Hello there! I felt the need to write to you after a fellow bacon lover sent me some pictures of one of your bacon products.

Well done! Good job harnessing the power of bacon into a convenient bag for porky-oinky goodness on the go. HOWEVER, I do draw issue with your product with the warning on the back of the bag:

Really? “DO NOT EAT PACKET”? What lawyer made you put that warning on there? Was it the same genius who told you to put in the ingredients that bacon is “gluten free”? (That’s like saying there’s no cholesterol in a tomato. Duh!)

On behalf of Bacon Freaks everywhere, I’d like to let you know that even though we are indeed freaky, we are not stupid. Full of lipids and nitrates, yes, but not stupidity.

Oink oink,
Jennifer Eolin

The fine folks over at Bacon Today just released what could only be classified as an “A+” rave review regarding the new gourmet Bacon Cookbook that it’s competitors, Bacon Freak,  just put out this week.

In the usual “cut throat” and “back-stabbing” world of business, even in the much more tastefully refined world of fine dining and gourmet food, it’s so very rare to see such a glowingly positive review of someone else’s work, particularly a direct competitor, that we thought the world would get some enjoyment from the taste of pure kindness and graciousness exhibited between these two popular and powerful industry leaders.

Here’s the whole story, presented “straight from the pigs mouth”, just as they posted it on their blog.

Enjoy …

“Not too long ago, a reader came to us with the idea that we should write a bacon book. You know, a book about bacon. We tossed around a few ideas that all centered around bacon and books and how to combine them into a book about bacon but we haven’t nailed down a bacon book concept just yet.

Today we received an email from Boss Hog over at BaconFreak.com announcing that he’s released the first edition of his Bacon Cookbook. What better book about bacon could there be than a bacon book that helps you cook the meat candy?

According to the web site (with the oh-so-catchy URL of BaconCookbook.com) they’ve got recipes from some renowned chefs that will help you get your bacon fix for breakfast, lunch, dinner, appetizers, and even bacon desserts.

We got a chance to peek at the bacon cookbook ahead of time and were impressed with the quality of the bacon recipes included in the book. Don’t be surprised if you see a couple examples of bacon dishes we test out here at Bacon Today. We’re planning to cook up a few of the meals to give them the official Bacon Today taste test.

The Bacon Freak Bacon Cookbook is available in both downloadable PDF and paperback formats. Head on over to BaconCookbook.com and get your copy today!”

I have enjoyed gourmet bacon for years both in my kitchen and in restaurants, but have often felt that I needed to contribute and add additional enhancing flavors to the experience.

In one way or another, I felt the need to add salt, pepper or another spice or accompaniment to make it even better. Bourbon Street Cajun Style Country Bacon has relieved my largely non-cook self of trying to figure out how to best contribute to a packaged bacon product.

Now I can put the bacon in the pan, and watch it grow and develop its zest as it sizzles to perfection without any additional seasoning on my part! The hickory, smoky, slightly spicy flavoring engages in a harmony of exceptional bacon flavors in my mouth which simultaneously delights my taste buds.

When people try to describe bacon, I have heard a myriad of descriptions including greasy, salty chicken. This Cajun Bacon is definitely not anything like chicken. The slightly crispy highly flavorful exterior of a thicker cut of bacon is juxtaposed to a softer interior that is a bit milder in taste. It was a great co-star of my dinner as a few delightful slices of protein were beside the vegetable stir-fry I whipped up.

I invited my friend over for dinner, who is also a bacon lover, and I watched happily as she too ate all the bacon before the vegetables. I can almost taste the dance the Cajun Bacon would engage upon in a BLT with the satisfying crunch of lettuce, fresh tomatoes and a few slices of turkey. Coupling this with an egg white omelet would be an excellent way to start any Saturday morning!

Unlike all other bacon I have cooked, this did not shrink to 1/2 the size that it had in its uncooked original packaging – what a delight! It smells as great cooking in the pan as it does when you actually eat it. As someone who enjoys a bit of a spice with my meals, I highly recommend Bourbon Street Cajun Style Country Bacon to those who also would like to enjoy bacon on a new level.

