Media magnate and mega-news enterprise, MSNBC has come right out and blurted out what everybody has been thinking for the past couple of years, that America’s love affair with bacon is absolutely no where near cooling down any time soon.

Just when people thought that the national hysteria of “Baco-Mania” that had been so dramatically exhibited by Bacon Freaks all across the country was starting to diffuse and “Freak-Fever” was beginning to cool, the next phase “Bacon On The Brain” kicked in and this time, it’s spreading faster than ever and people seem to have an even stronger strain than before.

Popular MSNBC writer Bill Briggs sites KFC’s latest release, the “Double Down’ Sandwich as just the latest clear evidence of a world that clearly has developed a culinary crush on our beloved bacon.

According to Briggs, “Bacon is once more our true, national food crush, spanning all ages, all cultures and all meals. It binds us in its aromatic allure — and maybe in its outlaw luster. Like a freedom fighter emerging from an underground bunker, the smoky strips of crispy bliss somehow survived the rise and reign of the cholesterol cops.”

The MSNBC writer continues by assessing that “It’s primal. It’s sublime. It’s bacon. And it’s bigger than ever, baby.”

Briggs quotes beloved television “Culinary Queen, Paula Deen” as responding to the news of the “Bacon Boosted” Double Down sandwich by giggling with glee “There’s no bun? Oh, shut up! I can’t wait to try it!” Deen said Tuesday while being driven between launch events for her book, “Paula Deen’s Savannah Style.” “We may have to go to the closest KFC now!”

Paula continued by exclaiming …“We love our bacon, Americans love their bacon!” added Deen, who serves up her southern-fried dishes and personality on the Food Network’s “Paula’s Home Cooking.”

Briggs continues his in-depth observations by explaining that “a bacon zeitgeist has sprouted. You can sample bacon maple lattes, $14 vodka cocktails with bacon, caffeinated bacon lollipops, deep-fried bacon with gravy, bacon-flavored chocolate, and a chicken stuffed inside a duck that’s crammed into a turkey — all encased by bacon and called a “turbaconducken.” On May 8, San Francisco is hosting its second annual “Bacon Camp,” billed as “an ad-hoc gathering born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment about bacon.”

Then Briggs wraps up his comments about out cultures current “Bacon Bonanza” by mentioning the fact that “At the Bacon Today blog which offers “daily updates on the world of sweet, sweet bacon,” shoppers can buy belts and pillows that look like bacon, plus “gummy bacon,” bacon-flavored dental floss and lip balm.”

Brigg’s final quotes from Paula Deen really say’s it all when she contemplates the role that bacon has played in the lives of Americans “its part of the American soul,” Deen said. “A bacon-free diet is like “going through life without seeing the Eiffel tower,” Deen said, “or without ever skinny-dipping under a full moon.”

Then “Queen Deen” adds “The smell of bacon cooking is in everybody’s memory. For years, I’ve wanted to come up with a room deodorizer that’s the scent of bacon, onions and bell peppers cooking on the stove. Wouldn’t that be fabulous?”

Well if you are looking for a bacon scented room freshener Ms. Deen, you need look no further than HERE where Bacon Freak has been selling them for years, for just for $4.95.

Then in his final observation, Brigg’s graciously offers a salute to what he refers bacon being the official “the candy of meats,” which clearly is a homage to the long-time, official Bacon Freak Motto “Bacon Is Meat Candy!”.

Big pig props to Mr. Briggs, whose insights and clarity are deeply appreciated and whose clarity and pork perceptions are 100% right on!

Signing off at Pigging out!
Rocco “Boss Hog” Loosbrock

This Saturday, April 24 was Boston’s inaugural celebration of what is planned to become a regular, cherished annual even, the official “2010 Boston Bacon & Beer Festival,” a celebration of bacon, beer, music and art, appropriately held at the historic “Power Station” in the SoWa district of the South End of Boston.

This is one of the coolest, hippest most happening locations for the Boston art, music and event scene as well as where the ever popular “Open Market” and “Antique Market” are regularly held.

