Today, my family is descending into the bowels of the earth, exploring the inner ecosystems of Carlsbad Caverns. While we’re mixing homeschooling and family adventure, I’m honored to have some of my favorite online bloggers contribute their amazing posts here. The following is a guest post by Tiffany of The Coconut Mama.
We love bacon in our home. We love it almost as much as we love coconut. Every so often my 3-year-old daughter decides she doesn’t want to eat meat anymore. So I make bacon. Does she turn down bacon? Nope. Never. Bacon is awesome!
What is bacon jam? Bacon jam is a spread of sweet and savory deliciousness with the goodness of bacon. You can serve bacon jam with crackers, over baked brie (my favorite) or spread it on sandwiches and hamburgers. Give bacon jam to your friends and family as gifts. They will love you forever for it!
A Tip: Use the highest quality bacon to make your bacon jam. Pork bacon from pastured raised pigs is truly the best bacon on earth.
Bacon Jam Recipe
The Players
- 1 1/2 pounds of pasture pork bacon, cut into 1 inch chunks
- 2 onion (yellow or red), diced
- 2 cloves of garlic, minced
- 3/4 cup apple cider vinegar (where to buy apple cider vinegar)
- 1/2 cup coconut sugar, sucanat or date sugar (where to buy coconut sugar)
- 1/4 cup maple syrup (where to buy real maple syrup)
- 1/2 cup strong brewed coffee
The How-To
1. Use a dutch oven pot and cook the bacon until brown but not crispy, about 15 minutes.
2. Remove bacon from the pot and add the diced onion and minced garlic and cook for about 5 minutes or until onion is soft and translucent.
3. Add the remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Add bacon back into the pot and reduce the heat to medium-low. Cover and allow the bacon mixture to simmer for 30-45 minutes. The mixture should be thick and like syrup.
4. Pour bacon jam into a food processor and pulse until the bacon is finely chopped. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator. This recipe makes approximately 3 cups of bacon jam.
Enjoy!
Meet Tiffany
Tiffany Pelkey is a real food mama who lives in Oregon. She blogs about real food, natural living and all things coconut on her site, The Coconut Mama.
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This looks scrumptious! Thanks for sharing.
I wonder if you have read this article from Tropical Traditions about coconut sugar. Made me reconsider buying/using it.
http://www.tropicaltraditions.com/coconut_palm_sugar.htm
Thanks for posting that! I have never seen this info. I most definitely would NEVER rather have coconut sugar than coconut oil or fruit.
Yes I have. The company I order my coconut palm sugar from uses sustainable farmed sugar from Brazil. Contact the company you purchase your palm sugar from and ask if their farming is sustainable.
Holy yum!!! I absolutely must try this. It would be crazy on brie!
Drooling!
Yum! Perfect recipe for this cold rainy Chicago morning. Thank you for posting.
Any suggestions for subbing out the coffee? Would love to try it, but not sure what to replace the coffee with. Thanks!
Oh wow! This sounds incredible!
There are a variety of chicory based instant coffee substitutes that might work well – one I know of is called Inka.
A tea similar to coffee in flavor can also be made using dried dandelion root.
I’m curious about the refrigerator life of this jam
Bacon really?? Do some reseach on pigs. Then see if you really want to encourge your child to eat that stuff. Pigs are one of the most unclean animals put on this earth. They will eat anything, I mean anything. Then you eat everything they just ate.
Why is it a bad thing that they’ll eat anything?
I think it’s miraculous! They take kitchen scraps (if domesticated) and forage (if wild) and turn them into amazing compost and nutrient-dense, healthy fats.
Anyhow, many traditional cultures rely heavily on pork. The key to making pork healthy is to stick to preparing it according to traditional wisdom. Here are a couple of articles I’ve written about it in the past:
https://www.foodrenegade.com/pork-bad-for-you/
https://www.foodrenegade.com/definitive-guide-pork/
We raised pigs as a kid and to this day, pigs are a very clean animal, they poop in the same spot everyday and never lay in it, if they are raised properly and have plenty of room. I know exactly what my pigs eat and they eat very well and so do we. Pigs do not sweat, so they get a bad rap for being very dirty because they wollow in the mud to keep cool, if given clean water to cool off in they are clean, if given dirty muddy water they will be dirty. Its all in they way they are raised! There is nothing better then pasture raised pork and home smoked bacon!!