~Lauren Armanino

Signing Off and Pigging Out,

Rocco “Boss Hog” Loosbrock

Be sure to visit our Bacon Club by Clicking HERE!

OK … normally I would never consider giving such valuable ink, prominent space or personal and professional props to any one, single establishment, within the same month, let alone the same week, but there’s a good reason for me to do so this week.

After showing the entire country that they truly are a family oriented restaurant run by sincerely caring human beings, by offering free short-stacks of pancakes to raise money for The Children’s Miracle Network .

The good folks over at The International House Of Pancakes, now more commonly and simply referred to as IHOP are using their business wisdom and understanding of culture and human psychology by cashing in on the massive popularity of Bacon-Mania!

The fact that bacon has miraculously rising from being a very strict “NO-NO” in most people’s dietary rule book, to now being the popular food now being added to almost every other type of food in order to make it more popular, all in just a few short years, is truly amazing.

IHOP is simply the very next in an extremely long line of restaurants, from the most posh and impressively sophisticated eateries, to pretty much all of the fast food “drive-thru” joints speckled generously across this country’s wide and varied lands to bet on the bacon to help bring home the bacon.

The big difference here is that IHOP deserves a standing ovation and pat on the back for making it about a lot more than simply making the “Big Bucks” selling decent food and reasonable prices. IHOP has worked hard to help kids in need and for that fact alone, I’m happy to give them a smiling “shout out” and say “attaboy” and “way to go my friends!

Of course the bacon they are serving up may not be the most impressive, gourmet bacon that many of you have come to enjoy and expect, but it’s clearly as good, if not better that the bacon served up by many of the fast food places.

So, if you truly would like to do something different this week, take your friends and or family indoors for a meal, get the heck out of the car, and go inside, sit down and share a meal brought to you by some other real human people, face to face, and talk to each other like real people for a change.

Give it a try; I think you’ll like it!

FACT:  Bacon is delicious.

FACT:  Bacon has fat in it, which makes it even more “de-freaking-licious.”

FACT:  My doctor is a “stick in the mud” who uses the word, “moderation” in the same sentence as “bacon.”

FACT:  I’m looking for a new doctor.  *Burp!*

I know many people who just can’t eat bacon due to health requirements.  (My sincerest condolences!)

I also know many vegetarians who can’t eat bacon.  (OK, now that was your choice!)  But thanks to the peeps over at Light Life , there is a viable bacon substitute, called “Smart Bacon,” that can hold over the bacon addict, vegetarian or otherwise.

I’ve created a simple recipe that helps hardcore “Baconistas” forget (momentarily at least) that they aren’t eating the true pork product.  Ergo, the Smart Scramble.

The Smart Scramble

Ingredients:

2 eggs (can be replaced with 4 egg whites or even egg substitute)

2 slices of Smart Bacon

1 handful of tomatoes (or any veggies you like)

1 “dash” of dried chives, sea salt and ground pepper.

Directions:

Break up the bacon into pieces and put in a skillet.  (The breaking up of the “meat” will be pretty easy as the slices rarely are able to be stripped off the rasher as a whole slice…)

Cook these until almost crisp.  While these are crisping, cut your veggie(s). Personally, I love tomatoes for this, but spinach is good too!

Mix your eggs and seasoning.

Pour everything into the already hot skillet.

Scramble to your liking and serve!

Enjoy!

Each slice of Smart Bacon affords its recipient only 20 calories and just 1gram of fat and 2 grams of protein.

You can find their full nutritional information here.

I have to say, Smart Bacon is the best “bacon substitute” I’ve had yet and it is very good for those mornings where I remember my “New Year’s Resolution” of healthier eating.  (Boo!)

Still, I must stress that nothing… Absolutely NOTHING… compares to the original “Meat Candy” = Bacon!

