Current Cookbook - Seduced by Bacon - Pages, Pucks and Pantry

SEDUCED BY BACON - Recipes and Lore About America's Favorite Indulgence by Joanna Pruess with Bob Lape.

This cookbook has a copyright of 2006. I don't know where I got this cookbook. I have never cooked from this before.

Well, first of all...it's a cookbook about bacon. BACON. I mean really, it should be enshrined. Please note that this cookbook was published five years ago, before the bacon "fad" came about and they considered bacon be America's "favorite indulgence" even back then. I just wanted to point this out to all those folks that say bacon was just a passing fancy. Yeah right. For what it's worth, this isn't the only bacon centric cookbook I own either!

Seduced By Bacon starts out with a nice ode to bacon and several pages of introduction which goes into the history of bacon. There is a section on buying, storing and basic cooking instructions (yes, we already oven fry our bacon). There is a "Baconology" section which gives definitions regarding the different kinds of bacon (this comes in very handy when recipes call for types of bacon like "Guanciale" or "Streaky Bacon"). There is a section on suppliers of fancy type bacon.

The chapters are: Breakfast and Baked Goods; Appetizers and Snacks; Salads & Soups; Sandwiches; Seafood; Poultry and Meat; Pasta, Beans & Grains; Vegetable Side Dishes and Desserts (yes, you will find Bacon Ice Cream here).

There are photos but they are not the best. While a few are of the actual dishes, there are far to many photos of ingredients. I would rather see an actual photo the Alsatian Onion & Bacon Tart, not a photo of one of the ingredients, thyme leaves, in a bottle. A lot of the photos seem to be in extreme close up, with very grainy (i.e. not clear and sharp) photography.

Most of the recipes have a "notes" or "idea" blurb which might let you know about adding additional ingredients (say avocado to the Deconstructed BLT Salad) or not to chop the bacon up too fine so there will be more of a pronounced bacon flavor.

There are also "Bacon Bits" throughout Seduced By Bacon, which seem to be personal stories either relayed to the authors of the book or their own personal bacon remembrances.

Most of the ingredients would be easy to find in a regular grocery store. Some of the different types of bacon might be hard to track down but you can usually use a more easily found type. Some of the recipes seem to be a bit labor intensive.

Now, as far as I'm concerned, you can pretty much add bacon to any recipe. I can't tell you how many times I've made a dish and either I or Mr. L has said. "Great dish, tastes wonderful. Maybe add some bacon next time?". This cookbook is much more than "just add some bacon to an already made recipe" kind of cookbook.

Recipes that caught my eye to possibly make: Bacon-Cheddar Backing Powder Biscuits, Alpine Potato Torte, Alsatian Onion & Bacon Tart, Candied Bacon Bites, Bacon-Wrapped Breadsticks, Firecrackers (think stuffed jalapenos), Jumbo Shrimp Wrapped in Bacon with Curried Mayonnaise, Bacon-Popped Popcorn, Bocaditos Espanoles, Deconstructed BLT Salad, Broccoli Soup with Bacon & Cheddar Cheese Croutons, Lobster Bisque, Open-Faced Cheddar & Turkey Bacon Sandwich with Beer-Glazed Onions, Provolone, Avocado & Bacon Wrap, Chinese Glazed Salmon, Jamaican Jerked Shrimp, Mushrooms & Tomatoes, Old-Fashioned Shepperd's Pie, Devilish Short Ribs, Spicy Turkey Meatloaf, Don Vittorio's Rigatoni with Tomato-Vodka Sauce, Macattacaroni, Glazed Pearl Onions, Creamed Spinach, Three-Potato Bacon Salad, Pecan-Brown Sugar & Bacon ice Cream, French Apple Tart with Cheddar Cheese Crust & Sweet Brittle Topping.

But who am I kidding, I'd probably eat any recipe in this book because...well...it's bacon!