Bacon Day: the classic that can even be served in one drink

During the year 2000 in Massachusetts, specifically in Bedford, students Alexa Haflord, Seth Rittenhouse and Evan Salim wondered, bewildered, why bacon (or bacon, or bacon, as you want to call it) doesn’t have a day when it’s celebrated, given their daily presence at the table of all Americans.

So, from their blog, they started a campaign that quickly gained popularity, with several locations joining the celebration and crossing the border from the United States, quickly reaching Canada and, over time, becoming a worldwide celebration.

Salty, fatty and rich, the three characteristics that were already known around 10,000 years ago in Central Asia regarding bacon, a place where wild pigs were already domesticated. However, not everyone got to appreciate it at first since, for example, in the Middle East, its consumption was banned because pigs were considered a dirty animal. Despite this, in the Roman Empire it was also popular.

During 1593, The Spanish conquistador and explorer Hernando de Soto brought 13 pigs to America, which in just three years had grown into a herd of over 700. The popularity of bacon also continued to increase in these lands, adopting it as one of the main ingredients in people’s diets.

Experimentation and versatility resulted in endless preparations that included it among their ingredients, not only savory dishes, but also desserts or even infused drinks.

“The original idea came to me when high-end bar-restaurants started serving fruit with vodka, and I found it interesting. But then I thought, what about the other things? And the first thing I tried was America’s favorite food, bacon.“Once,” said P Moss, owner of Double Down Saloon in Las Vegas, who designed the brew in 1985 but didn’t offer it to his customers until 1990.

As P Moss explained, the recipe is much simpler than you might imagine, regardless of the different versions that then started to appear. The traditional preparation of Bacon Martini is as simple as frying three slices of bacon “until they’re crisp, and the key to the flavor is it’s smoked bacon.”After that, “massage the three strips in a bottle of vodka and let stand for 48 hours. Pour the vodka with an infusion of bacon in a shaker with ice and shake well. Then strain into a chilled Martini glass and serve without garnish ”.

Exclusively for Infobae, the most prominent chefs present several options to celebrate this day as it deserves.

PAMPLONA WITH RUSSIAN SALAD

(By Paco Almeida, @chefpacoalmeida)

Ingredients

For Pamplona:

Chicken breasts, 2

Bacon, 200 g

Caramelized onion

Gouda type semi-hard cheese, 100 g

Honey and mustard

For the Russian salad:

Dad, 4

Green peas, 150 g

Carrots, 2

For the dressing:

Mayonnaise, 3 tablespoons

Heavy cream, 3 tbsp

Mustard, 1 tbsp

White vinegar, 1 tbsp

Sugar, 1 tbsp

Milk, c / n

Procedure

Open the chicken breasts and, using a hammer, stretch well. Season and paint with the mustard and honey sauce. Garnish with the caramelized onion and cheese stick. Wrap the chicken and cover with the bacon slices. Wrap in aluminum foil. Bake at 180 ° for 30 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through.

For the garnish, cut the carrot into small cubes, cook in a saucepan with plenty of salted water. Then add the peeled potato in cubes twice the size of the carrot. Cook in boiling water for 8 to 10 minutes until cooked through but firm. The last 2 minutes we add the peas. Filter and cool. Prepare the dressing in a bowl and mix with the cold vegetables.

PANCETA AND BONDIOLA BALL SANDWICH

By Daniele Pinna (@iduebriganti)

Ingredients (5-6 servings)

100 g of bread

50 ml of milk

750 g of fresh pork belly

750 g of bondiola

1 clove of garlic

Fresh parsley to taste

1 teaspoon of nutmeg

1 tsp of rosemary

1 liter of tomato sauce

1 hard crust bread (baguette or sourdough type)

Procedure

Soak the bread in milk, without letting it get too soft. To book. Chop meats, garlic and meats. Mix everything together with the nutmeg and rosemary, without kneading or applying too much pressure, simply incorporating all the ingredients.

