How much is too much bacon?

A little too crispy for me

Who knew that bacon could be so political?  That there could be so many opinions re its place as a food, it's cooking method, how well it is to be cooked, drained or not drained, eaten with fingers or fork?

fresh bacon

For the first forty years of my life bacon was a food – period.  When I was a child we occasionally had smoked, cured bacon which would appear on the breakfast table.  More often our bacon was of the fresh variety.  We would fry it up until very crisp, draining off the fat several times.  That bacon fat was saved and used for numerous cooking processes.  Fresh bacon was served as the meat with our evening meal.

Once I was married and had children it was much the same.  I had studied nutrition and been warned of the dangers of the high saturated fat and nitrates which bacon contain.  Therefore we limited bacon to once a month as a breakfast treat and occasionally ate fresh bacon with winter suppers.

Then at forty I remarried Steve Bauer.  Little did I know he was …Mr. Bacon!  For Steve a day without bacon is like a day without sunshine.

Mr Bacon

If I do cook bacon, I do it low and slow in a cast iron pan, pouring off the grease as it accumulates.  Two slices are allowed per person, three if I am really generous and I like my bacon quite crispy.  Now my brother David Vail and mother Edna Vail like theirs much less cooked – flabby we call it! Steve cooks his in the microwave. If he does use a pan, he turns the stove to high and blasts the bejesus out of the pig.  His bacon is either very crispy or burned.  Six to eight slices are allowed per person, that person being Steve.  There is seldom a day when Steve does not have bacon.

Enter our grandsons who are Muslim and, of course, do not eat pork.  For a number of years I proclaimed an edict, “No cooking pork if the boys are in the house, even Bacon!”   And Steve has complied, if there is one thing he loves more than the pig it is his grandsons.  Now that the boys are older, seven and almost five, they are able to have chicken bacon.  And oh do they love these.  Bumpy (our appellation for grandfather) cooks these strips nice and crispy and they eat them out of hand.  Yes Bumpy Steve believes that bacon is finger food.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy bacon occasionally. My favorite way is in a BLT and Steve makes an awesome one.  Now we have a new bacon monster in the house.  Niece Bethany has taken up residence and she shares Steve’s passion. I saw her making a BLT and I am sure she cooked a half a pound of bacon.  I am not complaining, just commenting. In this day and age it is actually refreshing to see a young woman who enjoys food.  And Bethany certainly does not do this every day.

No Steve is still the king of bacon.  When asked what he had for breakfast he often replies “a bowl of cereal and a few pieces of bacon”.

How much is too much bacon?   No one Asked me?