Some days my buddies come around for the football games. Obviously pizza is easy and we order that. What do I serve in the meantime? They are all picky and whiney (we have those friends!!), so I know we need a meat dish BUT with a twist. Salsa is both great and easy… mix it with bacon and it MORPHS into this incredibly exciting party in your mouth!!

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Do you have a bacon-related skill or talent that sets you apart from the average bacon lover? Do you have a recipe or bacon specialty that always leaves your dinner guests begging for more? Are you famous for your bacon art? Are your bacon skills renowned far and wide? Are you master of mistress of your own bacon domain, the undisputed champion of bacon in your community?

Then don’t languish away in obscurity, but embrace the fame and accolades that inevitably await you! It’s time to share your talents with a much wider audience and get recognized for your mastery of the bacon arts. Today, we’ve assembled a list of some of the best bacon contests going on around the world so that all our bacon-loving readers can enter. Earn fame and fortune, and have a fun and delicious time in the process!

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One day I sit down at a gathering and silently contemplate this guacamole. Its good, but I hate dishes without meat!! So I thought what better meat than some Maple Leaf Bacon to toss in this?? Obviously I did not let this secret slip at the party (oops gathering!!), but I went home and made it a mission to figure out a recipe of guac and bacon! I dare you to defy the good taste in this!

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Every once in a while I become obsessed with a particular combination of flavours. There was a whole week last year where almost everything I ate contained some combination of peanut butter and banana. More recently, I went on a roasted red pepper and goat cheese kick, finding every possible way to combine these flavours, from pasta to sandwiches. But right now, at this moment, the flavour combo that has me totally obsessed is caramelized onions and bacon.

There are a few reasons why this is such an incredible flavour combination. The onions become incredibly sweet as they cook down, which offsets the saltiness of the bacon perfectly. Both become smoky when they cook, but in totally different ways. The textures are a brilliant contrast, with the onions getting so soft they’re almost creamy, which is amazing with the crunchiness of the bacon. And both require slightly long cooking time to be perfect, both the bacon sizzling in a pan or the onions slowly cooking down as you gently stir.

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There are a lot of sweet flavours that are classically paired with bacon, usually with absolutely delicious results. One of the most classic examples of course is bacon and maple, which has been combined is everything from coffee to donuts and everywhere in between. Bacon and honey and bacon and brown sugar are also very common and tasty treats (especially the latter, which is usually used to make candied bacon). But one of the least praised and yet most delicious, sweet and savoury pairings is the combination of bacon and caramel.

Caramel, which is really just carefully burnt sugar combined with heavy cream, is sweet, soft, melts beautifully and is used in a whole host of desserts. It has a slightly dark, complex sweetness, much like maple syrup, and therefore matches extremely well with the smokiness and saltiness of bacon. Plus, as salted caramel becomes more recognized as one of the great flavour pairings out there, bacon’s natural saltiness becomes more appealing as well.

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That nip is in the air these days, especially in the evenings, the leaves and changing colours and falling to the grounds, and kids are settling into their classes as the initial excitement of back to school season settles into a comfortably routine. Fall is here to stay, that is for sure. As the nights keep getting longer and the days chillier, it’s time to start thinking about one of the great the season: Halloween, of course!

While October 31^st is still a few weeks away, those who love the holiday already have their minds spinning about how to plan for it. All along the street in my neighbourhood, the silhouettes of black cats are appearing in windows and fake spiderwebs are covering the doors. I’ve even seen a few pumpkins decorating the stoop (though no carved jack-o-lanterns yet!).

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I have an inner housewife. As much as the vast majority of my personality could belong to a 12-year-old boy who loves video games and sleeping in, a good chunk of my mind seems to occupied by a middle-aged woman from the old country. This part of me loves to get up early on the weekend and spend the whole day cleaning the house in a headscarf while singing show tunes. When this happens, my partner usually thinks I am possessed. However, one of the better side effects of having an inner housewife is that every now and again she is inspired to make a Sunday roast – which we all appreciate when we start scavenging for Tuesday leftovers!

And because this is me we are talking about, whenever I decide that I’m in the mood to make an epic roast dinner of some kind, I look for someway to incorporate bacon into the proceedings. Here are some of the best ways to jazz up your Sunday roast with everyone’s favourite pork product.

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There’s nothing that says autumn, or Halloween for that matter, than a pumpkin. Now, as much as it’s ridiculously delicious in pies or as a medium for artistic work, pumpkin is a wonderful ingredient in savoury dishes, as well. Being part of the squash family, it naturally goes well with bacon – just as everything else does, am I right? Today’s pumpkin installment at the Republic of Bacon is inspired by a friend of mine who is attempting the “great soup project”, a different soup every week for a year. This could be his first one!

Ingredients:

6 strips Maple Leaf Bacon

1 Large onion, diced

2 cloves Garlic

1” Ginger, grated

1 tsp Mustard seeds

1 tsp Tumeric

1 tsp Cumin

1 tsp Corriander

1 tsp Cayenne Pepper

½ tsp Cardamom

1 large can Pumpkin (Pure, unsweetened, unseasoned)

1 can Coconut milk

900mL Chicken Stock (1 tetrapack)

2 Bay Leaves

1 cup Water

¼ cup Chopped Cilantro

Directions:

1. Slice up your bacon into ¼” strips. This will allow us to extract the most wonderful rendered fat in the least amount of time.

2. Toss your bacon into a large soup pot, and fry. Once almost crispy and a lot of fat has rendered, toss in your diced onion, minced garlic and grated ginger. Continue to fry until everything is fragrant and the onions have gone soft and translucent.

3. Add in your spices from the mustard seeds to the cardamom and stir those around in with the aromatics and bacon to wake them up. After about 15-25 seconds, toss in your pumpkin, coconut milk, chicken stock and bay leaves. Let this simmer for roughly 30 min. Check for seasoning. It will definitely need salt, and maybe a little more of one or two of those spices we added earlier.

4. After simmering, remove the bay leaves, and then blend the soup either with a stick blender, or in batches in a regular blender until its nice and smooth.

5. Serve in your favourite bowl with some chopped cilantro leaves. A great bowl of soup for a chilly fall day.

Bacon lovers all around the world have each developed different ways to demonstrate and celebrate their love of bacon. Some are chefs, preparing wonderful meals for their friends and families to celebrate their bacon love. Some are much better at eating than cooking, and make it their duty to seek out the best bacon dishes at restaurants in their cities. Some bacon fans, however, prefer to show their love by indulging in their competitive side.

Bacon lovers around the world have set several incredible world records when to comes to making dishes featuring bacon, eating bacon, and other bacon related activities. Here are some of the most stunning bacon world records still standing

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Here at the Republic of Bacon, we respect our ingredients. We let them do what they do best. If they taste great all on their own, then we’ll let them taste great all on their own. If they taste great with a lot of seasonings, we’ll do that, too. Everything tastes good with bacon, so we always add it. It’s a pretty simple mandate. So today, I’m going to let an ingredient speak for itself. I’m not even going to add the bacon, just the fat to get some gorgeous caramelization. The sweet potato. And we’re going to make Sweet Potato Chips.

Oh, and eat the bacon after you render the fat. It’s delicious, too, if you didn’t know….

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