Signing Off and Pigging Out,

Rocco “Boss Hog” Loosbrock

Visit our Bacon Club by clicking here

Outlets like BaconFreak.com make giving a smoky, delicious gift basket both easy and fun. You can give anything from two pounds of bacon to a basket crammed with meats, pancakes, seasonings and even apparel! But if you really want to go for the win, try a bacon-of-the-month club. That scholar of yours will wait with baited breath to see which unique bacon flavor awaits him in his mailbox each month. Not only does everyone love getting a package, but come on! It’s bacon! And, if he didn’t call regularly before, this gift will guarantee your phone rings at least once a month…he’ll be thanking you all year long.

If by some odd chance your kid isn’t a bacon fanatic, don’t worry. BaconFreak has everything from sausage to ribs to lobster for your gift giving pleasure. Even BBQ sauces and salsas! He’ll be the king of the grill, a skill he’ll use far more often in life than those Calculus formulas.

This year, enjoy the gift-giving season as you shop from the comfort of your living room. Go to www.BaconFreak.com and check out their full line of food and wine clubs for all your family and friends. Good taste has never been easier!

Marianne

Well, as we all know, science has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that
most truly classy and intelligent “Human Beings” are absolutely obsessed
with the flavor of bacon!

Therefore, it only makes sense that there would be so many fun, tasty and
totally “off the wall” bacon flavored novelty items available out there to
continually allure our interests.

The first one that ever caught my attention and got me to “bite” was the old
original “Bacon Flavored Breath Mints” which don’t taste exactly like bacon,
any more than grape soda tastes exactly like grapes. But, clearly enough
people out there really do seem to like them a lot, judging by how popular
of an item they are.

Then there were “Bacon Flavored Gummy Bears” which were a huge hit with the
kids!

Next thing you knew, there were all sorts of fascinating Bacon Flavored
Novelty Treats, including Bacon Flavored Gum Balls, Jelly Beans, Lollipops,
Chocolate Bars, Ice Cream, and yes, my dedicated “Bacon Freaks,” I haven’t
forgotten, and was merely saving our ever so wondrous “Bacon Jerky” for
last.

Then it was Bacon Beverages, everything from Bacon Beer to Bacon Soda (Yep,
no pun intended, that’s Bacon Soda NOT Baking Soda LOL) and Bacon Infused
Vodka to Bacon Flavored Tequila.

Then, an enlightened thought popped into the heads of all of these good
people who were now happily spending their day “chowing down” on Bacon Jelly
Beans, Chocolate Bars, Lollipops and Bacon Ice Cream while guzzling Bacon
Soda. They realized that if they were going to still have any teeth left at
all, in order to enjoy some real, premium quality, gourmet bacon made of
“actual – factual” pork, they were going to need to take better care of
their teeth and increase their dental hygiene.

This of course, ushered in the immediate and huge need for Bacon Flavored
Tooth Picks and dental floss. Thereby ensuring that you were now able to
maintain that romantically robust and magnificently meaty “bacon breath,”
but in a way that was not going to lead to tooth decay or other periodontal
diseases.

Now, all is well in “Baconia” and people smell and taste precisely as any
civilized society dictates, exactly like the undisputed food of the gods,
BACON!

Enough said, “got to get em” and protect those choppers Bacon Freaks.

Our very way of life relies on our ability to “bite the ham that feeds us!”

Blog Sig if Bacon:
Signing Off and Pigging Out,
Rocco “Boss Hog” Loosbrock
www.baconfreak.com

As I mentioned this past week, August 30th was International Bacon Day. For many of our newest bacon freaks this was their first celebration of this food holiday. Several websites hosted parties and events aimed at making this event the best ever! We were contacted by so many of our loyal “Baconeers” who asked us for bacon recommendations and recipe pairings and the like. It was our single largest donation of our Bacon is Meat Candy T-shirts; over 100 in total were given to Bacon Freaks who choose to celebrate this day!

One of the parties closest to my home was planned by The Royal Bacon Society folks. They hosted a party that featured Bacon Freak Bacon and our swag. I spoke with Marianne the founder of this site and she said that, “We prepared several pounds of bacon in various forms and recipes, and I’m here to tell you…there was no bacon left at the end of the day.” Her fellow “Bacon-istas” reviewed Rocco’s Sun-Dried Tomato Bacon and they picked it as the favorite of the day for texture and sheer deliciousness of bacon. She said, “Every time I turned around someone was asking me what it was and where I got it.”

