While looking for a homemade root beer recipe, I diverged onto an Internet Tangent and found a recipe for bacon jam, which I had never heard of before and couldn’t quite imagine how to make. It turns out that most anything can be jammed as long as there are sugar and fruit/vegetables in the mix and no liquid (otherwise it would be a chutney, if I understand the differences correctly). There are several variations to this recipe (and variations weird me out, especially in cake recipes, which this is not), but two I liked were this one -for its inclusion of chipotle and chocolate- and this one -for its pictures and straightforwardness. I decided to combine the two and tweak as necessary. Here’s what I came up with.
1 lb. bacon
1 large onion (I used Vidalia)
5 garlic cloves
1 c. coffee
1/2 c. cider vinegar
3 Tbsp. brown sugar
1/2 tsp. allspice
1 tsp. Hershey’s cocoa
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
3 chipotle peppers
2 tsp. adobo sauce (I like spice)
1 Tbsp. honey
The bacon has to be rendered slowly so as much fat as possible melts off, but at the same time getting crisp. This took me about 20 minutes on a medium flame. Next time, I’m going to pre-cut the bacon so the cook is more even. I sliced the onions and measured out my other ingredients while waiting. This kept me in the kitchen and paying attention instead of playing Dead space 2.
Remove the bacon from the fat, then pour the fat into a heat-proof vessel to cool, reserving 1 TBsp. to cook the onion and garlic. Still over a medium flame, add the onion and garlic to the pot. Stir occasionally (don’t burn the garlic!) until the onion is translucent. This took about 10 minutes.
After that, spill the rest of the ingredients into the pot, stir, and reduce the flame to low.
The mixtures should low simmer for close to two hours. I stirred every few minutes and tested to be sure I liked the flavors and adjusted as necessary. The allspice, chocolate, and cinnamon seem to disappear into the background behind the vinegar, so next time I’m going to cut that back to 1/3 c. I was nervous at first using the cinnamon because lately the flavor sometimes seems to overpower whatever dish it’s in. I made a tres leches cake a few months back and all I could taste was cinnamon and egg. I hope my palate isn’t decompensating. I’m also not sure about the chipotle. It had too much of a BBQ tang to it, which is great for hamburgers, but not exactly what I’m looking for as a toast spread. I’ll probably cut that next time and use a chili powder instead.
When the mixture becomes syrupy, remove the pot from the heat, cool, and then spoon into a food processor. Pulse until blended. There should still be chunks of bacon and onion. It’s a jam, not a jelly.
I had it tonight on a cheeseburger with homemade pickles and a jalapeño from the garden. Sadly, Scott has become intolerant of onions and The Sprout is a picky eater, so I did all this work today essentially for myself. That’s OK; I’m worth it. The texture of the jam was really quite marvelous, and the flavor was tangy, sweet and hot. Perfect for a burger.
Next time, though, I will aim to make it less BBQ-y and more savory. Let me know your results!
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