The event was a huge success, proudly presented by the good people over at “SoWa Sundays” and “@EatBoston“, which is associated with “Where To Eat In Boston“.

This citywide celebration of bacon, beer, music and art was a perfect opportunity for Boston citizenry to reconnect, party and cheer “Here Comes The Sun,” after a long, cold lonely winter. The event is a wonderful opportunity to enjoy a great day of Baco-Mania, while helping to raise money for such worthy and notable charities as “Share Our Strength”, “Community Servings”, South End Youth Baseball and The Juniper Fund.

People enjoyed “Everything Bacon,” from bacon chips, bacon popcorn, bacon pretzels, bacon scones, bacon sandwiches, bacon-stuffed buns, bacon cupcakes, bacon brownies, bacon milkshakes and chocolate covered bacon, just to name a few of the daring and delectably delicious and delightful delicacies.

Bacon Cuisine was provided by the following restaurants: 33 Restaurant | 51 Lincoln |
Atwood’s | B.Good |Biltmore Bar & Grille | Franklin Cafe | The Gallows |Garden at the Cellar | Gaslight | Happy Pig Salumi &Taza Chocolate | Henrietta’s Table | Eat At Jumbo’s | Myers and Chang | Petit Robert Bistro | Picco | Rialto |Rocca | South End Buttery | Stoddard’s | The Fireplace| Trina’s Starlite Lounge | Turner Fisheries | Union | Whole Foods Symphony | Wicked Kickn’ Cheesecake.

Meanwhile The Beer was provided by: Brooklyn Brewery | Blue Hills Brewery | Cape Anne Brewing | Clown Shoes Beer | Dogfish Head | Cody Brewing Company | Harpoon Brewery | Just Beer | Magic Hat Brewing Company | Mayflower Brewing Company | Mercury Brewing Company | Narragansett Beer| Peak Organic Brewery | Pretty Things Beer and Ale Project | Rapscallion | Smuttynose Brewing Company.

An absolutely splendid day was enjoyed by all.

Signing off at Pigging out!
Rocco “Boss Hog” Loosbrock

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM. If I were getting married, I’d register for 8 of these. Okay, 10. (Of course the joke in there is that I would be getting married. HAHAHHAHAA! But I digress…)

Here are some other items I’d love to fill my bacon mug with:

• Scrambled eggs
• Chocolate fudge
• Ice cream
• Cake
• Who am I kidding, I’ll take this thing empty too…

So the next time you’re serving brunch, why not serve up some Bacon Mugs as well. And let us know what you fill it with! (As long as it’s clean… keep your bacon erotica to yourself, please. Unless you’re an eligible bachelor. Hubba hubba.)

~ Jennifer Eolin

If you grew up anything like me, you absolute LOVE eating Bacon and watching the Star Wars. I’m talking the awesome, original trilogy of the film, back in the days when #4 came before #1, and after #7, unless #7 got cancelled due to lack of interest.

You remember … Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Harrison Ford, Sir Alec Guinness, Peter Cushing and the hauntingly mesmerizing, if not a bit breathy voice of James Earl Jones. None of that Jar Jar Binks or that irritating flying shop owner who greedily runs the local junk yard.

Meanwhile, bacon was the official way to start off each and every weekend of a lifetime, or at least, a perfect childhood. Who could resist waking up with a smile on your face and skip in your step, when your first conscious moment of the weekend is waking up to the alluring aroma of bacon cooking in the kitchen, perfectly setting the tone and mood “for the rest of the day”… and only to discover year later, “for the rest of my life.”

Bacon was the high protein food that fed our brains while Star Wars introduced us to the deep, conceptual, philosophical idea of a spiritual battle between good and bad … or perhaps we just really enjoyed watching things blow up, jump into hyperspace and got an unusually funny feeling in our gut the moment we saw “Princess Leia” forced into that Gold Metallic Bikini by “Jabba The Hut?”

