Welcome Campers! Zingerman’s 4th Annual Camp Bacon has begun!

Last night was the kickoff event of the 4th Zingerman’s Annual Camp Bacon: The Bacon Ball!

Ari talked about Camp Bacon and welcomed some returning guests. Next, Chef Alex talked about the menu selections, which included bacon appetizers using La Quercia and Edwards bacons, a Bacon Fry Bread,  and a delicious Vichyssoise with Eckhouse Pancetta that inspired by Alex’s mother’s own recipe. The main course was Caw Caw Creek Bacon Steak served with Ari’s Pimento Cheese Mashed Potatoes. Dessert was a Vosges Bacon Chocolate bar accompanied by a sample of delicious Rogue River Blue cheese.

Bar Manager Carly talked about the bacon drink specials, including a Bacon Ball Manhattan; a Bacon “In Fashion;” a bacony take on the traditional Old Fashioned; Cabin Fever Gelato Shake made with Zingerman’s Creamery Vanilla Gelato and Nueske’s bacon; and Rogue “VooDoo” Maple Bacon Ale.

Ari talked about the Southern Food Alliance and the great work they do. Here’s a brief synopsis in their own words:

The SFA is one of the nation’s most creative, educational, and ingenuous not-for-profits. Southerners recognize us as a progressive force that documents, studies, and celebrates the diverse food cultures of our changing region. Our members and donors take great pride in the stories we tell and the lives we celebrate. Throughout the nation, people recognize that the SFA has pioneered a much-emulated and intellectually rigorous program of cultural inquiry that calls a diverse community to a common table where black and white, rich and poor, young and old — all who gather– may consider our history and our future in a spirit of reconciliation.

Chef Alex making the rounds.

Ari pitching in.

Catering and Events Manager Joanie thanked everyone for coming and introduced our Bacon Poetry contest winner, Ms. Denise Podhorsky, who favored us with a spirited recitation of her verse. As the contest winner, Denise and a friend won free tickets to the Bacon Ball!

Denise reads her poem to an appreciate crowd. Congratulations Denise! Thanks for reading your wonderful poem!

My Love
Your hypnotic smell,
so juicy,
so delicious,
I’m under its spell.

On your own,
or to spice something up,
I love it,
and will never forget it.

You’re on my mind,
you’re in my fridge,
my booty is shakin’,
for my love of bacon.

Cooked by oven,
or fire,
I like to share it with my man,
but it’s always best when fried in a pan.

Well put, Denise!

See you at camp!

We recently had a chance to chat with renowned Ann Arbor chef Eve Aronoff. A graduate of Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, Eve was the owner of the fondly remembered Eve restaurant in Kerrytown, and has authored  a cookbook called Eve: Contemporary Cuisine Methode Tradionalle. Eve currently owns the popular Cuban-inspired Frita Batidos in Ann Arbor.  Eve will be speaking and cooking at Zingerman’s 4th Annual Camp Bacon this weekend. 

EJO: Is this your first Camp Bacon?

Eve: Yes, and I’m very excited!

You’re pulling double-duty for Camp this year. You’re speaking as well as cooking. First off, can you tell us what you’ll be taking about?

I’ll be talking a bit about where my inspiration comes from, using tradition as a starting point.

So, you take a traditional recipe-–

It’s not really the recipe. The starting point is actually the traditions of the culture, rather than the actual cuisine. When I lived France, I drew a lot of inspiration from the open-air markets, the coffee, and the pace of life. It was similar in Miami, where I developed this love for the Cuban culture, and that’s what really drives me to create my own dishes that are inspired by Cuban (or Asian, or…) traditions. It’s more about the passion for the food, than following a traditional recipe. I think about various flavor combinations and how they might work together. It’s like I can taste it in my head. And the pig roast we’re doing is a great example of that.

Well, this is a great time to talk about the roast pig. Can you tell us more about that?

Sure. We’ll be cooking a whole pig in a Caja China…

That’s the box, right?

Yes. La Caja China. It’s a wooden cooking box used in Cuban-American cuisine, and is said to have come from the Chinese laborers who immigrated to Cuba in the mid-1850’s.

