Dustin White
Editor

Last year I had the pleasure of attending the Bismarck Beerfest. Not a drinker myself, what really stood out was the various dishes that Cloverdale had put together. Particularly, their kale and bacon salad was the star of the event, at least for me. I’m sure others may disagree.

Back at home, I decided that I should take a whack at making the dish myself. As my wife likes to say, I think I’m a chef, so I bought the ingredients, and began my exploration of the dish. Not satisfied with just replicating the dish though, I wanted to see why it worked.



Mighty Bacon
Few foods seem to be as intoxicating as bacon. It’s a meat that people absolutely go crazy over, adding it to everything from eggs, to chocolate. For those who love bacon a bit more, one can even buy pillow cases infused with its scent.

With bacon being so tasty, it would seem that selecting a package would be relatively easy. Yet, arriving at the grocery store, a host of options become available.

For this dish, Cloverdale seemed like the natural choice, after all it was their recipe. But is their product quality enough. The short answer, a resounding yes.

Bacon is bacon though isn’t it? That was what I thought, but I was wrong. Not all bacon is made equally.

When looking at Cloverdale bacon, two things ended up sticking out for me. First, it wasn’t overly fatty. Instead, it had a nice fat to meat ratio. It had sizable streaks of meat that was fairly distributed and separated by a snowy white fat.

Second, as a matter of use, it is nicely packaged in a bit thicker slices that are stacked (opposed to fanned, which is more intended for cooking by the strip). For recipes such as the salad I was preparing, the manner in which Cloverdale packages their bacon made it that much easier to chop.

Cooking
For this particular recipe, the bacon needed to be candied. While various recipes, including Cloverdale’s own, instruct the cook to prepare the bacon in the oven by adding brown sugar and cayenne pepper to the cut bacon, tossing it, and baking at 350 until it is caramel in color.

Instead, being the rebel I am, I decided to prepare the bacon on the stove, in my trusty cast iron skillet. Cutting the bacon into about one inch pieces, I added it to the cold pan, with just a splash of water.

Resisting the satisfying sound of sizzling bacon, as it hits a hot pan, starting it off slowly helps the bacon reach it’s full potential. The key is slowly rendered fat, without actually burning the meat.



Turning up the heat to medium, once the water simmers away, the bacon will begin to cook. By the time the water has evaporated, enough rendered fat will be in the bottom of the pan, allowing the bacon to crisp evenly.

Since this recipe called for candied bacon, I also added the brown sugar and cayenne pepper. As the bacon cooked, the sugar also caramelized, and a tasty treat is created. However, it’s important not to over cook the bacon in this situation.

While I removed the bacon from the pan after it was finished cooking, I made the decision to place my skillet back on the burner, which even though turned off, was still hot, and the sugar residue burnt, leaving me a wonderful mess to clean up.

Ingredients
1 lb. of bacon
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
6 cups of kale
3/4 cup of feta cheese
3/4 cups of pecans
1 apple chopped

Vinaigrette:
3/4 cup oil
1/4 cup White Wine vinegar
2 TBLS sugar
2 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
Black pepper to taste

Preparation:
Cut bacon into about 1 inch pieces. Add brown sugar and cayenne pepper. Toss and place either bake at 350 until caramel in color, or prepare in a skillet detailed above.

In a large bowl, combine the kale, feta cheese, pecans and apple.

In a second bowl, whisk together the ingredients for the vinaigrette.

Combine bacon, kale mix and vinaigrette. Toss and serve.

Storing bacon
Because of bacon’s high fat content, it stores exceptionally well in the freezer, with nearly no difference in texture or flavor from fresh bacon. A benefit of the fat content is that it will remain relatively soft even when frozen; meaning you don’t need to defrost it before slicing it up. In fact, it becomes easier to slice bacon when it is frozen, as it isn’t as greasy or stretchy.

To freeze bacon, make sure it is stacked, and then wrap it tightly in a few layers of plastic wrap. Pop it into the freezer, and it can last for months.