Baconopolis

We wish we could have attended Baconopolis.

This bacon extravaganza was offered by one of Seattle’s most famous chefs, Tom Douglas, and his good group of people at the Palace Ballroom. Eleven different kinds of bacon, and the chance to learn the work of local butchers and brands! Butterscotch pudding with bacon! Bloody Marys with bacon garnishes!

And all for $20? Sign us up.

Sadly, our little one caught the chicken pox. She felt fine — she’s little — and we thought about taking her. But in the end, common sense prevailed over the love of bacon. So we asked our friend, Lorna Yee (she of the pulled pork fame) to go for us, take photographs, and report back.

(Lucky girl. And her good husband, Henry, too.)

“I picked Duskie’s as my favorite because for me, bacon is all about the taste of the fat. The fat on this bacon had the sweetest, roundest flavor that kind of enveloped your tongue in a really silky way. It was not the saltiest bacon, but it was on the salty side of the ones featured last night. Loosely paraphrased from pamphlet: ‘This bacon is made by Duskie Estes, friend and chef/owner of Zazu and Bovolo both in Napa Valley. It uses Kurobuta or “black pigs”, and is cured with brown sugar, salt, and smoked over applewood.’

Benton’s Smoky Mountain: from my own notes: ‘cooked extremely crisp, with a dissolving/crumbly texture on tongue, slightly fattier than most other bacons sampled.’ (From notes provided by Baconoplis: ‘Hickory smoked using old-fashioned wood stove, this country style bacon is the way grandpa made it, stunning, juicy, flavorful and succulent.) I should note that Henry’s favorite bacon of the night was the Benton’s Smoky Mountain.

(Maybe I should also note that we use both Hempler’s and Neuske’s at home, both good bacons that are pretty readily available here in Seattle. When compared with the other bacons we tasted last night, however, they held their own but we preferred the smaller, boutique-y bacons because we are bacon elitists.

I also liked Scott’s Country ham from Kentucky (this was by far the smokiest bacon of the 11 sampled, also one of the saltiest), the Berkshire Meats bacon from Minnesota (in terms of natural sweetness of the meat, this one stood out from the others), and Carlton Farms from Oregon (good, not too salty, a little sweet. A very well-balanced, all-purpose bacon.)

My favorite dish of the evening was the butterscotch pudding with bacon confit apples and candied lardons. The pudding itself was generously flecked with vanilla bean, and the texture was quite light, with the weight of medium-soft peaks of whipped cream. Henry’s favorite was the bacon hash (had leeks, potatoes, and bacon).

The food was, for the most part, quite good. During our first round of tasting, the tempura bacon was very nice–the batter was light and greaseless. Everyone who came received 10 tickets to redeem for “tastes” of each dish, but everyone seemed to forget to drop their tickets when they got their food, including us…so we probably sampled way more than we were supposed to. Still, I think that was accounted for since they still had plenty of food when we left.

We had a ton of fun–there were raffle prizes (gift certs for bacon sandwiches at Dahlia Bakery, a Tom Douglas cookbook, various gag bacon items like a bacon watch.) I would definitely go again!”

If Baconopolis happens again next year, I think we should all go.

(Thanks to Lorna Yee and Henry Lo for this update.)