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

North Carolina Fish Muddle

“Bacon makes the soup”

—Provençal saying

I’m not sure how I first heard of this dish, but it has become one of my favorite ways to cook fish stew over the years. It’s clearly in the same culinary tradition as all the one-pot seafood stews made anywhere near the ocean—something between a thickened bouillabaisse with bacon and a fish-dominated, lightly tomato-based chowder.

Although I’d always seen this billed as “Outer Banks Fish Muddle” I was steered straight by Elizabeth Wiegand, author of the Outer Banks Cookbook. “Muddles are done both at the coast and up rivers, so some sources say,” she explained. “However, I’ve always considered them INNER coast.” What she’s saying makes good sense. As she pointed out quickly, while it makes a great summer getaway and provides for some fine fishing, the thin strip of land that is the Outer Banks has never been a good place for raising the pigs from which the bacon for this fish stew comes.

(As a pig-related side note, Elizabeth also shared with me that back in the nineteenth century the North Carolinian upper crust built homes on the Outer Banks, then ferried all their possessions across the bay: servants, supplies, pigs and cows all came over. The livestock liked to root under the houses, which in and of itself isn’t a terrible thing. But the small holes in the floors of the Outer Banks houses, which allowed floodwaters to drain, also allowed the smell of the animals to permeate their interiors. The latticework that became so typical of houses in this area was originally installed to keep the animals and aromas away from the living quarters.)

Most recipes for muddle rely on rockfish, so called because the fish hang out near rocks. You may know them as striped bass, which fisherman refer to as “stripers.” What I didn’t know until speaking with Elizabeth is that they’re also known along the Carolina coast as “Mr. Pajama Pants” because of the horizontal black stripes that run up their hindquarters. Better still, some folks call them “squid hounds” for their propensity to chase squid, one of their favorite foods. The spring and fall are prime striper seasons—one theory of muddle making being that people had end of the year get-togethers to cook up the new season’s fish (remember, the slaughter took place around New Year’s, as well).

There are a few thousand versions of muddle. In part because it’s so good, and in part because this book is about bacon, I’ve put the pork more out front than some other cooks might have done. With that in mind, I prefer to feature the bigger flavors of an Edwards’ or Benton’s. I use a mixture of different fish for greater complexity of flavor and texture, but it’s certainly great made exclusively with striped bass, as well.

The sliced bread isn’t in many recipes but it’s a great way to bring more bacon flavor to the dish. Elizabeth reminded me that many Southerners would use Saltines, which are, of course, widely considered a “traditional”  bread down below the Mason-Dixon line. I have eggs listed as optional—most recipes don’t use them but I think they’re delicious. I’ve old references to doing the same in various versions, including one from Beth Tartan’s 1955 classic book, North Carolina and Old Salem Cookery.

Muddle is mostly considered a main dish, but you could certainly serve it in smaller portions as a soup course.

Ingredients:

• 8 ounces (about 4 to 6 slices) bacon, diced
• 2 medium onions, diced
• 1 large leek, washed well and thinly sliced
• 1 large or 2 medium carrots, diced
• 2 stalks celery, diced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 pounds fresh plum tomatoes, chopped (in the off-season I’d suggest using good-quality canned)
• An additional 4 ounces bacon, in a single chunk
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme leaf
• ¼ teaspoon hot red pepper flakes (I like the Marash red pepper flakes from Turkey)
• 2 tablespoons parsley, chopped, rinsed and squeezed dry
• 4 cups fish stock
• ½ pound pollock or other inexpensive white ocean fish, cut into 1-inch
• pieces
• 1½ pounds waxy potatoes (I like Yukon Golds), cut into ½-inch dice
• 1 pound striped bass or other full-flavored ocean fish, cut into 1-inch
• chunks
• 1 pound cod or other flaky white ocean fish, cut into 1-inch chunks
• Coarse sea salt to taste
• Freshly ground Tellicherry black pepper to taste
• 6 eggs (optional)
• 6 slices good crusty bread
• 3 to 4 tablespoons reserved hot bacon fat
• Bacon fat mayonnaise (optional, see page 172, Zingerman’s Guide to Better Bacon)

Procedure:

