Not Everything Is Better With Bacon

If you’ve spent any serious time with the Food Network—I’ve probably logged enough hours in front of the TV to receive an honorary degree from the Culinary Institute of America—you’re all too familiar with one particular and constant banging of the rendering pot: “Everything’s better with bacon!”

My response: Hogwash.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I freely admit: I like bacon. A lot. And I eat it. There are few things in life as splendiferous as a late-summer BLT. I just don’t need this almighty divine swine taking over my bourbon and brownies, burgers and—especially!—brussels sprouts.
Part of the reason this over-proliferation of pork so gets my goat became clear when I was emailing recently with Nina Teicholz, author of the new saturated fat-debunking bible, The Big Fat Surprise. She was explaining why a food like bacon is actually good for you: It’s a nutrient-dense protein (as red meats are) packed with naturally occurring saturated fat, a dietary necessity that her decade-long delve into research shows has been unfairly misunderstood and maligned. What Teicholz also stressed, though, is to make sure “it’s a high-quality product,” free of additives and chemicals.
A “high-quality product” suggests belly meat that isn’t the weekly special, but actually special. Something from Sam the Butcher not Oscar the Mayer, in limited abundance, from a humanely raised animal that has been prepared with care. Something to use with thought and deliberation. Not something treated as if it comes from a salt shaker.
Bryan Mayer, a butcher friend who is co-owner of Philadelphia’s farm-to-table food haven Kensington Quarters, which exclusively uses locally sourced grass-fed and pasture-raised meats, furthered Teicholz’s thought for me: He says adding bacon to “everything” is a form of fetishization—food porn—that has become a sort of cooking shorthand for people who don’t really, well, know how to cook. It’s also sustainably unrealistic and … kind of gross.
“I don’t think everything’s better with bacon,” he says. “It’s an accessory. I would love a breakfast of an egg, some toast, an avocado, a slice of bacon—that’s awesome. A slice of bacon. I don’t need 16 slices of bacon, I don’t need bacon weave wrapped over my meatloaf—it’s overkill.” This coming from a guy who makes his livelihood off meat. Shortly after, he texted me a pretty disgusting photo of a giant mug made of bacon, filled with melted cheese. “I think this sums it up.”

This might be too much bacon.
via Daily Fork

John Fraser was able to bring the whole idea home, helping me find the words for my “everything’s better with bacon” disdain, and why I might actually prefer the taste of brussels to bacon when it comes to my sprouts. Fraser is the executive chef of New York City’s Narcissa, whose cuisine has been lauded for showcasing and revering vegetables as much as any of the menu’s wonderful animal proteins. A man who likes meat, but understands its place.
“My baseline is on the side of the purist,” he begins. “Just the other night I had a baked potato for dinner. It was served with bacon bits. No one is going to argue that bacon and potatoes taste good together. However, I showed up for the flavor of the potato, which I added butter and salt to. If I told you I was going to put a slab of chicken breast on a steak, you would call me nuts—they both taste good separately, but together there is a tug of war in terms of flavor. In bacon’s case, it’s not a tug of war—it takes over without a fight. I try to understand what bacon brings to a dish and look to emulate it in the dish preparation. Staying with the brussels sprouts—they love smoke and salt. Bacon is their soulmate. However, if you toss them on the wood grill whole and sprinkle them with some sea salt to finish, my bet is that I can convince you that the bacon actually covers the flavor of the brussels. I would like to work under the assumption that brussels are delicious alone, and that the bacon is a distraction rather than an enhancer.”
So not everything is better with bacon, after all? “I would respond that bacon always becomes the loudest friend in the room, and that’s OK sometimes,” Fraser says, “but there is nuance that it doesn’t allow. Sometimes you should listen to the quiet friend in the corner.”
That will be me, peacefully enjoying my bacon-free brussels, thinking about my next BLT