Wonderful Uses for Slab Bacon
If you love bacon but haven’t ever bought it as a slab, you’re in for a treat when you finally bring some home. Slab bacon (and its rind) can improve your soups, stews, and stir-fries. You can even braise it to serve, for example, with Caramelized Sea Scallops, as we do in Bacon Nation. Here are just a few suggestions.
1.) Remove and save the bacon rind on the slab for making homemade soups, such as a hearty minestrone or savory lentil. The rind adds distinctive smoky- salty-meaty flavors to a soup or fish broth.
The broth for this Minestrone, in Bacon Nation, was made with bacon rind. For instructions showing how to remove the rind and how to cut the slab into even cubes or lardons, read my next post.
2.) Use slab bacon in your next slow-cooker and baked beans recipe. In Bacon Nation we first coat a 10-ounce slab of bacon in a sweet spice rub of brown sugar and cayenne pepper. The bacon cooks slowly in the pot, along with the beans, some onions, Bourbon, and molasses, and when it’s done the bacon has softened so much it falls apart into the beans, becoming an inseparable part of the dish.
This slab of bacon, coated with a dry rub, is ready for the bean pot!
3.) Slab bacon is wonderful when braised in the oven in a flavored liquid. Use your imagination and your palate to season the braising liquid with any combination of herbs, spices, and seasoning agents you like. In Bacon Nation we take a French approach, flavoring the braising liquid with carrots, celery, onion, garlic, white wine, peppercorns, ginger and stock. But I’ve seen braising broths that turn to soy sauce, chicken broth, scallions, and star anise for an Asian tone. What you decide to use in the braising liquid is entirely up to you.
After the bacon slab is braised, it’s cut into chunks or thick strips, which are then sauteed until lightly browned. Delicious with Bronzed Sea Scallops or a breakfast omelette. Or, just stick them with toothpicks and serve with a little honey mustard as a party appetizer.
4.) Chinese stir-fries often use long, 1/2-inch-thick strips cut from slab bacon. The strips are first browned in a large wok or skillet and the fat rendered is then used to stir-fry an assortment of vegetables and spices. In this Bacon Nation stir-fry inspired by food blogger Cathy Erway, slab bacon is first boiled, cut into floppy strips, and then stir-fried with celery, leeks and bean sprouts. Fermented bean sauce, Szechuan pepper corns, and fresh ginger enliven the lovely pan sauce.
Cathy Erway’s Twice-Cooked Bacon with Celery and Leek from Bacon Nation
Vermont makes a corn cob and maple wood smoked slab bacon, available at Whole Foods, but almost every good butcher will also carry slab bacon for you to buy.
In my former blog, learn how to remove the rind from a slab of bacon and how to cut it into lardons, cubes, or strips.