1. 1. Brown the diced bacon over medium heat in a soup kettle or large Dutch oven until crisp. Remove and set aside. Remove the 3 to 4 tablespoons of drippings and reserve for garnish, leaving the rest in the pot. (If you don’t have enough fat in the pan, feel free to add a glug from the jar you’ve now started saving . . . right?)
2. 2. Sauté the onion, leek, carrot and celery in the fat until soft. Stir gently to be sure they don’t stick.
3. 3. Add the garlic and bay leaf and cook for 2 more minutes.
4. 4. Add the tomatoes, bacon chunk, thyme, red pepper and parsley and cook over medium high for 10 to 15 minutes, until the tomatoes release their juices and begin to reduce.
5. 5. Add the fish stock, pollock pieces and potatoes and bring to a strong simmer. Reduce heat to medium low. Simmer, uncovered, for about 2 hours. The muddle should be the texture of a moderately thick vegetable soup, so add more water if needed.
6. 6. Remove the bacon chunk and set aside for future use. (At this point, the stew can be cooled and held in the refrigerator overnight, to be finished the following day. If you do so, be sure to bring the broth back to a strong simmer before continuing.)
7. 7. Add the striped bass and cod, submerging them in the stewing juices, and bring back to a low boil.
8. 8. Simmer for 5 to 8 minutes, until fish is just done. Add salt and pepper to taste. The stew should be thick and savory.
9. 9. If using the eggs either poach them in a separate pot or do as I do and just crack them gently into the muddle when it starts to simmer, after you’ve added the final pieces of fish.
10. 10. When the stew is just about ready, toast the bread. Rub each slice with some of the reserved bacon fat.
11. 11. Warm the bowls in the oven. Ladle in the muddle and top with a slice of the toast. Place one of the poached eggs in each bowl. Sprinkle with the diced bacon.
12. 12. You can also treat the muddle like a Marseillaise bouillabaisse by spooning a dollop of bacon fat mayonnaise atop the toast as a rouille. (It’s delicious!)

Serves 4 to 6 as a main course, or 8 as a side dish.

See you at camp!

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

South Carolina Red Rice

This recipe is classic cookery from the South Carolina (and actually Georgia as well) coast. A staple dish of the Lowcountry—one of North America’s most interesting and important regional cuisines— you can probably find six hundred different recipes for red rice in Southern cookbooks. The dish uses meat—here it’s bacon, of course—as an accent, so that you’re eating the same sort of rice and vegetable-dominated diet that one might get in the Mediterranean (but, again, using bacon fat in place of olive oil). Glenn Roberts from Anson Mills says he gives credit for this dish to émigré Sephardic Jews, although they probably weren’t doing it with bacon as nearly everyone does today. In her book about Southern Jewish cookery, Matzo Ball Gumbo, Marcie Ferris shares a recipe that uses Kosher salami instead!

If you make Red Rice with Uncle Ben’s, out-of-season tomatoes and supermarket bacon the dish is going to be fairly unremarkable. For me, the Anson Mills Carolina Gold Rice is key to making the dish as exceptional as it can be. It’s a South Carolina low-yield, high-flavor rice varietal that dates back to the nineteenth century, so it’s the right rice to use for both authenticity and excellence of eating. Organically grown, field-ripened, custom-milled to retain all of the germ and most of the bran, it’s exceptionally flavorful stuff. You can certainly work with other varieties (most people do), but remember that, a) the flavor and texture of Carolina Gold is really something special, and b) you’ll need to adjust your cooking times and liquid-to-rice ratio a bit.

As to which pork to use, I like the Arkansas Peppered Bacon, but Sam Edwards’  dry-cured would be excellent, too. As in all Lowcountry cooking, the rice should really be in distinctive, individual grains when you’re done, rather than the creamily bound-together form you’d get from Italian risotto.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups Anson Mills Carolina Gold rice
• 4 medium tomatoes or 1 (14.5-ounce) can
• whole peeled tomatoes with their juice
• 8 ounces sliced Arkansas peppered bacon
• (about 4 to 6 slices)
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 2 cups chicken broth (preferably homemade or one of the better commercial brands: you may not end up using it all, but any leftover broth can be cooled and used later in the week)
• Coarse sea salt to taste
• Freshly ground Tellicherry black pepper to taste

Procedure:

