I didn't officially join — I'm not a joiner! — but I played along with all the bloggers who took an oath to write a "quality" post every day for the month of November. I might have squiggled out of my vow of "quality" a few times, but I did hit the "publish" button 30 times, so I made it.So now am I hooked on daily posting?
No, I'm hooked on telling you about the bacon I nibbled on yesterday.
I'm not a bacon expert, and I don't play one on TV either. I'll just tell you that I had the opportunity to taste, side by side, two very nice, local, artisan bacons.
One was made by Black Sheep Farm in Occidental (no web site) and the other was from The Fatted Calf.
The Black Sheep bacon had a great up-front flavor profile: all the right sweet, salty and smoky notes. Fine.
The Fatted Calf: On. The. Other. Hand.
I did not go into this tasting intending to prefer my homies. In fact, last time Cranky cooked up some Fatted Calf bacon, he burned it a little, and I found it salty. (I was told that too-fast heat was the culprit by my bacon expert, who plays a bacon expert on his blog, Dr. Biggles of Meathenge.)
Anyway, this time Cranky eased up on the wattage, and the results were visually pleasing.
And in the mouth? This was a wonder: The flavors kept developing. They went from salt to smoke to rose-flavored meat, to sweet, to wine, to magic. It was psychedelic. It just kept coming.
I tasted — no, I experienced — my way though the bacon.
It was otherworldly.
And then I sprinkled the bacon — both types, crumbled up — on a very worldly baked potato.
A girl's gotta eat.
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13 comments:
the fatted calf bacon can vary from week to week batch to batch. Every now and then I get one that is too salty or too ashy or too smoky, but the rest of the time I am in wet-your-knickers heaven eating that stuff.
One rasher a week is enough to make this girl forget all her other problems.
Y'know, the day after I decided to be a late joiner on the whole Nano Blogmo thing, my server crashed. Heh. The gods of blogging do not want me to be consistent! Some day, when my life is relatively normal, I'll post every day...
BTW, there's a Black Sheep Creamery up in these parts. They don't make bacon, which makes much more sense than a Black Sheep Farm making bacon.
What a great month it has been Cookie! Thanks for the 30 delicious posts!
You're giving me a heart attack with that tater and awesome bacon bits. Thanks for the surrogate pleasure.
Ooh that bacon sounds delicious, I love a good bacon sandwich.
I wish we could get the fatted calf here!
CC,
I picked up a slab of pork belly this morning -- next week I eat homemade bacon.
Sam: It's sort of a work in progress, isn't it. It has been interesting to watch them evolve in their art. This recent batch was just a vivid landscape of flavors.
One rasher a week... That sounds about right.
Mrs D: I know. Sheep bacon?
PE: Thank you, dollie!
SFMike: You're welcome, but you *know* you want to make your own!
Beccy: I think that could be arranged. I know a courier you might get in touch with. :D
Kevin: I can't wait to see how it goes. Only a week?
I think it was Homer Simpson that said "fat is flavor country"....mmmmmm...bacon! Also, when Lisa frettted that bacon, pork chops and sausage all come from the same animal, Homer replies, "Yeah sure Lisa, there's a magic animal..."
Stacie: My new motto! Heh.
Sher: How far out are you? Put on some City duds and make a trip to the market one of these fine Saturdays. (You'd only have to go as far as Berkeley, BTW.)
I am salivating over the thought of bacon. In the meantime, I will eat my leftover cassoulet from last night.
I'm just catching up on my reading after my hol. and this post caught my eye as I love bacon. I had some good tapas in Spain (bacon and quail eggs) delicious.
Dagny: Nothing wrong with that!
ChrisB: A case could be made, judging by the genetic relationship of three commenters here who claim to love bacon, that the taste for it is hereditary.
But no. It's just so darn yummy.
Mmmm, psychedelic bacon! Now that's the good stuff.
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