Bacon jam is a
bacon
Bacon is a type of Curing (food preservation), salt-cured pork made from various cuts of meat, cuts, typically the pork belly, belly or less fatty parts of the back. It is eaten as a side dish (particularly in breakfasts), used as a central in ...
-based
relish
A relish (a pickle-based condiment) is a cooking, cooked and pickling, pickled culinary dish made of chopped vegetables, fruits or herbs, typically used as a condiment to enhance a staple. Examples are chutneys and the North American relish, a p ...
made from cooked, drained chopped bacon, which is slow cooked with onions, vinegar, and brown sugar. Part of
bacon mania, it was invented as
condiment
A condiment is a preparation that is added to food, typically after cooking, to enhance the Flavoring, flavour, to complement the dish or to impart a specific flavor. Such specific flavors generally add sweetness or pungency, or sharp or piquant ...
for hamburgers in 2007, and is now served on many other foods, including as a
spread for bread or toast.
History
Josh Henderson of
Skillet Street Foods in Seattle created bacon jam for his food trucks
and has been selling it since at least 2007.
His recipe was inspired by the garnish for the hamburgers at
Sang Yoon's gastropub
Father's Office, which includes caramelized onions and "bacon compote"; Henderson says he spent four years refining his bacon jam recipe, emphasizing the pork flavors over the onion. He serves it as a "special sauce" on the hamburgers on his food trucks.
Henderson also sold bacon jam in jars, and in 2008, it was sold through
Martha Stewart
Martha Helen Stewart (, ; born August 3, 1941) is an American retail business woman, writer, and television personality. As the founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, focusing on home and hospitality, she gained success through a variety ...
's and
''Real Simple'''s holiday gift guides.
Others have started producing it since.
Preparation
Bacon jam is made by cooking chopped bacon, draining most of the grease, then slow cooking it with diced onions, brown sugar, balsamic vinegar, salt, and black pepper.
Garlic,
maple syrup
Maple syrup is a sweet syrup made from the sap of maple trees. In cold climates, these trees store starch in their trunks and roots before winter; the starch is then converted to sugar that rises in the sap in late winter and early spring. Ma ...
, and other vinegars are also common ingredients. Less frequently used ingredients include bourbon whiskey, brewed coffee, thyme, and salt.
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* Despite the name, bacon jam is not jam-like, but has chunks of bacon and other ingredients in a sticky glaze; some cooks make it smoother in a food processor. Commercial bacon jam tends to be smoother than home-made.
The original Skillet Street version contains 36% protein and fat from bacon and 11% sugar. Other commercially packaged products may contain trace-17% protein and fat from the bacon and 35-66% sugar. Recipes on the web have 4-6 as much raw bacon by weight as sugar;
since cooked bacon is about 30% the weight of raw, bacon jam has about 1.2-1.8 times as much bacon as sugar.
Shelf life
Unlike
fruit jams, bacon jam cannot be stored at room temperature, or made shelf-stable by
home canning
Home canning or bottling, also known colloquially as putting up or processing, is the process of Food preservation, preserving foods, in particular, fruits, vegetables, and meats, by packing them into glass jars and then heating the jars to crea ...
, even if vinegar or sugar are added. It can be held in a refrigerator for 2-4 weeks, or frozen.
Foodborne illness
Foodborne illness (also known as foodborne disease and food poisoning) is any illness resulting from the contamination of food by pathogenic bacteria, viruses, or parasites,
as well as prions (the agents of mad cow disease), and toxins such ...
from bacon jam has been traced to inadequate refrigeration.
Similar products
There are many spreadable pork products vaguely similar to bacon jam:
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance languag ...
(
Calabria
Calabria is a Regions of Italy, region in Southern Italy. It is a peninsula bordered by the region Basilicata to the north, the Ionian Sea to the east, the Strait of Messina to the southwest, which separates it from Sicily, and the Tyrrhenian S ...
)
'nduja
'Nduja () is a spicy, spreadable pork sausage from the Calabria
Calabria is a Regions of Italy, region in Southern Italy. It is a peninsula bordered by the region Basilicata to the north, the Ionian Sea to the east, the Strait of Messina ...
,
Austrian (Styria) verhackert,
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany, the country of the Germans and German things
**Germania (Roman era)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
mettwurst and
teewurst. These are cured or raw products, not cooked like bacon jam.
French (
Touraine
Touraine (; ) is one of the traditional provinces of France. Its capital was Tours. During the political reorganization of French territory in 1790, Touraine was divided between the departments of Indre-et-Loire, :Loir-et-Cher, Indre and Vien ...
)
rillettes
Rillettes (, also , ) is a preservation method similar to confit where meat is seasoned then submerged in fat and cooked slowly over the course of several hours (4 to 10 hours). The meat is shredded and packed into sterile containers covered in ...
are a shredded
confit
Confit (, ) (from the French language, French word ''wikt:confire#French, confire'', literally "to preserve") is any type of food that is cooked slowly over a long period as a method of food preservation, preservation.
Confit, as a cooking term, ...
which can be made of pork and salt, but are not otherwise seasoned;
Balzac once called them "brune confiture" 'brown jam'.
None of these products use crisped meat, none are sweetened, and none are used as condiments -- rather, they are eaten as
charcuterie
Charcuterie (, , also , ; ; from , and ) is a branch of French cuisine devoted to prepared meat products, such as bacon, ham, sausage, Terrine (food), terrines, ''galantines'', ''ballotines'', ''pâtés'', and ''confit'', primarily from pork.
Ch ...
with bread.
See also
*
List of spreads
This is a list of spreads. A Spread (food), spread is a food that is literally spread, generally with a knife, onto food items such as bread or Cracker (food), crackers. Spreads are added to food to enhance the flavour or texture of the food, whic ...
References
*
{{Bacon
Bacon dishes
Condiments
Spreads (food)
American cuisine
Hamburgers (food)