1. 1. Wash the rice in cold water three times, or until the water runs clear. This keeps the grains from sticking together.
2. 2. Halve the tomatoes and squeeze the juice into a medium bowl. If you’re using canned tomatoes, use the juice from the can. You’ll want about 2 cups of liquid for cooking the rice, so top off the tomato juice with chicken broth if necessary.
3. 3. Chop the tomatoes and set aside. You should have about 1 cup.
4. 4. Fry the bacon in a heavy-bottomed stockpot over moderate heat until almost crisp. Remove from the pot and drain. (You’ll want about ¼ cup bacon grease, so add a bit from your stash if needed.)
5. 5. Reduce heat slightly and add the chopped onion. Sauté, stirring occasionally, until nicely caramelized—about 20 minutes.
6. 6. When the onions are just about ready, bring the broth and tomato juice to a boil in a medium-sized pan and reduce to a low simmer. If you’re working with unsalted broth, add 1 teaspoon coarse salt.
7. 7. When the onions are caramelized, raise the heat in the pot a bit, add the rice and stir well. Sauté for a couple of minutes, stirring constantly, until the rice is very hot and shiny.
8. 8. Stir the chopped tomatoes into the rice and cook for several minutes, stirring constantly.
9. 9. Add the simmering broth into the rice, stirring well. Bring to a boil, cover the pan, reduce heat to low and cook for 10 minutes. Turn off the heat. (And don’t pick up that lid to look, either, OK?) Let stand, covered, for another 10 minutes.
10. 10. While the rice is cooking, chop the bacon.
11. 11. Remove the lid from the rice pot, add the bacon and stir gently. Flavor with salt and a generous dose of freshly ground black pepper, fluff with a fork and serve.

Serves 4 to 6 as a main dish.

See you at Camp!

Zingerman’s 4th Annual Camp Bacon is coming soon and to help get everyone prepared, we’re sharing tasty bacon ideas and suggestions!

• Nueske’s Applewood Smoked Bacon – The Deli’s house bacon for over thirty years now and a Wisconsin classic for decades. Smoked for 24 hours over real applewood logs, it’s popular with pretty much everyone who tries it. The late and legendary food writer R.W. Apple adeptly called it “the Rolls Royce of bacon!” Deep, rich, beautiful bacony flavor; a bit sweet, lovingly smokey, long finish that lingers nicely. Bob Nueske will be joining us for the Camp Bacon Main Event this year!
• Nueske’s Wild Cherrywood Bacon – Equally delicious, a bit sweeter still, and always excellent. Smoked over wild cherrywood logs from trees that grow in the woods around the Nueske’s hometown of Wittenberg. For much more on the Nueske story, see Zingerman’s Guide to Better Bacon.
• Benton’s Bacon — The biggest, boldest, most bombastic of our bacons. On the eastern end of Tennessee, Alan Benton is curing and smoking bacon pretty much as his grandparents (and probably their grandparents) did deep in the hills of Virginia. Long, dry cure with salt and sugar, and then over 48 hours of smoking over hickory wood. When you want BIG bacon flavor, Benton’s would be the way to go!
• Broadbent’s Bacon – One of the Bluegrass state’s best bacons. Ronny and Beth Drennan still do the Broadbent family’s hundred year-old recipe down in Trigg County in Western Kentucky. Dry cured the old- fashioned way, then smoked over hickory. Very meaty, tangy, salty. A big hit amongst professional chefs.
• Arkansas Peppered Bacon – Another long-time favorite here at Zingerman’s. Made near the foot of Mt. Petit Jean in central Arkansas. Delicious, smoky, moist, and rich with big mouth feel. The heat rises slowly and it has a long finish. Love it. Great for adding to other dishes as an ingredient—a small chunk of it added to a bean soup will work wonders.
• Balinese Long Pepper Bacon – Same great bacon but this time spiced with long pepper, a cousin of the black pepper we all know around here. Native to India, long pepper was very popular in Roman times and also in American colonial cooking. I love it. It’s got a softer, more sensual spiciness to it.
• La Quercia Tamworth Bacon – The Tamworth hog makes for terrifically full flavored bacon. For more on this special, hard to find hog and the meat that’s made from it, see the interview on page 6 with Herb Eckhouse (see Zingerman’s Guide to Better Bacon). Powerfully porky, it’s subtly sweet, with big, earthy notes and a particularly long finish. Herb Eckhouse will joining us for the Camp Bacon Main Event this year!
• Edwards Bacon – Sam Edwards is the third generation in the family to be commercially curing ham and bacon. He’s a great guy and it’s great bacon—dry cured in salt in the traditional Virginia style, then smoked over hickory. Really delicious full flavor, nicely balanced, hits all parts of the bacon universe in one beautiful bite. My bacon of choice for a classic bacon and eggs breakfast. Sam Edwards will be joining us for the Camp Bacon Main Event this year!

