Bacon

Coca-Cola was born in Atlanta in 1886, when pharmacist Dr. John Stith Pemberton took his new creation to Jacobs’ Pharmacy—where minutes after it was first sampled, it became a sensation. I love the stuff, in no small part because it’s a fantastic global brand from Georgia . . . just like me. What a lot of people outside of the South don’t realize is that Coke can be more than a “delicious and refreshing” drink; it’s a great ingredient to use in a marinade because it’s sweet and because the carbonation can be useful in tenderizing meat. It needs some balance, though, which is what the bacon does here: it adds a salty flavor and a crisp texture to the chicken. This dish is great for afternoon barbecues when you’re chilling by the pool. Serve it with your favorite potato salad (see page 116).

I don’t know any chef who travels with his own grits except Scott Peacock. And you can understand why. Once you have tasted those Southern stone-ground grits, it is hard to settle for less. But I hope he will forgive me for offering here a recipe for ordinary supermarket grits. They cook in 20 minutes, and I have borrowed Scott’s method of cooking them partially in milk, which makes them so much creamier. This way, at least you may get so hooked on grits that you’ll send away for the grittier stone- ground variety and give over part of a Sunday afternoon to stirring them as they cook slowly for a long time, the longer the better. Either way, grits are good with so many things—shrimp, chicken, game, pork, ham. I always make extra so that I can have some fried grits for breakfast the next day. Avoid instant grits and look for the old-fashioned ones.

The large portobello mushroom makes a natural saucerlike container for tasty fillings. For modest appetites, one amply stuffed big mushroom will make a satisfying lunch or supper dish, but if you’re really hungry, make two.

Make this casserole when you’re short on time but want something big on taste. It’s a cinch to whip together, so even beginner cooks will earn oodles of praise. There are many variations of this type of casserole dish, but you’ll find our personal favorite way of making this dish below. Want to be totally indulgent? Add another layer of crescent rolls to the top of the casserole. It’s like your own bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich on a croissant roll! Indulgent? Yes. Tasty? You betcha!

The Queens go “coo-coo” for Coq au Vin, a classic French dish of chicken cooked in red wine. An elegant but simple recipe, it’s a great entry point to the world of French cuisine, which is often less complicated than it seems. Since this chicken dish has a decadent sauce, we love serving it in a shallow soup bowl over buttered egg noodles that have been tossed with chopped fresh parsley. We also garnish the rest of the plate with parsley, as the bright green pops against the red wine sauce. So pretty and so tasty!

This delicious, classic dish from the Burgundy region of France is designed to showcase the wines for which the area is famous. (We like anything that celebrates wine. Oui, oui!) Beef Burgundy can appear at first glance as a mere stew, but those of us who have had the pleasure of making this dish know that during the hours it slowly cooks in the oven something magical happens. The flavors of the broth are intensified by the wine, and it thickens into a velvety smooth sauce. Once finished, the cuts of beef are so tender they almost seem to melt. Traditionally, Beef Burgundy is made with wine from the French province of Burgundy. If you have trouble finding a true Burgundy (they can be pretty pricy!), the best substitutes are Pinot Noirs from California or Oregon. We suggest serving this over our Perfect Rice Every Time (page 195) and with our Rockin’ Tomatoes Rockefeller (page 139).

I’m a fan of anything called hash. When I was a kid my parents would make fried eggs for breakfast and bust out a can of corned beef hash—it was a huge treat. Now I jump at anything that reminds me of hash. In this recipe I mix together sweet potatoes, apple, onion, and, of course, a bit of bacon for my own take on hash—a bit sweeter and certainly healthier than anything from a can!

Some people think of lentils only in terms of soup, but you can do a lot with the lowly lentil. Here I go for a classic flavor combo and add some beautiful bacon into the mix . . . as I always say, everything tastes better with bacon!

Everyone thinks of mac and cheese as comfort food, but there’s a lot of bad mac and cheese out there, and frankly, that food makes me UNcomfortable! Great mac and cheese should be creamy and tangy and luscious—it should get me excited with every bite. I promise that this recipe is what mac and cheese should be. And it’s got bacon! What could be better?

Where I come from, corn is the epitome of a summer vegetable; we used to drive out to the fields to get ours fresh and just leave our money in a can on the side of the road. So in this dish I combine corn with lovely little cherry tomatoes sautéed until they burst out of excitement, letting their delightful juices flow! Add some bacon and this sauce just steps up, pokes you, and says, “Hi, I’m summer, glad to see you!”