Anyway, what ever the reason ,good ole” Nick over at the website “This Is Freaking Ridiculous” decided to combine Bacon and Star Wars, by building an amazingly realistic, replica of the famous Star Wars “AT-AT” fighting walkers, constructed out of bacon, and a lot of people, including myself thank him for a fond walk down memory lane that is both artistic and fun, not to mention a great example of good taste.

The flesh featured “AT-AT” model was created to help celebrate one of the numerous national and international “Bacon Day’s.” this one being held on April 11th. The work of art stands three feet tall and features a foam body core that is covered with 40 pounds of bacon.

Hopefully they brought along some eggs and pancakes to officially “pig out” at the sad dismantling of the model at the end of the Bacon Bay ceremony.

Signing off at Pigging out!
Rocco “Boss Hog” Loosbrock

It seems that our recently released Bacon Freak “Bacon Cookbook” has done a lot more than merely fan the flames of the widespread, sizzling hot popularity that gourmet bacon cuisine has recently enjoyed over the last month or so.

It has also done a lot to send people searching the internet for more and more “Bacon Oriented” food recipes and that has served to re-awaken interest in our easy, quick and very simple to follow bacon meal preparation videos displayed at The Bacon Freaks’ Video Channel, that can be found, for your enjoyment and convenience, over at everyone’s favorite video portal, namely … You Tube!

Here, you can quickly and easily watch, listen and learn exactly how to cook each meal to absolute perfection, as each recipe is prepared in it’s entirety, right before your very own eyes. That’s pretty awesome for a guy like me, who is not really classically trained in the culinary arts, but has an enthusiastic interest and willingness to learn.

This public pork presentation is perfect for those people who are interested in learning how to cook these delicious meals, but have never had the “traditional / classical culinary training that one might expect is necessary to succeed at such mouth watering endeavors.

That’s right, the assumption that you need to go to years of Culinary Classes to make these delicious dishes is absolute “Hog Wash” according to “Bacon Freak’s” owner and proprietor, Rocco “Boss Hog” Loosbrock, who takes you on a video tour, from preparation to mastication of each and every video found on the Bacon Freak Video Channel.

That’s right, here you will find everything that you ever wanted to know about the perfect preparation of such meals as: Bacon Chili, Bacon Wrapped Jalapeno’s and Bacon Breadsticks to Bacon Lettuce Wraps, Cheesy Bacon Rolls and Bacon Avocado Snacks.

For those truly interested, you can even subscribe to the Bacon Freak You Tube Channel right up in the top left side of the page.

Check it out for yourself; you’ll certainly be glad that you did!

Signing off at Pigging out!
Rocco “Boss Hog” Loosbrock

The massive wave of “Baco-Mania” has splashed so broadly across the entire spectrum of society, that what was once merely a “Gourmet Bacon World” for so many life-long, dedicated Bacon Freaks, has now expanded into some other truly delicious pork oriented endeavors.

Of course, it only makes sense that if you have your hands on the world’s finest, Blue Ribbon Award Winning pigs, why stop at merely “Makin’ Bacon?”

There’s a famous old joke that’s been told for years out in the pig pen regarding “Bacon and Eggs.” The joke basically is a commentary regarding the fact that while the chicken most certainly contributes to the over-all achievement of the goal of a great Bacon and Eggs breakfast, it truly is the Pig who is personally, absolutely committed to the general proposition of the meal.

So now Bacon Freak is pleased as punch and proud peacock’s to present three new deliriously delightful and delectably delicious powerful platforms of the Bacon Freak empire; and this time the world’s finest pork is being dedicated to premium quality, gourmet Ham, Sausage and Bacon + Chocolate Candy.

Introducing your quick and easy access to the following fine, popular pork portals: Ham Freak, Sausage Freak and what is quickly growing to be one of the most popular and sought out “bacon oriented” products on the market today, Bacon Chocolate!

For all of you out there who have been hearing the buzz and wanting to find out what the fever and fury is all about, with your own taste buds, Bacon Freak’s deliciously decadent Bacon Chocolate Sueyts can now be found online at their very own website, which feature both deliciously dark and mouthwatering milk chocolate sueyts!