See you at camp!

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

Irish Bacon and Cabbage

As you’ve already learned, in Ireland it’s far more typical to cook bacon with cabbage than corned beef. I’d serve the dish with a little mustard and parsley sauce and maybe some hot mashed potatoes.

Ingredients:

• For the bacon and cabbage:
• 2 pounds Irish bacon (brined pork loin, not smoked), in a single chunk
• 1 carrot, roughly chopped
• 2 stalks celery, thickly sliced
• 2 leeks, washed well and sliced
• 1 medium onion, roughly chopped
• 2 teaspoons fresh thyme
• 1 tablespoon whole Tellicherry black peppercorns
• 1 large head green cabbage, core removed, cut into 6 pieces
• Coarse sea salt to taste
• Freshly ground Tellicherry black pepper to taste

For mustard and parsley sauces:

• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 2 tablespoons flour
• ¾ cup bacon stock (reserved from cooking the bacon)
• ¾ cup whole milk
• 1 tablespoon brown mustard
• ¼ cup parsley, finely chopped, rinsed and squeezed dry
• Coarse sea salt to taste
• Freshly ground Tellicherry black pepper to taste

Procedure:

1. 1. Place bacon in a large stockpot and fill with cold water to cover. Bring to a rapid boil, then immediately drain and rinse. Return the bacon to the pot with fresh cold water to cover again. Place on high heat, adding the carrot, celery, leeks, onion, thyme and peppercorns. Add more water if needed to just cover the bacon and vegetables. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Cover pan loosely, allowing steam to escape, and cook for 1½ to 2 hours. The bacon should be fork tender.
2. 2. Remove the bacon from the pot and set aside. Strain the stock and set it aside. Discard the cooked vegetables and return the stock to the pot, reserving the ¾ cup for making the mustard and parsley sauces. Return the bacon to the pot. Add the cabbage, placing the pieces around the sides. Cook over medium-high heat for 20 minutes, until cabbage is tender. Add salt and pepper to taste.

While the cabbage is cooking, prepare the mustard and parsley sauces:

1. 1. Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Sift flour directly into the butter, whisking constantly until the sauce thickens and a roux forms, 2 to 3 minutes. Slowly add the reserved stock, a bit at a time, whisking with each addition until thickened. Add milk a little at a time, stirring steadily, until incorporated. Split the resulting béchamel evenly into two serving bowls. Whisk the parsley into one bowl and the mustard into the other. Add salt and pepper to taste.
2. 2. When the cabbage is tender and the sauces are ready to serve, remove the bacon from the pot. Cut into medium-thick slices. Ladle the cabbage into warm serving bowls along with the sliced bacon.

Serves 4 as a main course

see you at camp!

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

Emma Dencklau’s Iowa German Potato Salad

This recipe first came up courtesy of historian and long-time Zingerman’s customer Leo Landis, whom I met many years ago when he was working at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn. Leo moved back to his native Iowa a few years ago, but we’ve continued to correspond: I asked for his help in preparing a special “Foods of Iowa” dinner at the Zingerman’s Roadhouse, and in return he shared many lovely little bits of Iowa history and culture, one of which was this great bacon-powered potato salad.

The Dencklau recipe dates to the early part of the twentieth century and probably goes back to older roots in Germany. Emma’s family arrived here from Germany at the turn of the last century. According to the 1920 census she was born in 1902 in Webster County, about 100 miles north of Des Moines. Today the trip is about an hour and a half by car, but back then it would have been roughly two days each way on horseback. Looking down the census page you can see how many families in the area were of German origin, so it’s not surprising that potato salads like this were and are very common. Leo got the recipe from the grandson of the woman to whom it’s credited, which means it’s basically third-generation American by this point.

The vinegar is a key ingredient, whose quality is integral to the flavor of the finished dish. As I’ve said many times, I’m very high on the cider vinegar we get from Pierre Gingras in Quebec. It’s made from hand-picked apples, no windfalls, no dregs, then aged for over two years in oak barrels. In this dish it adds that lively vinegar zip, but because Gingras’ is so well-made and its flavor so well-rounded, the flavor of the finished dish is lively without seeming overly sharp. Rather than using tap water I used the cooking water from the potatoes, both because the starch in the water helps binds the sauce and because it brings its own flavor to the salad.