To document this day we were sent several pictures in which I would like to share with you. My favorite picture is of the Dog named Brutus. He definitely showed that he has a love of bacon! Their must have been several injuries in that dog fight as several people had to use the bacon bandages to protect their wounds. If you missed this bacon day, be sure to get prepared for the next as the parties and events will be bigger and better then ever.

Click the following link to listen to this story. intl-bacon-day-follow-up

Signing off and pigging out
Rocco “Boss Hog” Loosbrock
www.baconfreak.com

I have been featuring the wonderful bacon of Broadbent Hams over the past two years. They have come top of mind with the recent Tomato scare. After all as an official bacon freak I need my daily BLT for Lunch. Well with no tomatos how am I supposed to make a Bacon Lettuce and Tomato sandwich? Ah at last the solution hit me, the wonderful bacon of Broadbent Hams, Sun Dried Tomato. This bacon has a uuniquely sweet tomato flavor and is a must for the low carb dieter.

Broadbent Hams has been in business since the mid 1960’s. Since 1999 they have won the Kentucky State Fair over 5 times, including the Fancy Food Show of New York twice. Rodney Drennan states that, “They try and make the best bacon they can” I guess he doesn’t like to brag. They also hold the current record for the largest raffleled / auctioned Grand Champion Ham at $500,000.00 dollars – that ham sold for $29,000.00 a pound – what a great donation to charity!

I also really enjoy their nitrate free bacon which is cured with just salt and sugar. If you want an organic bacon – this is one to try! I asked Ronny why his bacon is so darn good and he told me that, “He wants to make the best bacon he can by doing things the old fashioned way. Everything thing they do is done by hand and each package is packed by hand.”

Click here to listen to the audio interview.

Click here to buy Sun-Dried Tomato Bacon

Well hello to you, my fellow “Baconistas!”

Today I want to share with you an innovative and inventive San Francisco based candy company owned by Jason Lewis that I find worthy of our attention because they seem to truly enjoy playfully experimenting with some really original, unusual and highly unexpected flavors and flavor combinations.

The name of the company is “Lollyphile.” For those of you who it’s just too early in the morning to decipher the meaning behind the name, that’s “Lolly” as in lollipop and “phile” as in someone that loves or has a strong affinity or preference for something.

They formed the company right around Halloween of 2007 and started off with a strangely flavored lollipop designed specifically to remind the world that “Absinthe” makes the heart grow fonder!” Yep, an absinthe lollipop, and why not?

Next up on their calendar of crazy and creative, culinary concoctions is the blessed “Holy Grail” lollipop that I’m her to share with you. This baby grabbed me tightly by the snout, demanding my full attention and simply refused to let go.

Introducing the ever so awesome: Maple-Bacon Lollipop. It’s made from REAL bacon, and not just any bacon mind you, but actual, sustainable, organic, cured bacon and nothing less than pure Vermont maple syrup. The reason it works so well is that the salty chunks of bacon are perfectly blended and “Bacon-omically” balanced on the palate with the subtle sweetness of the maple syrup, creating a sultry and sensuous combination that really makes a powerful pork impression.

I actually like it and happily give it an official Bacon Freak “Eight and a Half Snout Salute,” out of a possible 10.

I just love this company’s general passion and philosophy of why it is that they do what it is that they do. Here’s what they have to say about themselves. ” We believe that candy can be every bit as much a gastronomical adventure as a fancy dinner, and we want to see just how far we can go.”

They continue by explaining, “We want to make you remember exactly why you threw fits when your parents wouldn’t buy you candy, and then we’d like to gently remind you that you’re perfectly able to buy your own candy now. Good thing you saved your allowance.”

Hey Bacon Freaks, I say you can’t beat that kind of positive and enthusiastic attitude with a crispy and firm strip of Country Style Hickory Smoked or one of those ridiculous 20 foot long whips of the worlds best bacon flavored licorice you can get your hands on.

Be sure to check em out at:
http://www.lollyphile.com/

Signing Off and Pigging Out,

Rocco “Boss Hog” Loosbrock
www.baconfreak.com