Whenever any huge, raging socially popular trend explodes with gigantic proportions and swells into an actual cultural “wave,” all topically related boats in the harbor rise equally with the incoming flow of the raging high tide that ensues.

Therefore, with “Baco-Mania” becoming a powerful, popular movement all across the entire nation, it’s only natural that other premium pork products begin to get a strong surge of interest and demand, and for that reason alone, a hungry public can now fully satisfy those alternative pork product urges at SausageFreak.com, HamFreak.com and BaconChocolate.com.

Signing off at Pigging out!
Rocco “Boss Hog” Loosbrock

TEXT FROM BRAD: This photo was taken at 8:10 p.m. EDT at the Pompano Beach, FL, Costco Wholesale store. …I got to the end of the aisle that had spices and seasonings and noticed this bag on the end cap. It was not refrigerated.

ME: EW! Is it bacon or salad?

TEXT FROM BRAD: And I get what you’re saying now, it DOES look like a bag of salad! I didn’t notice until I looked at the picture again. Gross. That’s my opinion, anyway.

ME: Gross is a gross understatement.

WHY would Costco do this to bacon? What did bacon do to tick Costco off? And WHY ISN’T IT REFRIGERATED? What kind of horrible chemicals and preservatives are keeping that bag’s ecosystem running? Do I need to get a documentary crew out there? I have so many questions…

I think we can all learn a lesson from this: Not all bacon is raised with love. A sad fact, but true. Make sure to hug your bacon today!

–Jennifer Eolin

This got me thinking, is there anything that isn’t better with bacon?

Hamburgers, better with bacon. Steaks and scallops better when wrapped in bacon. Eggs so much better with bacon. Salad, add some bacon and its better. Baked potatoes again, you guessed it better with bacon.

Bacon can add a variety of different flavors that brings any dish to that next level weather you are cooking for yourself or family and friends. Bacon can be sweet, it can be savory, it can be Smokey, it can be flavored, but whatever food you are cooking up, it is better with bacon.

Bacon has this unique ability to go with so many of the everyday foods that we eat.

Because we all agree that bacon has a magical ability to make almost any food better (lets face it you are reading a blog all about bacon), why not keep your kitchen well stocked with a variety of different bacon products.

Baconfreak.com offers the “Bacon Is Meat Candy” Bacon of the Month Club where you can get two different packages of bacon delivered to your house each month.

And for all you vegetarians out there who miss out on the many uses of bacon and its delicious taste, Bacon Freak has not forgot about you and have created there own Hickory Bacon flavored seasoning.

-Matt Kufeld

In honor of Bacon Freak’s “Grand Release Celebration” of their brand new gourmet Bacon Cookbook , the fine folks over at Bacon Today, normally a staunch competitor of Bacon Freak, requested the opportunity to premier a FREE RECIPE on their own corporate blog as part of the Ceremonious Celebration taking place within the gourmet bacon world and Bacon Freak was quite thrilled to be asked and to cooperate.

Bacon Today chose to feature the Avocado Mango Salad Recipe which was custom created by world renowned Chef, Rick Bayless.

For those living under a rock the past decade, Rick Bayless is chef of both Frontera Grill and Topolobampo in Chicago, as well as being the creator of “Frontera Gourmet Foods,” multiple Best Selling cookbook author, host of his own popular television cooking show, called “Mexico – One Plate at a Time” and winner of the James Beard “Best International Cookbook of the Year” award in 2001.

In his own words about his personal and professional adoration of bacon, Chef Bayless explains … “Everyone has seen me wear the bacon is meat candy T-shirt on my TV show…but it is more than just a T-shirt slogan to me…it’s a way of life. Whenever I am stuck on what to do in a particular recipe, I always think.  WWBD?”

What Would Bacon Do? … indeed!

Enjoy Chef Rick’s free Avocado Mango Salad Recipe!

Signing Off and Pigging Out,

Rocco “Boss Hog” Loosbrock

Be sure to visit our Bacon Club by Cicking HERE!

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!”