The Tasting of Bacon

The Introduction came by way of third party - Tiffany and Catie. They had finally found a third roommate - Berlin. Already it was interesting. Tiffany during one of our many daily chats, we sit directly across from one another at work mentioned; he's a butcher.

He's a butcher!

*I am and forever will be a strong advocate of getting to know ones' butcher. Not only will you benefit from their wisdom in terms of trying new cuts of meat and preparations, but you will also get the personal touch. And by personal touch I mean, your butcher shelping down to the basement or in the back, getting a fresh piece of meat and cutting it to your order.

Over the course of the past few months that I have known Berlin, he has helped me out tremendously - in what he calls, me, "dropping bank on meat". I love cooking and when I do it, it is never half assed. I have been known to walk into keg parties and picnics with 2-3lbs slabs of prime sirloin - courtesy of Mr. Berlin and Green Grape Provisions of course. It is 100% grass fed goodness!

Finally, I get to the point of this first post. Berlin sadly will be moving to the west coast this summer (lucky them!) and I shall be rendered Butcherless, but not Baconless. In what he coins Bacon for Brooklyn - a few lucky souls got in on his custom bacon creations. The concept is simple fresh pork bellies, a simple cure and flavors. I greedily sercured three bellies for myself. Then came the hard part - flavor selections. Berlin and I sat down and came up with awesome flavors spawn from inspired ingridents.

BELLY # 1 - RUM, NUTMEG AND MAPLE Trinidad 1919 - 8yr old rum Grenadian nutmeg
Vermont Maple syrup

BELLY # 2 - PINEAPPLE CLOVE

BELLY # 3 - BLACKBERRY BRANDY MINT

THE TEST

I picked up my bacon today and could not wait to try them out. I whipped out a saute pan and quickly cooked one piece of each bacon. The pineapple bacon quickly browned and I thought this to be odd, after a couple of moments I realized that the natural sugars in the pineapple juice was causing my bacon to burn faster than normal - I lowered the heat. I was quite surprised! Immediately, as the first piece of bacon made contact with the hot pan - aromas began the blossom. Smells of pineapple and spices wafted into the air. I was cooking bacon partly by my own design, much credit must be given to Berlin - The Ethical Butcher

http://ethicalbutcher.blogspot.com/

I quickly cooked off the rest of my test bacon and thoroughly enjoyed the spoils of my culinary victory.


I cannot wait to incorporate my bacon into pastas, antipastos, salads and who know maybe even desert ;-)

This has been a submission by food blogger Marcus Richardson