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Bacon - Pig Candy
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Originally
posted: 01/04/2005
Last updated:
04/11/2009 |
Summary
- Buy good quality,
thick-sliced bacon.
- Prepare the brown
sugar and cayenne pepper topping.
- Arrange bacon on a
broiler pan.
- Cook for 20 minutes at
300-350°F.
- Turn bacon, apply
topping, and cook another 20-30 minutes or until done.
In 2003, several members
of The Virtual Weber Bulletin Board posted messages about
something called "pig candy"--bacon that's baked with a brown sugar
topping. It's a decadent treat for special occasions like a holiday
brunch.
There are similar recipes on the Web like
glazed bacon from Martha Stewart Living . I've also seen recipes with
the addition of crushed pecans to the brown sugar mix, and recipes using
maple syrup instead of brown sugar.
Here are some pictures I
took when I prepared pig candy using the Weber Bullet on December 9, 2004.
As
always...click on any of the pictures to
view a larger image.
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Arrange Bacon On A
Broiler Pan
Buy good quality,
thick-sliced bacon and arrange it on a broiler pan so the bacon fat
drains during cooking.
Before starting,
make sure the WSM lid fits over your broiler pan while sitting on the top
cooking grate.
I splurged on Niman Ranch
Uncured Center Cut Bacon, which has already been apple wood smoked. The
12-ounce package filled the broiler pan, as shown here.
I used a broiler pan because I like to wash the cooking grate after each use,
and I felt washing a sugary broiler pan would be easier. If you clean
your grates by burning them off in a gas grill, you can cook the
bacon directly on the top cooking grate, with an empty, foil-lined water pan below to catch
the drippings.
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Prepare The Brown Sugar
Topping
Place 1/2 cup of light brown
sugar (packed) and 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper in a bowl, mix
thoroughly, and set aside.
This small amount of cayenne
will provide the slightest bit of heat; if you like more heat, use more cayenne.
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Fire The Cooker
Light one full chimney
of Kingsford charcoal briquettes. When the coals are hot, spread them out
in the charcoal chamber and assemble the cooker.
Do not put the water pan in the
cooker.
If you are using a good quality
smoked bacon, there's no reason to add smoke wood to the fire.
Open the top and bottom vents
fully and leave them that way throughout the cooking process.
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Cook The Bacon
Put the broiler pan on
the top cooking grate. The cooker should be running between 300-350°F.
After 20 minutes, turn the bacon. If the slices at the ends of
the pan are cooking faster than those in the middle, swap them.
Sprinkle the brown sugar
topping on the bacon, making sure each slice is evenly coated. I used the
entire 1/2 cup of topping, which gave a nice coating to each piece, and
the excess just melted away. Other recipes I've seen use 1/2 cup brown sugar
for 1-3/4 pounds of bacon--over twice as much bacon as I cooked here--so you be the judge of how far you want to stretch the topping.
Cook the bacon another
20-30 minutes, depending on how hot the cooker is running, until done to
your liking.
Here's how the cooker
temperatures and vent settings went during the cooking process.
| Time |
Lid
Temp |
Vent
1
% |
Vent
2
% |
Vent
3
% |
| 12:45pm |
- |
100 |
100 |
100 |
| 12:50pm |
315 |
100 |
100 |
100 |
| 1:00pm |
330 |
100 |
100 |
100 |
| 1:05pm(t) |
330 |
100 |
100 |
100 |
| 1:15pm |
335 |
100 |
100 |
100 |
| 1:25pm |
332 |
100 |
100 |
100 |
| 1:30pm |
330 |
100 |
100 |
100 |
| (t) turned
bacon over and applied topping |
Note that the vent percentages
represent the way I set the vents at the time indicated.
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Serving Pig Candy
Picture 1 shows the pig candy
as it came out of the cooker. Picture 2 shows individual slices on the plate.
Pig candy is sweet and
delicious, and that little bit of cayenne gets your attention without being
overwhelming.
If you're serving pig candy to
your guests at a buffet-style brunch, you may wish to cut the slices in half
using kitchen shears. However, there's nothing wrong with enjoying whole
slices...How sweet it is!
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