Get Your Grill On

What comes to mind when you hear the phrase “Pig Candy”? I’m willing to bet that you don’t first think, “Wow, sounds fabulous!”

If that’s true, though, you’d be wrong in your thinking. Not only is pig candy fabulous, it’s also addictive!

Pig Candy is made up of simple ingredients… Nothing complicated at all. The result is one of those things that ends up being better than its parts. The ingredients are:

• Bacon. Nothing fancy here. Just plain old bacon, not too thick, not too thin, not peppered, not maple. Just bacon.
• Dark brown sugar. I don’t go overboard with muscovado or anything like that. If I don’t have dark brown sugar, I’ll use a bit of extra molasses with light brown sugar.
• Cayenne, chipotle and/or ancho ground chile. I like the flavor of ancho, and I think it mixes well with chipotle. Don’t use too much cayenne if you chose this, as it can overpower the rest of the flavors
• Nothing else!

How much simpler can the list be?

I made pig candy over the weekend in the oven, but it can easily be done on a grill or a hot smoker, too. The idea is the same. I use a baking grid on top of a cookie sheet, and I lay the bacon out in a single layer, but close together as it will shrink up quite a bit while cooking. Once the bacon is laid out, I put the pan (or pans if doing more than one) in a cold, yes cold, oven. I turn the oven on to 400, and I wait until the oven reaches temp before the next step.

Why do I use a cold oven for this? I really have no idea… I saw Alton Brown bake bacon this way once, and I’ve done it ever since. It works, so I keep doing it.

While I’m waiting for the oven to reach temperature, I put a bunch of brown sugar into a bowl, add what I think is an appropriate amount of ground chile and mix by hand. How much? I started with 2 cups of sugar, and I add chile sparingly, tasting for heat. Cayenne should be kept to less than 1/8 teaspoon; ancho gets more like 1/2 to 1 tablespoon.

Once the oven gets to 400, I take the pan out and turn the oven to 350. I take my time and try to carefully spread the sugar on the bacon. It’s hot by then, so I try not burn any fingers during this. Once the sugar is on the bacon, I spread it a bit more evenly and put the pan back in the oven, turned around from the position it was first in. At this point, I start timing. Every 4 minutes, I check the crispiness of the bacon, and when I think it’s crisp enough for my taste, I take the pan out of the oven. Every 4 minutes, though, I turn the pan around to help ensure even cooking.

I like the bacon to be crisp, but it can also get burnt easily, so 4 minutes is as long as I’ll go between checks. It generally takes about 20 minutes for the bacon to be done to my liking.

Once the bacon is done, I use a fork to pry it off the grid, break it into smaller pieces, and serve it as is! It also goes well with things like fresh figs and apples. For Christmas, a great tray would have pig candy, fresh fruit and some good cheddar cheese pieces. Yum!

I only wish I’d known about this when I was a kid… Santa would have gone nuts seeing a plate of pig candy waiting for him at my house!

I’ll sit back now and let y’all enjoy the photos…