead of using hot sauce or cayenne. The Peppered Bacon Salt still gives it a bit of a kick, but it's even better with the bacon-ey taste infused into the meat.
• Second, we found that Original Bacon Salt in the breading, on top of the finished sandwich, and even in the ranch dressing was absolutely delicious. For some reason, Original works best with the breading. Hickory didn't work quite as well for some reason, although it's still our favorite flavor.
• Third, we learned that the Hawkeyes really really suck this year. They lost to Iowa State despite being 14 point favorites.

Oh well, at least the sandwiches were excellent! We both agreed that they were the best tenderloins we'd ever made, and they're always delicious with a Bacon Salted Bloody Mary wake-up call to really get your blood flowing in the morning.

Cook's note: We don't have a deep fat fryer, and you don't really need one to make this recipe work. We use a pan filled about an inch with vegetable oil and set it on medium-high heat, then pan fried the loins and set them in between paper towels on a plate to keep them warm until ready to serve. Also, keep close watch over the loins and be sure the oil's not smoking so you don't burn your sandwiches!  

Bacon Salt Recipe - Bacon Salt Guacamole

We've really loved Bacon Salt guacamole even on the store-bought varieties. They're quite delicious, but nothing really beats the real thing, does it? Which is why we were glad that Suzanne sent in a homemade guac recipe as part of the Bacon Salt Recipe Contest. Incidentally, you've got two more weeks to submit your entries, then we'll announce our winner! Thanks to everyone for participating, there have been some great ones.

BaconSalt Guacamole

1 avocado
2 Tablespoons sour cream
2 Teaspoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon of BaconSalt or to taste

Mash avocado & mix all ingredients.

Note: some fresh chopped garlic doesn't hurt in this either.

Bacon World

Fark.com's message board is currently running a "Photoshop something that could be improved with bacon" contest. We just love threads like this. The "bacon world" picture posted here was one of our favorites. Our submission, which we'll be posting shortly, is below.

Bacon Salt Recipe: Bacony Chex Mix

This one was submitted as part of the Recipe Contest by John.

We love having Chex mix around the holidays - and would have previously considered anything that messes with the original and incredibly delicious Worcestershire-based recipe to be blasphemous - but we think you'll agree that the Peppered Bacon Salt adds a great kick and flavor to a snack that you'll want to have in your pantry at all times.  You can skip the Tiger sauce if you don't have it, but it is quite good with it.

Bacony Chex Mix:

3 cups each Wheat, Corn and Rice Chex

1 cup each Parmesan and Original Goldfish crackers

2/3 cup Worchestershire Sauce

1 stick butter

6 dashes pepper sauce

3 dashes Tiger Sauce

1/2 tsp. paprika

2 tblsp. Peppered Bacon Salt

3 tblsp. sesame seeds

Put the Chex and crackers in a very large bowl. Melt the butter and combine with the liquid ingredients. Pour over Chex mix. Sprinkle with the spices and sesame seeds. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 45 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes. Do not let scorch!

Bag in any air-tight bag or container and try to keep it from the rest of the household!

Bacon Salt on ABC Radio

The Satellite Sisters radio program was nice enough to feature us in their weekly "Satellite Sisters of the Week" segment on syndicated ABC Radio, and interviewed Dave for several minutes about Bacon Salt. They were quite fun to speak with - and before I came on, I listened in online and really enjoyed the rest of their show as well.

You can hear the interview here - just download or stream the September 8th show, and our part starts 47:29 in.