I always say everything tastes better with bacon. And when fresh corn is at its peak and just screaming to be eaten, this recipe is unbeatable (it also reminds me of summer as a kid because it was always my job to shuck the corn). It’s the perfect combination of smoky, sweet, spicy, and bright—what more could you ask for, except maybe MORE!

“Alligator pears” is what we call the big pale-skinned midwinter varieties of avocados. They’re also known as Florida avocados (as opposed to the more familiar California Hass variety, which has dark, pebbly skin). One type has the name Bacon and that is a great coincidence since they work so wonderfully together.

What a nickname, Good Donny. It’s a nickname most people couldn’t live up to. His grandkids gave him that one and nobody has found grounds to disagree. Like the name implies, he’s a good guy. Good Donny’s son, Benji, came by wielding some of the best pork cracklings we’d ever had. They were the perfect salty blend of tender, crisp, and crunch. Benji went on and on about how he had to beg Good Donny to give him just half a bag. Turns out that a friend of Good Donny’s makes them and this friend is getting on up in age, meaning every batch might be the last. You would have thought Benji was passing out gold doubloons. Next time we saw Good Donny we made a point to tell him how crazy we were for those cracklings. The following day, Donny showed up with five pint bags full of those golden crispy treasures. When Benji came by a few days later, my husband, Donald, retrieved a bag that he had hidden away. Benji was beside himself with envy.

This may barely qualify as a recipe. It’s not a time-saver, that’s for sure, because these take forever to assemble. That doesn’t stop my friend Neck-bone Red from dropping me a note to inquire if I am going to be bringing bacon crackers whenever she knows I’ll be at a party. I have found in my hours devoted to crafting these irresistible bowtie-shaped snacks that the way to make a bunch of them at a time is to place them on a wire rack set over a rimmed baking sheet. The rack keeps the crackers from getting soggy while they bake and are corseted by the bacon.

I love to pull out my slow cooker and let these beans simmer all day, filling the whole house with their amazing aroma. The key to a good bean dish is carefully picking over the dried beans before you cook them, discarding any that are discolored or shriveled. Use any chunky tomato salsa you like; it adds color and heat, so choose accordingly. I usually save the fat that comes from frying the bacon for these beans and use it to make unbelievably good Refried Beans (page 130). Sofrito is a combination of aromatic ingredients that are cooked slowly to release their flavor. It is used as the base of many dishes in Latin American and Caribbean cooking. I usually buy prepared sofrito seasoning paste sold in individual packets and located in the spice or Latin food aisle at the grocery store.

Collard greens with bacon or ham are a classic—spicy, smoky, and tender in an addictive savory broth. Most recipes splash in some vinegar to add a little tang and balance the bitterness of the greens. Soy sauce adds a different spin to this Southern staple. Try this alongside Thyme-Smoked Four-Inch Porterhouse Steak (page 168) or Whole Roasted Chicken with Plumped Raisins, Toasted Pine Nuts, and Arugula (page 142).

If you want a burger with superior flavor, you need to grind the meat yourself—it’s as simple as that. The process is not only easier than most people think, but also makes the moistest and most flavorful burgers. You’ll need to pick up a meat grinder attachment for your food processor at a kitchen store or have your local butcher grind the meat for you. Buy chuck with about 20 percent fat; if that’s not available, kindly ask your nice butcher to add beef fat to regular lean chuck. Fat equals flavor, and there’s no better place for it than in a burger! Okay, you will also need to mix the meat in an electric mixer. It may sound odd, but an old butcher’s trick is to add a couple tablespoons of ice water to the meat. As the burger cooks, the water steams, making the burgers juicier. With all of this love and attention to the meat, I don’t think it’s necessary to mix a bunch of stuff into it, like chives, chopped onion, or Worcestershire sauce. This meatier burger is as genuine as you can get!

This dish was inspired by my friend and mentor Frank Crispo. To satisfy those deep creamy-pasta cravings, you’re not gonna get more decadent than carbonara sauce. Pasta bathed in butter, oil, eggs, bacon, and cheese—it’s a rich dish but enjoy it; you don’t eat this every day.

I like taking foods I’ve grown up with and putting an adult spin on them. This knife-and-fork salad contains the elements of a BLT—bacon, lettuce, and tomato—but I replace the mayo with a big wedge of incredibly full-flavored Roaring Forties blue cheese. It’s important for the bacon to be superthick, almost like a ham steak. If you don’t make the bacon yourself, which is so beyond worth it, go to your local butcher and bring home slab bacon. There are only a handful of ingredients in this simple dish, but they are all important and shouldn’t be skimped on.