Bacon

If our pioneering forefathers had had to rely on the supermarket bacon of today as the staple of the long trek "westward-ho-the wagons," they wouldn't have made it much past Pittsburgh. No meat in America has suffered more from modern technology than bacon. The insipid watered-down stuff that is labeled "bacon" today is as far removed from real bacon as a horsefly is from the horse it rode in on. Most of the bacon that you find in today's meatcases is "pumped" bacon. What that means is that the curing solution made up of water, salt, sugar, sodium phosphate (to hold the water in)

Consumers soon may be able to bring home the bacon without worrying about the extra baggage of a potential cancer-causing compound often found in the cooked meat. The encouraging news on the breakfast front comes as a result of recent action by the U.S. Agriculture Department. Earlier this month, the agency approved the use of a Vitamin E derivative that prevents the formation of nitrosamines, carcinogens that occur in bacon during cooking. Whether food manufacturers will apply the vitamin-based substance, alpha tocopherol, to the popular breakfast food is unknown right now, but its very availability is a breakthrough that caps a decade of research into combating the cancer-causing agents.

Maliyah Gregg's eyes lit up when she spied a package of bacon on the counter for cooking class in the convent kitchen at St. Martin De Porres in North Philadelphia. And then she saw the spinach. "Can I eat just the bacon? Please? Just the bacon and a boiled egg. It will be like breakfast. Please?" After four weeks of cooking lessons, I had gotten the message loud and clear from Maliyah and the other 5th and 6th grade girls: We want meat! While many people are eating less meat and trying to center meals around other proteins for health and environmental reasons, these girls are not quite buying in. I heard the same chorus from my own two boys when I tried meatless family dinners when they were growing up. For them, it just didn't feel like dinner without meat.

Dear Polly: I have several recipes calling for salt pork (stews, chowders, etc.), which I cannot find in my local supermarkets. Is there a substitute? - Mrs. D.G. Salt pork comes from the fatty belly of the pig. It is heavily salted (hence its name) and can be kept in the refrigerator for four to six weeks. I usually substitute bacon for salt pork. The bacon contributes a different flavor, since it is smoked and salt pork is not. Personally, I prefer using the bacon to the salt pork since I find the smoky flavor of bacon more attractive and interesting in these dishes, though purists may object.

The microwave makes breakfast a breeze. Lunch and brunch, too. Eggs microwave to perfection, but even better, bacon browns and crisps with no messy spattering. Microwaving times for bacon will vary because of differences in thickness and fattiness, plus the amount of salt and sugar used in curing. It also takes longer to microwave large amounts of bacon (more than eight slices) than to fry them in a skillet, so either use the range or microwave in batches of eight slices. The advantages to microwaving bacon?

Matt Ridgway calls the slabs that come out of his curing room at PorcSalt, simply, bacon. Which doesn't quite tell the whole story. That the pork bellies come from flavorful, old breeds - Berkshire and Berkshire-Duroc crosses, that last one from Breakway Farms in Mount Joy. That it is cured in the Bucks County honey his father, Josef, collects. Or alternatively - for 10 days - with red Burgundy wine. Or that it is, by design, hot-smoked for 10 hours over fruitwood at temperatures 10 degrees higher than name brands, which renders it (unlike commercial bacons)

This week, I reached out for a Hickory Smoked Whopper, offered for a limited time only at Burger King. Here's the blueprint: Start with a regular, fully loaded Whopper off the assembly line, then crown it with a slice of hickory-smoked Cheddar cheese and four half-slices of hickory-smoked bacon. Voila! A Hickory Smoked Whopper. And the sweet hickory really does kick the burger up a notch. In a related development, the seventh president of the United States was Andrew "Old Hickory" Jackson.

Treat your bacon right, and it will love you forever. Store bacon in the fridge in the original packet or, once opened, in an airtight, plastic container. Best to use it within 2 days of opening the package. Unopened, it may be kept for up to 1 month, but check the use by date. Unopened packaged bacon can be frozen for up to one month. To store smaller amounts, wrap two to six slices tightly in plastic wrap, then store in small freezer bags. Defrost by submerging the freezer bags in cold water for 10 minutes or use the defrost setting in the microwave.

Peter Bruhn, owner of Diner on the Square in Center City, recently devised a refreshing and healthy dish for a summertime meal. "I put a nice fresh vegetable, pasta and tuna salad on the menu," he said yesterday. "I thought the ladies would like it. " And then? "Nothing happened," he shrugged. "They want bacon. " Bacon - hot, greasy bacon? Killer bacon? In August? At Diner on the Square, Bruhn estimates, bacon sales are up 25 percent over six months ago. August, believe it or not, is historically the biggest month for bacon sales.

It's a beet, minus the root. Chard is a relative of the beet, but puts its energy into producing tender leaves and crunchy stalks instead of its root. Generally, any flavor that works well with spinach will partner with chard: butter, lemon, cream, garlic, shallots and vinaigrette. Try it in this easy quiche. Rainbow Chard, Bacon and Brie Quiche Makes 6 servings 1 prepared uncooked pie crust 8 ounces bacon, cut into small chunks 1 small yellow onion, diced 6 cups chopped rainbow chard (about ?

