Bacon Jam at The Meat Dept on the Danforth

By 9:30 this morning my car was filled with pots, pans, jars, jar lifter, knives, cutting boards, onions, garlic, maple syrup, coffee, cider vinegar and 10 lbs of glorious bacon from The Meat Department and I was enroute to the commercial kitchen.

By 1pm I was walking towards The Meat Dept with 13 jars of bacon jam that were labelled and still warm from the kitchen. As of 1pm today Manning Canning Bacon Jam is available exculsively at The Meat Dept on the Danforth. Get it while it's hot!

What do you get when you mix 3lbs of bacon, coffee and maple syrup together?

It all started with an innocent suggestion from my friend Sue on my facebook page when she asked me if I could make her some bacon jam. It was a simple comment but it started the gears in my mind to turn and then Chef Cheryl from the Meat Department on the Danforth offered me free bacon to experiment with and it was 'Game Over'.

I had bought some bacon jam in the winter and even though I LOOOOVE bacon, I found the flavour too bacon-y and perhaps lacking in complexity. So this weekend after picking up 5lbs of free bacon (and I promise I will only mention them one more time here) from The Meat Dept on the Danforth it was time to do a little research online to see what people were saying and doing when they made Bacon Jam. Some were adding tomato which sounded interesting while others were sticking to garlic and onion and then there were still others who were dancing with maple syrup.

What to do? What to do?

So this morning, I got down with my bad self in my kitchen and started to experiment. Bacon, onions, garlic, brown sugar, some very strong coffee, some maple syrup and a touch of vinegar all magically combined in my cast iron frying pan and turned my house into a mouth watering sensation. Even now several hours after the fact, my kitchen smells so good that my mouth waters when I enter it.

I now have 5 jars of bacon goodness sitting in my fridge and tomorrow I believe that I will go into the backyard and pick some ripe tomatoes from my garden and I will toast a little white bread, spread some bacon jam on there and then slice some fresh tomatoes on top and call it heaven.

Care to come for dinner?

Later this week, I will be swinging by and paying the good people at The Meat Dept a visit with 4 jars of bacon jam so they can do a little taste test and tell me what they think. I will share the verdict once I hear.