Ingredient: Bacon

Bacon is what we call a lump of salt-cured meat cut coming from a pig’s belly or back. It is served on its own, combined into various meals such as eggs, or used as an ingredient in sandwiches, hamburgers, omelets, soups, salads, and even sweets toppings flavors like maple bacon ice cream. It’s essential not to cook bacon at high temperatures for an extended period! Bear in mind that high heat can turn the nitrite curing agents into nitrosamine. In other words, bacon cooked in the microwave contains nitrosamines. These nitrates are used to preserve the red color and serve as a preservative agent to retard rancidity in the fat and kill bacteria. Currently, it is a subject of controversy as a potential cancer-causing agent in some laboratory experiments, but results are still inconclusive. So you have to careful not to over-heat your bacon. The taste of regular bacon can vary depending on the breed of the pig, how it has been fed, how the bacon is cut, and especially the processing and cutting methods. Traditionally, bacon is made by rubbing cuts of pork loin or belly with a salt and spices blend and leaving the meat for over a week; then, it gets washed with warm water, dried and smoked. Generally speaking, bacon flavor is a combination of salty, sweet, fatty, and smoky notes; it’s a mixture of all flavors —which can stand out to a particular palate— making a remarkable impact when added to a dish.