The box sits on wheels and is lined with aluminum. Inside are two suspended metal racks that hold the pork. Coals are put on top of the box and ignited. The heat from the coals is conducted by the metal inside, surrounding the pork with heat and cooking it evenly all the way around.

And you’re roasting a whole pig? 

Yep! We butterfly-split a pig, and marinate it for 48 hours ahead of cooking. In this case, we’re using two different marinades-one for each half.

One will be a Cuban-inspired recipe called ‘Mojo’ that has bright, citrus flavors along with spicy chilis. The other marinade is an Asian-inspired recipe that’s a combination of sweet, savory, and spicy flavors.

Just before cooking, we take the pork out of the marinade and rub it with a mixture of salt, black pepper, ancho chilis, and brown sugar. Then we clamp it between the metal racks, put it in the box, close it up and start the coals.

How long does it take to cook?

We’re using a 70-80 lb. pig, so we’ll probably check it after about 4-5 hours. We’ll score it with a knife, add more marinade, and flip it over to finish it off for another 45 minutes or so. When it’s ready, we’ll serve it with more marinade as a sauce, along with coconut-ginger rice.

That sounds delicious!

We’ll have a lot, so bring your appetite!

See you at camp!

Zingerman’s 4th Annual Camp Bacon is just around the corner and to help get everyone prepared, we’re sharing tasty excerpts and recipes from Ari’s book, Zingerman’s Guide to Better Bacon. 

The Laurel Blakemore Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato Sandwich

Aside from being the only palindromic recipe name I know, this also makes a really good sandwich, which has long been very popular at the Zingerman’s Deli. It’s named for Dr. Laurel Blakemore, horse fanatic, show jumper, pediatric orthopaedic surgeon and a big lover of bacon. It calls for a good bit of mayonnaise—I think a good BLT needs that, but you can certainly cut back if you like. Either way, it’s easy to make and great to eat!

The recipe is for a single sandwich but it’s not hard to do the math and make as many as you want.

Ingredients:

• 2 to 4 slices Arkansas Peppered Bacon
• 2 slices crusty country bread (we use Zingerman’s Farm Bread)
• 2 tablespoons mayonnaise
• 2 slices aged Vermont cheddar cheese
• 2 thick slices good tomato
• Handful of good lettuce

Procedure:

1. Cook the bacon in a frying pan until done. Remove from pan and drain, but leave the pan on the heat.
2. Spread mayonnaise on both slices of bread.
3. Put a slice of cheese on each slice, then add the bacon and tomato.
4. Assemble the sandwich, give it a gentle press together with your palm and slide it into the hot pan.
5. Weight it down with a bowl and fry until golden brown.
6. Flip, brown the other side, and remove from pan.
7. Add the lettuce, cut the sandwich on whatever angle your heart desires (remember, though, that Laurel is a surgeon and places great value on properly positioned knife cuts!), and eat it while it’s hot!

See you at Camp!

Week of 5/27/13

It’s a big week here at Zingerman’s! The 4th Annual Camp Bacon kicks off on Thursday for a weekend-long celebration of all things bacon! Details below…

• If you wear your Zingerman’s t-shirt to the Deli on Tuesdays, you’ll get $4 off the price of your sandwich. Four bucks!
• It’s Pimento Cheese Tuesday at the Zingerman’s Creamery! Get $2 off the per pound price all day!
• Get over the hump! Wednesdays are special at the Zingerman’s Creamery. If you buy any two Zingerman’s Gelato, you’ll get a third FREE! Who can argue with free?

• Far away from dad this Father’s Day? Not a problem. Check out the online Gift Catalog at Zingerman’s Mail Order. Many items ship free or for a flat rate of $9.99! Keep that tie and send dad a Zingerman’s Sandwich Kit!

Camp Bacon begins Thursday, May 30!

