If you’re afraid of animal-based fats, go ahead and click “Back” right now. Don’t let your doctor see this recipe. In fact, I strongly recommend that you don’t make this. Conventional wisdom says that it will kill you.
I don’t follow the conventional wisdom. So I get to eat delicious stuff like this.
Ingredients
fat from 3/4 pound bacon
1/2 – 1 cup balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon honey
Directions
If you keep a container of rendered bacon fat, you can make this one any time. But since I usually have this with spinach salad, which needs bacon, I tend to do it fresh like this.
Dice the bacon into bite-sized pieces before cooking it. It’s easier before it’s cooked. It’s much easier if you freeze it before cutting it.
Cook the bacon as crispy as you like and remove it with tongs or a slotted spoon. Try to keep as much of the fat in the pan as possible.
Pour the fat out into an earthenware or plastic bowl. Don’t use stainless steel, or it will cool off too fast.
Add the mustard — I like “country” style, which has a coarser grind — and honey.
Add the balsamic vinegar. Depending on how much fat you got from the bacon, you may need to add more. About two parts vinegar to one part fat works with the vinegar that I use. Different brands have a different level of acid, so you’ll have to adjust to what tastes good to you.
Don’t try to refrigerate this. It will set up and look really gross. Serve warm with spinach and whatever other toppings you like.
And that’s it.
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7 Comments
Well, you will never guess what I JUST planted in the garden to winter over. Yes. Spinach. What a happy coincidence.
And it had never occured to me that a stainless steel bowl will cool things off faster than other materials. Interesting.
Steel conducts heat well, that’s why we cook with it. Which means when you’ve got a thin steel bowl, it’s like a big heat sink drawing all the heat out of the food into the air.
This concludes your morning physics class. We now return you to your regularly schduled life.
That looks fattening and pore-clogging and cholesterol-raising.
And absolutely perfect.
Bacon anything is a recipe for greatness.
Stephanie, it may be pore clogging, but you’ll have shiny, silky hair.
Jon, preach it brother.
mmmmmm Yum!
I make balsamic/bacon/red onion sauce to dress roasted asparagus.
Nancy, that sounds awesome. I usually just do salt, pepper and olive oil, but I think I’ll do a little dip on the side next time.