Bacon and butter make everything better!
It goes without saying but, bacon and butter make everything better! Common sense right? But think about it. The French use butter in everything! It’s practically it’s own food group in French cooking. Gotta be a reason, right? And bacon! Is there any other food that’s had such a revolution lately, save maybe for hipsters and avocados? Salty, fatty, smoky and delicious. Maybe the common thread between the two is salty and fatty. Except for unsalted butter of course. But when you cook with those two ingredients, magic happens! Whether it’s a flaky croissant, a Club Sandwich, or many other quintessential dishes, they just wouldn’t be as impressive without bacon and butter. A croissant would just be bread and a Club would just be a turkey sandwich.
Take my 6 year old. He is the pickiest and most stubborn eater on the planet. It’s a daily battle of the wills to get this boy to eat. But there are a few things that will always get him to chow down. One is my scrambled eggs. Another is Duck a l’orange, but that’s another blog. But what’s so special about scrambled eggs? Pretty boring stuff, right? Well, not so much. Mine use a good amount of butter and bacon, in the form of bacon grease.
Lately I’ve been cooking with ghee. Which is an Indian-style clarified butter. I learned to use this in culinary school. After culinary school I used olive oil, almost exclusively. But a couple of months ago I made some boeuf bourguignon. I decided to go old school French and use clarified butter to brown the beef and onions. It was amazing! You could’ve just eaten the beef cooked in the butter by itself. Then my girlfriend and I started really getting into Indian food. I’ve made a few dishes at home: Butter Chicken and Mango Curry Chicken. I’m firmly believing that the secret as to why they turned out so good was using ghee to brown the chicken and vegetables.
I’ve also been using bacon grease a lot in place of oil. It adds a smoky, richness nothing else will give you. One of my favorite uses is my Nana’s Southern Style Green Beans. Sure I could sauté in oil or even butter but the bacon grease adds much more depth and flavor.
What are your favorite uses for butter and bacon?
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