Bacon Jam Spread

So I was getting everything ready for the weekend cook and an e-mail comes in – from Smoking-Meat – A Bacon Jam. I thought, “Why haven’t I had this yet”. Welp, I was going to. But just like every recipe and suggestion, I was going to do my own thing. Take some advice and have some fun with it. Would anyone even try to do this on the Blackstone? I did. How did I do it? Keep reading.

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Recipe

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The Prep Table

First step in the preparation is to get that bacon on the smoker. I incorporate bacon into so many dishes – Pit Beans for one – it’s just second nature to fire up the smoker at 225 and plan for 2 hours. Sometimes I’ll pre-season, sometimes I’ll just go from package to grates. This was one of those times. Used up the whole pack – introduced it to the jerky rack and let it roll for 2 hours – flipping halfway through.

This next picture is the rest of the prep. Ain’t too much going to happen with the “The Process” – since It’s just adding heat, but here’s what I got going:

Diced up a whole onion, probably 4 cloves of garlic (always putting more garlic than needed), and chopped up that pound of bacon. The house was smelling so good once that garlic was sliced and that bacon smoked. I couldn’t wait to get all this heated up. I “re-purposed” these cups from a Bennigan’s back in college and they’d be happy to know I still use them. Equal parts ACV and Syrup (1/3 cup), 1/2 cup of light brown sugar, and some of my homemade rub and BBQ sauce. Running low on that Fine Swine – I use it on everything.

Get ready for some brutally honest pictures. Splashing all this on a Blackstone isn’t exactly pretty. But it’s what happened. And honestly, it wasn’t bad – it’ll probably happen again. I cooked this up, jarred it, and used it as a spread on a pulled pork sandwich. I was a little hesitant because the consistency was a little “rough” after refrigeration – but it was SO good.

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The Process

This is where it gets fun. Had the Blackstone fired up on medium heat and sautéed the onion/garlic until it was fragrant and the onion was translucent. We used to joke around in the fire service after a good structure fire – “wish I could bottle the smell up”. Same goes for the onion/garlic saute. I love it.

After it’s good – I scaled the flame back to low to prevent burn and started adding the ingredients: The chopped bacon, sugar, bbq sauce/rub, syrup and ACV. Throw it all on there and combine. Generously combine – get all them flavors working with each other.

I had a good 10-15 minutes of mix it up, let it rest, rinse and repeat. If your Blackstone isn’t level, it makes for a pain in the ass. My Blackstone just recently had some casters added to it, and my driveway isn’t perfect – so I did my best to find that happy medium. Next addition to the Blackstone is adding a level to it. Once it has a good cook to it and it starts thickening up, it’s not as bad.

Keep going until you have a jam consistency. When that sweet syrup and sugar marry up to that salty bacon and rub – the onion and garlic spreading its love throughout – you’ll know when it’s good. Let’s see how it thickened up:

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The Result

That there is a damn tasty spread. I took the flattop spatula and put it in the mason jar for later (Father’s Day – I know, late post). I kept a spoonful out to make sure the cook was successful. The cook was absolutely successful. It had such a delightful blend of sweet and savory, I knew this was going to be a hit.

I introduced this on Father’s Day. I scraped this out of the mason jar, put it in a small cast iron dish and heated it up. When I made my sandwich on Father’s Day, I shoveled this on the toasted top bun and my goodness. I can’t wait to make this again. Enjoy my friends! Get these recipes in your inbox, sign up below!

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The Recipe