I would like to know what I can use instead of the coffee also!
I am allergic to coffee. Any suggestions for substitutes?
You could use water instead. The coffee gives the jam a rich dark flovor but I think the recipe will taste okay without it.
YUMMMM BACON!!!
Is there a way to can this to make it shelf stable? Also, what is the shelf life in the refridgerator?
Thank you,
I’m also wondering if this has to be refrigerated.
I’m also wondering if this has to be refrigerated. I mean I see to put it in the fridge, but can it be left out or would that require properly canning it?
I made bacon jam several months ago. I still have a couple small containers in the fridge… it’s still good! I think the vinegar helps keep the bacteria from forming, but what do I know?! If I take it out and it doesn’t look/smell the same, I won’t eat it, but I haven’t had a problem yet. Bacon jam is like sex in a jar, only better because it’s bacon!! LOL!
I’ve now got my first batch cooking it, my hubby is already raiding the dutch pot.
Any suggestions for those of us without a dutch oven? Can I just use a regular fying pan?
I made my first batch in my (small) dutch oven; going to try it in the large cast frying pan (My bet is you have to have a lid that fits and you should be ok- got that covered :D). I wonder if you could can it and make it shelf stable? Anyone ever canned a bacon product? I would think 15 lbs of pressure for a good amount of time=90 min like for chicken? might work….
Did not see a response to if this can be canned. Would like to make this but would also like to Can it.
A spoon 😉
I made a version of this and it was the biggest hit on some toast points with melted goat cheese. Heaven in my mouth.
Tashara Edlow u should try this honey bunny!!
LOL, Patricia.
Sounds good Monica White!! But have you forgotten that I can’t eat(keep down anyway) anything…
Tashara Edlow havent forgot just keep hoping for an improvement!!
This is SO divine. I started to panic when I had a lot of bacon grease, but since the recipe said nothing about draining the fat I left it alone. I simmered it for a good hour and it was still very liquid. I ended up using a slotted spoon to get the bacon goodness out, and now have the liquid sitting in the fridge. I may see if I can separate the fat and add the syrup back to the recipe. Even if I can’t add the syrup back to the recipe, I think it’s delicious the way it is. You could really have fun with this stuff. Put it on toast and have eggs on the side. Use it as a topping for French Toast or pancakes. The Brie idea mentioned above sounds decadent. A good ‘ol slice of cheddar with bacon jam would be good on an apple. So many options!
Has anyone used honey?
This sounds great, but I am also wondering if the fat is drained off after the bacon I’d cooked? Based in Tasha’s review from Mar 4th, it sounds like the finished product is a little liquid, but it appears to be dry in the photo on the recipe. Anyone have a comment or suggestion?
Thanks
I made a typo on my email address, it’s @hotmail.com, not hitmail. Maybe the server corrected it, but just in case….
My question is whether or not the fat is drained off after the bacon is cooked? The recipe isn’t clear, and the comment from Tasha on Mar 4th said hers was rather “liquid”. Any comments or suggestions?
Thanks
I made this last year and gave it as Christmas gifts…This turned out great. I have been asked if I will make it again. I did drain mine and glad I did. I also processed mine at 10lbs for 90 minutes in pressure canner and did not have any issues with it.
Oh. Em. Ghee. Hello, my name is Ginny and I’m a bacon jam-aholic. I just made this tonight to go with our burgers, and if my husband doesn’t come home soon I’m going to eat it all on crackers before he even sees it. This stuff is sooo. dang. good. I made a half-batch thinking that if we didn’t like it we wouldn’t be wasting too much. Big mistake. It’s delicious and I can think of all kinds of things it would be good with. Grilled cheese, toast, crackers, a spoon. Double this recipe and make it immediately. And for the reviewer that said it was soupy, I used all my bacon grease and the consistency is perfect, though I’m sure it will thicken even more in the fridge. Pastured bacon sometimes yields less fat than regular, so maybe that’s why some are ending up with more grease.
Carrie Weis
Lucas Gaskin
Sylvana Roosma van Asten nom nom nom
James Stewart Gemma Louise Hall 🙂
Joey Golan
Amanda we should try this!
Aaron Patrick Jones
Omg sounds yum!!
Lisa Kay!☺️
Any suggestions for a coffee substitution? I am allergic. I know, I know ….