Fakin'

Is the Republic still standing? Oh, whew. Thank Dog. Let's get on to the important stuff:

yeah, IOZ, ARE you contrarian enough to take on bacon, and its related fads?

-Montag

No. I mean, I, too, think that bacon-flavored sherbet or whatever is a little goofy, but in fact what the prevalence of bacon, especially in amateur cookology and bogus NY Times trend stories represents is the unacknowledged reintroduction of lard. That is to say, it is not actually the bacon that has gained new culinary currency, but rather the recently neglected rendered pork fat that has recovered some of its earlier popularity as a cooking fat and a shortening. The latter, by the way, is why you suddenly see bacon popping up in sweets and baked goods. It is not the meat, but the fat. (To be fair, American bacon, which is often smoked on applewood or other fruit wood chips, has a pleasantly sweet flavor, and of course, salt makes everything better.) Lard, by the way, is an absolutely amazing cooking fat. Personally, I like to slowly render the fat out of guanciale--jowl bacon, usually unsmoked--and use it to sauté brussels sprouts or potatoes.