Sweet Onion and Bacon Jam

Sweet Onion and Bacon Jam

Ingredients

2 pounds thick-cut bacon, cut into 1-inch pieces
2 yellow onions, thinly sliced
4 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
2 double shots of fresh espresso (or 3/4 cup strong coffee)
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes*

Step 1: Brown the bacon in a large pan or dutch oven. You may need to do this in two batches; 2 pounds of bacon is a lot of bacon. Try not to eat too much of the first batch of bacon while you’re browning the second batch.

Step 2: Remove all but about three tablespoons of the resulting bacon fat. I store my extra bacon fat in a jar in the fridge and use it for all kinds of good stuff. Use it to replace butter when frying an egg. Believe.

Step 3: Sautee the onions and garlic in the bacon fat for 8-10 minutes until nicely soft and delicious.

Step 4: Add all of the rest of the ingredients, lower the temperature to low. When the mixture starts to simmer, raise the heat to medium-high and give it a hard boil for several minutes. Add the bacon to your mixture, lower the heat and simmer. I simmered mine for about fifteen minutes.

Step 5: Pulse the mixture in a food processor until you reach the desired consistency – I chose a slightly chunky texture, feel free to go as smooth as you want.

Step 6: Try not to cut your tongue licking off the food processor blade. Serve your jam hot, room temperature or cold with pretty much anything you can think to put on it. My batch yielded nearly two pints. Refrigerate for up to two weeks.

Note: The red pepper flakes are key – don’t leave them out. A teaspoon is just enough to add a little heat without too much burning.