Chef’s Table
By: Michael Formichella
All-American bacon mania weekend
It’s been a while since my last bacon submission, but I had to write about it after watching the playoffs this past weekend. We had friends stop by to watch the Bears-Packers game, and I thought I’d bombard them with four new creations. There wasn’t a huge Chicago bacon sale; it started with just one idea and turned into an all-American bacon mania Sunday.
Maple-Bacon peach crumble: Outstanding! Fresh peaches that were canned this past summer with a graham cracker brown sugar crust flavored with crispy bits of bacon bits. Topped with a Maple bacon streusel topping. While baking, this combination filled our home with a fragrance you have to imagine in your mind’s eye. All I can say is, wow.
Chocolate Toffee Beignet with Chocolate Sauce: Mini imported dark chocolate chips suspended in light airy beignet dough, fried to a crisp golden brown served with a drizzle of rich caramel toffee and powder sugar and crumbled Bacon Candy. These light, airy pillows of flavor were about the size of ping-pong balls. You couldn’t eat just one.
Bacon & Chocolate Brittle: Dark and milk chocolates melted over a butterscotch layer topped with toasted cashew nuts and bacon bits.
Sausage, Bacon & Beer and Cheddar Bread: The final treat we made would be great for a tailgate breakfast. It’s an adaptation of savory beer-based bread that has its roots north of me, up in cheese-head country, Wisconsin. This bread is usually made with ground sausage and includes sharp cheddar cheese as an option. We just added in the leftover bacon from all of the other dishes. Our friends up north believe this hearty and dense bread possesses healing powers and is also low-cal and heart- healthy. Yeah, right. Each item we sampled was a great testament to the versatility of bacon. The combination of flavors just reinforces the fact that bacon tastes great with just about everything. Try going hog wild sometime. You’ll be amazed at the combinations that work. Enjoy!
Industry News
Blizzard forces plant closures
By Tom Johnston on 2/2/2011
A blizzard projected to dump historic amounts of snow across the United States, particularly in the Midwest and Northeast, is putting a crimp in national meat and poultry production.
Tyson Foods and Cargill were among the major companies to report Tuesday that the snowstorms have prompted plant closures and schedule adjustments.
“We have about half dozen poultry plants in northwest Arkansas and southwest Missouri that have either suspended operations today or are running limited production because of the weather,” Tyson spokesman Gary Mickelson told Meatingplace in an e-mail. “One of our Iowa pork plants is idle today and three other pork plants (another one in Iowa, one in Indiana and one in Nebraska) have scaled back production. We also have a beef plant in Illinois that has called off one shift of production today and one tomorrow.”
Cargill also was experiencing the power of the weather, which shuttered pork plants at Ottumwa, Iowa, and Beardstown, Ill., for second shift Tuesday and first shift Wednesday. Meanwhile, the company planned to close its Milwaukee beef plant all of Wednesday, according to spokesman Mike Martin.
The pork facilities will make up work over two shifts on Saturday.
“This is out of concern for employee safety due to road conditions, driver safety hauling pigs and the overall deteriorating weather conditions,” he told Meatingplace in an e-mail.
meatingplace.com