• Join us as we kick off the 4th Annual Camp Bacon with the Bacon Ball dinner at the Zingerman’s Roadhouse! Bacon is all dressed up and ready to party! This event is sold out, but you can add your name to the waiting list!
• Friday, Camp Bacon continues as Ari leads a Camp Bacon Baking class from 1-5pm at BAKE!, the popular baking school run by the Zingerman’s Bakehouse. This event is sold out, but you can add your name to the waiting list!
• Natalie Chanin, couture designer extraordinaire and special guest at the Camp Bacon Main Event, will lead a casual, one-day sewing workshop at ZingTrain! Don’t miss this opportunity to work with a master!
• Don’t forget your Camp Bacon gear! We’ll be selling special limited edition Camp Bacon t-shirts, caps, and beautifully designed posters!
• Fridays and Saturdays at the Zingerman’s Bakehouse also mean Special Bakes, limited-edition loaves available for just a weekend. This weekend it’s Pumpernickel Raisin: Chewy, traditional pumpernickel bread with juicy red flame raisins and a sprinkle of sesame seeds.  Stop by for a taste!
• Saturday is the Camp Bacon Main Event!
  It’s an all-day bacon-fest celebrating everything that is bacon! We have a long list of special guests who will share their deep knowledge and love for bacon on a variety of subjects. This is the big one, and all-bacon blowout sure to satisfy the tastes of any bacon enthusiast! The event is a benefit for the fine folks at the Southern Foodways Alliance, and all the good work they do. Did we mention we’ll be serving bacon?

• The 4th Annual Camp Bacon wraps up on Sunday with the Bacon Street Fair at the Ann Arbor Farmer’s Market at Kerrytown (just across the street from the Zingerman’s Deli).  Vendors from near, far, and everywhere in between will be in attendance with their bacon-inspired wares. Come to the fair!
• Next Monday is Mozzarella Monday at the Zingerman’s Creamery! $2 off the per pound price for Fresh, Smoked, or Burrata! Two bucks off!

*From time to time, we share the writing of our friends and co-workers on this site. Today’s guest post comes from the blog of Zingerman’s Mail Order Managing Partner, Mo Frechette. You can read Mo’s blog here. 

Ancient calendar technology

I don’t know when seven day week calendars began — they predate the Romans — but I don’t think it’s a stretch to call them ancient. Or maybe I should say heirloom. Whatever the word, calendars work crazy well. Everyone knows how to use them, the structure is the same worldwide so you don’t need to understand a local language to read one, and they’re super fast to scan and pick out the exact info you’re looking for. When you want to tell people something specific to a day of the week there’s nothing better. So I’m always surprised how many times people choose to ignore them and force customers to wander their word maze to find the information they’re looking for. Like this restaurant:

Here’s the same information written as a calendar:

New calendar technology

A follow-up to yesterday’s post about calendars. We’ve started testing a project timeline calendar that looks like a bit like a Gantt chart, which is a newfangled calendar technology (meaning it’s a hundred years old, not several thousand). It has a special jagged red line “right now” feature you’ll see below. They key thing is that, like a calendar, time starts on the left and moves to the right. Whenever you need to visually represent time progression that’s the best way to go.

Here’s an example of it (hat tip to J Atlee). It was used to plan and report on our progress as we performed a multi-day rearrangement of our warehouse floor. The red line, where we’re currently at, moved every few hours. Here it shows where we were Day 1 at 1pm (ahead of schedule on the part of the red line that angles a “V” to the right, the rest on schedule):

At 4pm (behind schedule on the part that angles to the left, ahead on the angle to the right, the rest on schedule—also the line is drawn at the chart’s 5pm, not 4pm, because they stopped an hour early):

Thanks Mo!

Zingerman’s 4th Annual Camp Bacon is just around the corner and to help get everyone prepared, we’re sharing tasty excerpts and recipes from Ari’s book, Zingerman’s Guide to Better Bacon. 

Pork has been the key ration of every American army since the time of the Revolution. In fact, the initial “Uncle Sam” was a 21-year-old from New Hampshire by the name of Samuel Wilson. During the War of 1812 he was a prime pork packer for the Army. The story goes that he became quite popular among the troops for his provisioning work and upbeat personality. Barrels of pork labeled “U.S.” came to stand for “Uncle Sam” Wilson, the man who fed the folks in the Army.

See you at camp!