Important matters concerning the existence of Humanity - BACON

Brilliant! I have just added the Zingerman’s info to the Christmas idea list. Thank you.

Out of a bleak, cheerless, bacon-naught burger comes new bacon roads to travel.

🥓🥓🥓🥓🥓
 
Zingerman’s is an Ann Arbor legend — and deservedly so. I’ve never had their bacon, but if it’s anything like their sandwiches, it must be outrageously good — and outrageously expensive (though that latter attribute can be said about any high-quality New York-style deli).

Shortly after I moved to DC following college, a buddy then living in Ann Arbor decided to come out for a visit. I told him he wasn’t welcome unless he brought along something from Zingerman’s. So when he knocked on my door after a 10-hour drive, I opened it to find a giant pastrami sandwich shoved in my face. Maybe I should’ve asked for bacon too.
 
Zingerman’s is an Ann Arbor legend — and deservedly so. I’ve never had their bacon, but if it’s anything like their sandwiches, it must be outrageously good — and outrageously expensive (though that latter attribute can be said about any high-quality New York-style deli).

Shortly after I moved to DC following college, a buddy then living in Ann Arbor decided to come out for a visit. I told him he wasn’t welcome unless he brought along something from Zingerman’s. So when he knocked on my door after a 10-hour drive, I opened it to find a giant pastrami sandwich shoved in my face. Maybe I should’ve asked for bacon too.
I will be driving back to school with DS next month. I'll have to try their bacon and report back. In addition to the famous deli, they also have a roadhouse, a bake house, a creamery, coffee shop, candy store, catering and other businesses. The founder spoke at one of DS's lead labs and DS was quite impressed. Last time we ate at the roadhouse, the founder was out there busing tables on a Friday night.
 
...embiggening...

Come on. That cannot actually be a word.

So I looked it up:
"Embiggen" has been added to a US dictionary - a word first heard on The Simpsons in 1996. ... It is from the motto of The Simpsons' fictional town of Springfield: "A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man." It means to "make bigger or more expansive", says Merriam-Webster.

I feel dumber-er now.
 
Come on. That cannot actually be a word.

So I looked it up:
"Embiggen" has been added to a US dictionary - a word first heard on The Simpsons in 1996. ... It is from the motto of The Simpsons' fictional town of Springfield: "A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man." It means to "make bigger or more expansive", says Merriam-Webster.

I feel dumber-er now.
you beat me to it, I was just asking google for the definition. I too, also feel as though my vocabulary could be embiggened.
 
I didn't know embiggen. I am not worthy.

My excuse is that years ago I stopped watching "The Simpsons" when, as a wee lad, DS started calling me Homer. :biggrin: Little did I know the impact this would have to my vocabulary. Some decisions have to be regretted.

Oh, and now I have to add it to my dictionary so spell check won't flag it. Arghhhh!
 
I use it based solely on its Simpson's heritage. Merriam-Webster is just keeping up.
 
Something to try on the grill. Any recipe involving a cast iron skillet, bacon as the first ingredient, has got to be worth a test drive.

 
Something to try on the grill. Any recipe involving a cast iron skillet, bacon as the first ingredient, has got to be worth a test drive.


I like how that starts out "When it's too hot to turn your oven on..."
We use the gas grill instead of our oven for this reason all the time, during the hot summer months. Also, I end up cooking bacon outside on the Camp Chef, because my Communist vegetarian wife doesn't like the smell of bacon in the house.

I know, I know. She's pretty great in all other aspects, though.
 
I haven't turned the oven on since mid may. The out door flat top cast iron grill does breakfast (bacon) on weekends, my DH uses the weber with mesquite for weeknight grilling of chicken, marbled steaks or chops. Last night it was marinated pork loins on the flattop with charred orange cauliflower florets and a fresh salad. Tonight I am turning back time (getting my greys dyed away) and so it will likely be breakfast for dinner, with extra portions of bacon. Plan on trying @Capt MJ latest bacon and cast iron taters recipe this weeknd, maybe after the oath ceremony!
 
I haven't turned the oven on since mid may. The out door flat top cast iron grill does breakfast (bacon) on weekends, my DH uses the weber with mesquite for weeknight grilling of chicken, marbled steaks or chops. Last night it was marinated pork loins on the flattop with charred orange cauliflower florets and a fresh salad. Tonight I am turning back time (getting my greys dyed away) and so it will likely be breakfast for dinner, with extra portions of bacon. Plan on trying @Capt MJ latest bacon and cast iron taters recipe this weeknd, maybe after the oath ceremony!
I will look forward to the Cook’s Assessment and Notes on the cast iron skillet recipe.
Today I have chicken pieces soaking in lime juice, garlic, oregano, rosemary, olive oil, destined for the grill. Arugula salad, orange vinaigrette. I did heat up the oven at sunrise this AM, got a loaf of instant-rise no-knead crusty bread done in the Dutch oven, all heat turned off by 8. The bread will be sliced, painted with olive oil and put on the grill. Bacon-free, but that means I’ll plan something with bacon in the next day or so.
 
I will look forward to the Cook’s Assessment and Notes on the cast iron skillet recipe.
Today I have chicken pieces soaking in lime juice, garlic, oregano, rosemary, olive oil, destined for the grill. Arugula salad, orange vinaigrette. I did heat up the oven at sunrise this AM, got a loaf of instant-rise no-knead crusty bread done in the Dutch oven, all heat turned off by 8. The bread will be sliced, painted with olive oil and put on the grill. Bacon-free, but that means I’ll plan something with bacon in the next day or so.
I'm trying to guess whether the chicken will have a Greek or Middle Eastern flavor, or perhaps Mexican? Guess it depends on the ratios in the marinade. Any outcome sounds tasty to me.
 
I'm trying to guess whether the chicken will have a Greek or Middle Eastern flavor, or perhaps Mexican? Guess it depends on the ratios in the marinade. Any outcome sounds tasty to me.
All-purpose Mediterranean. The Spanish Navy harbor pilot in Rota used to invite me to Sunday afternoon bbqs with his family. Citrus juices, fresh herbs, sea salt, olive oil, sometimes a bit of cumin. It was always great.
Ah - it’s pollo alla plancha. It’s a kissing cousin of the Cuban versions. Just right for summer and feeding a crowd. El piloto would use boneless skin-on pieces, and the skin was wonderful. He would soak it all day in a big pan he refrigerated.

And then there would be the breakfasts I would get invited to to celebrate a family birthday, complete with hot churros right out of the fat and cups of that thick, pudding-consistency cinnamon-scented hot chocolate as a dunking medium. I can still taste it.
 
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And if you can find this salt, invest in it. It’s a finishing salt, not to be cooked with, but that final touch. My Spanish pilot friend’s family was from the Balearic Islands, and it was a staple in their house.

Funny - my usual hostess gift was a pound of the best American bacon I could find in the Commissary. They loved the smokiness. Meanwhile, I loved the jamon serrano they would have set out with drinks.

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I miss Zingerman's so much that once per year I am allowed to order bread from them. They have a Reuben sammich kit with everything, including their house-cured corned beef and all the trimmings, for $150 serving 4, and $200 serving 8. There's a kit that includes pastrami, too.

Also, if anyone's looking for jamón Serrano or Ibérico de Bellota or the best acorn-fed bacon I have ever had, reasons #4-18 why I can't be a vegetarian, please check out La Tienda's site. (I don't get a bacon treat for the referral.)
 
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