Without question, the biggest question I get is “When are you making more of that bacon?”. Doesn’t matter if I’m reverse searing a ribeye cap, spent all night on a brisket smoke or anything. It’s always about the damn bacon.

I was planning on doing this 3 pound pack for the morning of this year’s SmokeFest, but I was so pre-occupied with my GCFA examination, that I just didn’t get to it. I focused on the main event (Beef Tenderloin) and the bacon got pushed aside. And boy did I hear about it!

Recipe

The Prep Table

For this go around, here’s the line-up:

Kroger brand Thick Cut Hardwood Smoked Bacon
Awesome Woods Pure Michigan Maple Syrup
My pork rub
Dark Brown Sugar

I prefer using Smithfield’s Thick Cut Cherrywood smoked bacon, but the store was out, and Kroger had this nice 3 pound pack. (Turned out great by the way)

I also love using real local maple syrup. I’ve never tried using a mainstream brand, to be fair, but I think if you’re going to do it, do it right. There’s a local farm where I’m at that sells some at a premium, but my goodness – is it golden.

The Process

Not a lot to this one. For this particular smoke, I did no overnight marinade, just straight to the smoker. If I were planning for the morning, I would take a good long rectangular plastic container and use this for your marinade bin. Layer the bacon and syrup and seal it up and leave it in the fridge over night. If you wake up late, hungover, or both – your prep stage is already taken care of.

I have a couple of those cutting boards in the first picture and I place a frogmat on each one. I like those particular cutting boards for this because of the channel around the edge to catch the liquids. This is a messy prep, messy smoke, and sticky result, so anything to help cleanup, I’m all for it.

Place a strip of bacon on the frogmat and brush on some syrup. Doesn’t have to be crazy, but put enough on there to hold the upcoming goods. I use a basting brush rather than pouring to avoid a mess and for even application.

Once your bacon has a nice coat of syrup, sprinkle on your favorite pork rub. Mine leans towards spicy (cayenne) – so your guests know its there, but it ain’t gonna bite them. The sugar/spicy combo with this smoke is spot on perfect! Again, the rub isn’t the star of the show, so don’t go crazy, just put some flavor on it.

Flip your bacon over and do the same. This time, grab some dark brown sugar and throw some on top. As you can see in the picture, I don’t sprinkle it evenly, but let some parts have more than others. This is probably me being too particular, but I think it changes the bite for the consumer. You’ll get a brown sugar punch on one bite and a spicy sweet rub on another. Once both sides have been prepped, and the brown sugar on one side – put her on the smoker for 225 degrees for an hour.

After an hour, and the color looks good, give each side a flip, brush with some syrup, and sprinkle some brown sugar on there. If you were unsure until now, this is a sugary disaster of a treat. Your guests will love it. 225 degrees for another hour, and it’s done.

Total: 225 degrees for 2 hours

The Result

So sweet and so simple. Let it rest for a bit if you can, but I haven’t yet. I’ll sneak a piece or two while I’m putting it in the half-pan. Throw some foil over it to let it keep some heat and serve it to your consumers. For this 2 hour simple recipe, the supply and demand relationship is insane.

Smoke on my friends! Full disclosure: This post was pieced together from pictures taken from last month. I haven’t pulled the smoker out in a bit as we’ve had out-of-state company and leaving for our honeymoon soon. You’ll hopefully see many of these “Candy bacon” posts, because it really is a great product. I hope to get doing some jerky soon, but a lot going on over here at ForensicBBQ! Thanks for coming by!

The Recipe

The Candy Bacon

ForensicBBQ

Far and away the most requested. Syrupy and sugary… smoky and tasty. Get ya some!

5 from 1 vote

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Ingredients

1 Lb Bacon Smithfield Cherrywood
BBQ Rub
Maple Syrup
Brown Sugar

Instructions

Marinade (Optional, Preferred)

Take a long Tupperware container, put bacon strips on bottom. Brush with syrup, sprinkle with a little bit of BBQ rub. Repeat steps, stacking the bacon strips on one another. Put in fridge overnight or until ready to smoke.

Bacon Smoke

Preheat smoker to 225 with Apple/Cherry wood
Lay bacon out on frogmats or jerky racks and sprinkle some more BBQ rub and add some brown sugar to each.
Place into smoker for 1 hour.
Flip bacon, brush more syrup, add more brown sugar and smoke for another hour.
Remove from smoker, and eat!

Notes

I’ve made this many, many times. I can’t give you an exact ingredient amount for the rub/syrup/sugar. I did find that:

Don’t go overly heavy with the BBQ rub. I used more when not marinaded

Smithfield’s Cherrywood smoke is my preferred flavor/thickness

Make sure you have little clumps of brown sugar and that it’s not too granular. Makes for a better bite.

Eat when warm – nuke it in the microwave if you need to (if it even lasts that long when you pull it out of the smoker)