Emma’s exact recipe is below. I used the Nueske’s applewood-smoked bacon, since its roots are—as were Emma’s—both German and Midwestern. I’ve kept the original, large quantities because they more accurately reflect the way dishes were cooked back in Emma’s day. All the ingredients are portioned in nice round numbers, so you can easily halve or quarter the amounts if you want.

I personally don’t love sweet salads, so I when I make this at home I add almost none of the sugar that Emma calls for. By contrast I probably put in a bit more freshly ground black pepper. Regardless, the finished salad is darned delicious—very rich, but lightened on the palate by the goodly dose of vinegar.

Ingredients:

• 4 pounds potatoes (I prefer Yukon Golds or German butterballs because they’re delicious and buttery in their own right, and also because they absorb the bacon fat so beautifully)
• 1 pound sliced Nueske’s or comparable bacon (about 8 to 12 slices)
• 1 large onion, coarsely chopped
• 2 tablespoons flour
• ½ cup cider vinegar
• 2 tablespoons sugar (optional)

Procedure:

1. 1. Steam the potatoes in their skins over salted water for 30 minutes or until well-cooked and fork tender. Remove them from the heat and allow to cool, reserving 1¼ cups of the cooking water.
2. 2. Fry the bacon over medium heat until nearly crisp but still bendable, then remove it from the pan and cut it into 1-inch pieces. Leave the fat in the pan.
3. 3. Reduce heat to low and add the onion to the pan. Cook over low heat until soft, stirring occasionally.
4. 4. Raise heat to medium. Sift the flour over the onions, then stir steadily for about 5 minutes to make a roux. The flour and fat should become well bound and very lightly brown in color.
5. 5. Slowly add the cider vinegar to the roux, stirring steadily until the sauce thickens. Repeat with the potato water, again stirring constantly until the sauce is thickened. Add the sugar if you like and, again, mix well. Remove from the heat.
6. 6. Cut the cooked potatoes into 1-inch cubes and add them to the sauce along with the bacon pieces. Mix gently, but well.
7. 7. Serve immediately, while the salad is still warm. It also keeps well in the refrigerator—you can serve it the next day and it’s still quite good, either cold or reheated.

Serves 4 to 6 as a main course, or 8 as a side dish.

see you at camp!

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

Wilted Salad

A great all-American dish dating back to the Colonial era, wilted salad uses bacon fat as the basis for a dressing in much the same way that olive oil is used to dress greens in the Mediterranean. The heat of the bacon dressing wilts the greens—hence the name. April McGreger, who grew up with bacon fat as the basis for a lot of her family’s food, told me that they called this “killt lettuce”—because the lettuce is “slain” by the hot fat, not because of any connection to Scottish menswear. The bacon’s flavor is a big part of the dish, so use whatever variety strikes your fancy. Because the fat will solidify once it cools, the dressing must be served warm.

Ingredients:

• 6 ounces mixed greens, washed and dried
• 6 ounces sliced bacon (about 3 to 4 slices)
• 2 scallions (greens and whites), thinly sliced
• 2 tablespoons cider vinegar
• ½ teaspoon sugar
• Coarse sea salt to taste
• 2 ounces cheddar cheese, diced (optional)
• ¼ cup walnuts or hickory nuts, lightly toasted and chopped (optional)
• Freshly ground Tellicherry black pepper to taste

Procedure:

1. 1. Place the greens in a large, heat-proof serving bowl.
2. 2. Fry the bacon in a heavy-bottomed skillet over medium heat until crisp. Remove from the skillet, drain and chop it. Reserve about 4 tablespoons of fat in the skillet (augment with a glug from your backup supply if necessary).
3. 3. Add the sliced scallions to the pan and cook for a minute. Pour in the cider vinegar, sugar and a pinch of salt. Stir well and boil lightly for a minute.
4. 4. If you’re using cheese or toasted nuts, distribute them over the greens. Pour the hot dressing over the top, toss well and sprinkle with the bits of cooked bacon and plenty of fresh pepper. Serve warm.

Serves 2 as a main course, or 4 as a side dish

See you at camp!