Pig Candy Recipe and (Crappy) Pics

So my wife and I watch Diners, Drive-ins and Dives like a lot of people on this board and we caught an episode over the weekend for a place in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, called Cafe Genevieve.

One of the dishes they showed for them was Pig Candy, which is basically pork jerky but covered in brown sugar, white sugar, ground mustard, cayenne and black pepper.

Seeing as my kids love bacon and candy I figured we'd give it a shot at home as something to do as a family. I was able to find the recipe online thanks to a newspaper article from 2011: LINK.

Here's the actual recipe:

quote:

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Café Genevieve's Pig Candy - Sweet and Spicy Candied Bacon

1 pound thick-sliced applewood smoked bacon, preferably from a Wyoming producer

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup white sugar

1 teaspoon dry mustard powder

1/2 teaspoon cayenne

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Combine the sugars, mustard, cayenne and pepper in a small bowl and mix well. The secret step, which takes some patience, is to dry the mixture to create a coating that will better adhere to the bacon. Spread it on a baking sheet tray and allow it to sit overnight. The next day, grind the mixture in a blender or processor and set aside.

Preheat oven to 225 degrees F. Dredge each slice of bacon in the coating mixture, shaking off any excess, and lay it on the rack of a roasting pan, which will allow the bacon drippings to fall into the pan and keep the bacon strips crisp. Bake for 45 to 65 minutes without turning, until the bacon is dark brown, bubbly, and crisp; watch carefully so it doesn't burn. Remove bacon slices with a spatula and serve warm or at room temperature. 4 to 6 servings.

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Now I live at a pretty decent elevation up here in Idaho (3,500 feet) so their instructions on temperature and cooking time were way off. I eventually settled on 275 degrees for 60 minutes for the second batch and it came out great.

Here are some pics:

This is the spice mixture set out to dry overnight:



Here is the bacon with the spices rubbed on them before they went into the oven:



As I mentioned above the time and temperature in the recipe didn't quite work well for the first batch and it was approaching midnight by the time the second one was done so I took a really shitty picture of some I brought to work this morning to share with my office. I don't think anyone has used the plate in a decade:



It tastes amazing even though we should have used a thicker cut of bacon. As you can see in the before pic I had 4 pieces left over from Sunday breakfast that were big enough to be done correctly. Oh well, there's always next time.

ETA: Second pic isn't working. Trying to correct it.