Form balls and cook in a hot pan with a few drops of olive oil, over medium heat for 20 minutes. When the meatballs begin to “blanch” (a sign that they are cooked), add the tomato sauce, lower the heat and cook for another hour. At the end of cooking, add the basil leaves. Remove from heat and let stand until cool.

Open the bread, remove a little crumb to make room and add the meatballs with their sauce. You can add melted cheese.

CHICKPEA SOUP

(By Julieta Oriolo, @julietaoriolo)

Ingredients

Olive oil, c / n

Hot, c / n

Chopped onion, 1 unit

Garlic, 1 clove

Tomato extract, 1 teaspoon

Soaked chickpeas, 300 gr

Kale, 1/2 tied

Whole pear tomatoes, 1 can

Pan, c / n

Bacon, 100 g

Peperoncino, 1/2 unit

Chopped leeks, 2

Ricotta salatta, c / n

Sal, c / n

Celery sticks, chopped, 3 units

Chopped carrot, 1 unit

Procedure

In a saucepan with olive oil, brown the vegetables until they are transparent with the chopped bacon. Add the tomato extract and mix well. Add the chickpeas, season with salt and pepper and cover with the broth. Add the can of processed tomatoes, a pinch of sugar and cook until the chickpeas are tender. Serve in a deep plate.

Cut slices of bread and toast them with olive oil on a hot plate. Place kale sautéed with olive oil and garlic on the bread. Finish the toast with shelled ricotta salata on top. Serve the bread over the soup.

PANCETA Donuts

(By Pablo Carrera, @cm_pablo)

Ingredients

For the donuts:

1 liter of vegetable oil

90 g of refined sugar

20 g fresh yeast

3 eggs

220 ml whole milk

10 g of salt

90 g butter

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 tsp of vanilla extract

For the icing:

200 ml of maple syrup

400g caster sugar

300 g smoked bacon

50 ml of water (if necessary)

Procedure

For the donuts:

Add the flour, salt and cinnamon to the blender and mix until incorporated. Separate 50 ml of milk, heat it up and add the yeast, mix and leave to stand for 5 minutes. Melt the butter and add it along with the rest of the milk to the blender and continue mixing. Later add the hydrated yeast until incorporated.

Add the eggs one at a time until they are completely incorporated. Gradually add the sugar and continue to mix until the dough easily comes off the sides of the mixer.

Leave the dough to rest in a bowl with a larger capacity than the dough and glaze it with vegetable oil. Cover the bowl with clear plastic in a humid place at room temperature for 40 minutes or until doubled in size.

Roll out to a thickness of half a centimeter and cut with a circular cookie cutter the size you want for each donut; with a smaller one, cut the center of each donut. Let sit in a container until they ferment and double in size. Fry in abundant boiling oil for 1 minute on each side of the donut. Remove from the oil and cool in a container with paper towels to remove excess fat.

For the icing:

place the bacon on a rack and place in a preheated 180 degree oven until crisp. Once cooled, cut it into small pieces. In a bowl, combine the powdered sugar and maple syrup. Add a little water if necessary until it has a thick but not watery consistency. Place the mixture in a double boiler until it is completely incorporated. Frost the donut on one side with the mixture and sprinkle with bacon.

CHOCOLATE BELLY

(By Pablo Carrera, @cm_pablo)

Ingredients

Smoked bacon in salt leaves, 15 pieces

Semi amargo chocolate 70%, 300 g

Coarse salt, 5 g

Procedure

Bake bacon on waxed paper at 180 degrees until crisp. Drain on absorbent paper and let cool. For the chocolate, take 200 gr and melt them in a bain-marie. Once melted, add the remaining 100 gr, finely chopped. Mix with a spatula until completely incorporated out of the water bath; that means, temper quickly.

Carefully dip each slice of bacon to cover ¾ parts and place on waxed paper until chocolate solidifies. Before solidifying completely, sprinkle a little salt on the grains, which will give a delicious contrast to the chocolate taste.

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