Bacon Jam without Coffee

Martha Stewart in all her Martha glory came up with (Christian believes she actually doesn't come up with anything, what do you think?) a bacon jam recipe for the December issue of Everyday Food. Her version called for coffee but since drinking coffee would mean eternal damnation (kidding! Mormons don't really believe that we believe this) I decided to make my bacon jam with herbal tea, Sweet & Spicy from Good Earth, a local tea factory, to be exact.

One truth about Mormons is that we tend to have a lot of kids. Christian's mom had 6 and her mom had 10. It makes life so resourceful, let me tell you. Last week my issue of Everyday Food disappeared. I am blaming it on Baby Maria and her urge to stick things, like my debit card, in the heating vent slots. I am in no way attributing it to my poor organizational skills and the fact that it could very well be under the pile of clothes I have yet to put away. Does it matter? No because Christian has 578 people in his family and one of them is bound to come to my rescue.

As soon as I wrote a frantic facebook update...

Christian's cousin's wife typed up the entire recipe in the comments section. Christian's cousin's wife has 5 kids, and she goes to school, and her husband is a lawyer.  AND she still took the time to type up the entire bacon jam recipe for me even though most people would just make some cruel comment about how bacon jam is weird. If that's not family I don't know what is.

Thanks cous'!

For all you skeptics bacon jam is not weird, it's exquisitely full of flavor and crunch. It's delicious and  I served it on top of brie cheese for our recipe exchange party last Saturday and it was a hit. If you want Martha's recipe with coffee you can get the Everyday Food mag for this month or wait till next month when she posts the recipe on her site. If you want my variation made with herbal tea here it is.

Bacon Jam without Coffee

(printable version)

• 1 lbs bacon, cut crosswise into 1" pieces 
• 2 medium yellow onions, diced small  
• 1/3 cup cider vinegar 
• 1/3 cup packed dark brown sugar 
• 1/2 cup pure maple syrup 
• 3/4 cup Sweet & Spicy tea from Good Earth

1. Cook bacon over med-high heat until fat is rendered and slightly browned.
2. Transfer bacon to paper towels to drain.
3. Pour off all but 1 tablespoon fat from skillet and add onions, cook until onions are translucent. Add vinegar, brown sugar, syrup, and tea and bring to a boil, stirring and scraping up browned bits from skillet.
4. Add bacon and stir to combine.
5. Transfer mixture to 6qt slow cooker and cook on high, uncovered until liquid is syrupy--about 4 hours.
6. Transfer to food processor; pulse until coarsely chopped.
7. Let cool, then refrigerate in airtight containers up to 4 weeks.

Just in case you want more extended family stories paired with bacon you can read my article that I wrote for the Santa Cruz Sentinel where I retold the story of Christian's oldest bro and his encounter with bacon for the first time. It's my favorite family story.

Speaking of family we're surrounded by family in Hawaii.

We arrived well.

We're jet laged.

Will post pics of the kids in paradise soon-ish

xoxo

ps. I also did read all the comments from yesterdays posts. I wish I could of packed you in my suitcase. You would of been worth the extra charge for checking in luggage. We were counting on not checking in anything and just doing carry ons. They made us check in two bags. Jerks.

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post-edit:

This post was entered in the Foodbuzz BACONALIA challenge and is an entry for a chance to win