There was some leftover meat from cheesesteak night at my house, so I put it on a salad. The meat had been cooked with onions, roasted peppers, and Worcestershire sauce. After two days in the refrigerator, it took on the flavor of the other ingredients. Delicious. I thought myself rather creative. But while eating I opened a magazine and saw a sandwich that rivaled my imagination: a fried egg and two strips of bacon inside a glazed doughnut. Yes, a doughnut sandwich. They are being tested by Dunkin' Donuts in the Boston area.

Maliyah Gregg's eyes lit up when she spied a package of bacon on the counter for cooking class in the convent kitchen at St. Martin De Porres in North Philadelphia. And then she saw the spinach. "Can I eat just the bacon? Please? Just the bacon and a boiled egg. It will be like breakfast. Please?" After four weeks of cooking lessons, I had gotten the message loud and clear from Maliyah and the other 5th and 6th grade girls: We want meat! While many people are eating less meat and trying to center meals around other proteins for health and environmental reasons, these girls are not quite buying in. I heard the same chorus from my own two boys when I tried meatless family dinners when they were growing up. For them, it just didn't feel like dinner without meat.

BEN STANGO's mom made the right call when he was in middle school. He'd gotten hooked on the Food Network. She let the boy cook. "I went big with my first meal," Stango says in his Center City kitchen. "A whole salmon. " It was tasty. Subsequent meals, less so. Regardless, now Stango's mother, Deb Weinstein, gets to cash in. He's cooking her a birthday dinner that he'll take to her home in Merion Station: Homemade beet tagliatelle with pine nuts and arugula, and pan-seared scallops with lemon and garlic.

Year's first war casualty buried WASHINGTON - More than 100 family members, friends, and uniformed service members marched slowly and quietly down a hill at Arlington National Cemetery on Friday, following Army Sgt. Aaron X. Wittman's coffin, draped with an American flag and carried on a horse-drawn caisson. Wittman, 28, of Chester, Va., was buried with full military honors in Section 60, where those killed in Iraq and Afghanistan lie. He was killed Jan. 10 in Nangahar province in Afghanistan, becoming the first U.S. casualty of this year.

PASADENA, Calif. - Kevin Bacon has followed characters into some dark places, most harrowingly, perhaps, as a convicted (and conflicted) child molester in the 2004 film "The Woodsman. " But when it came to "The Following," the Fox drama premiering Monday night about a charismatic serial killer who's made apprentices of his admirers, the Philadelphia-born actor wanted to be the hunter, not the predator. "When I was trying to find something to do on TV, I knew that I wanted to do the hero," said Bacon after a Television Critics Association news conference earlier this month.

AFTER WEEKS of panicky talk about the looming fiscal cliff, I thought it was time for fresh perspective. You see, as a married father of three, I've long been standing at the edge of my personal fiscal cliff, so I'm used to being broke. I'm so good at it that if they awarded a gold medal for fiscal cliff-diving, I'd have more neckwear than Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps. Don't feel bad for me, though. I've learned a thing or two while teetering on the edge, and I'd like to share some of it with you. The first thing you need to know is that there isn't going to be any fiscal cliff.

With Ohio State's star quarterback Braxton Miller on the way to the hospital for evaluation, Kenny Guiton took his place and led the seventh-ranked Buckeyes (8-0, 4-0 Big Ten) to a tying touchdown and two-point conversion with three seconds left to force OT against Purdue (3-4, 0-3). Guiton wasn't done. He then guided Ohio State into position for Carlos Hyde's 1-yard touchdown run that ended up as the difference in a heart-stopping, 29-22 win over the Boilermakers on Saturday in Columbus, Ohio.

¼ cup tomato paste ¼ cup sorghum molasses, unsulfured molasses, or maple syrup (see note) 3 tablespoons dry mustard 2 tablespoons cider vinegar 1 tablespoon dark brown sugar Kosher salt 1 cup dark beer 2 quarts cooked white beans, drained, cooking liquid reserved 6 thick slices smoked bacon   1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. In a medium bowl, combine the tomato paste, sorghum, dry mustard, vinegar, brown sugar, and 1 teaspoon salt.

1 dozen eggs 6 tablespoons mayonnaise 1 teaspoon dry mustard 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon pepper 1/2 teaspoon paprika 1/4 cup sweet pickle relish 5 strips of cooked bacon, crumbled 1/2 teaspoon hot sauce   1. Place the eggs in a pot of water. Bring water to a boil and then turn off heat. Let the eggs rest in the water for 15 minutes. 2. Peel the eggs and cut in half vertically. Remove the yolks and place in a bowl.

Fox announced its fall lineup on Monday with great fanfare and minimal changes. The presentation at the Beacon Theater in New York began with a video of the cast from New Girl interviewing prospective additional roommates — everyone from Fringe's Walter Bishop to the Rubber Man from FX's American Horror Story. Afterward the network executives introduced two new sitcoms and a drama series, a modest harvest by any measure. The Mob Doctor is taking over House's practice on Monday nights.