Bacon Jam

**UPDATE: The bacon jam was at hit at the pot luck!

Bacon jam. I know, I know. Totally unhealthy but it's not something you eat all the time.

I'm faced with having to go to a lunch pot luck at work tomorrow. Trust me, if I could find a way to politely decline, I would. But this time getting out of it would be hard to do. I had to think of something to bring that would be easy. I leave the house at 6:45am so I don't have time to be making something before work. I also didn't want to bring anything that had to be either hot or cold because that's just a total pain in the ass. I looked at pot luck stuff on the internet and most everything was a hot dish. Then I saw this bacon jam recipe. I've never had it and it sounded good and it also sounded kinda gross. However, people who had tried it and left comments raved about it! And.....it can be served at room temperature! When I read that part, I decided I was making it. I did consider a few other things off and on because....well....it's bacon jam. It just doesn't sound all that appetizing. But then I figured I could make it over the weekend and if wasn't any good I'd still have time to get something else.

I made it yesterday. While I was cooking the bacon, I got the idea to take pictures of the process. Mostly because of the photo below. I don't think I will ever have another chance to take a picture of 3 pounds of bacon. Again....I know.


Cook the bacon in the oven. This is the only way to cook this much bacon. If you do it on the stove-top, it would take forever and would be soooo messy.





Now cook 4 gigantic onions that have been thinly sliced until they are mostly translucent.





Add all the liquid (cider vinegar, brown sugar, maple syrup, strong coffee, pepper) and bring to a boil.








Add the bacon.





Here it is reduced by half.




Here it is cooked all the way down and the onions are caramelized. This isn't as dark as I think it's supposed to get, but getting it to this point was probably 2 hours. I wasn't keeping track of the time. I called it done here because I didn't want to risk burning it. After cooking that long, having it burn would have been really sad.





Let if cool off a bit and then zap it in the food processor. I have to admit, when I saw it at this point I was worried. This is not what I call appetizing. If I were serving it to family, that's one thing. But this will be people at work, most of whom I hardly know, so if it looks gross, no one will touch it. And no one wants to have the dish everyone is whispering about and making faces at.





I put it to the true test. Smeared it on some bread and gave it to Greg. He's on the picky side and I know he'll tell me what he thinks. If he made a face or spit it out, I was going to the store for plan B.







He ate the whole piece of bread and gave it 2 thumbs up! I also tried it and it's good. It's kinda sweet but not a lot, oniony, and definitely bacony. I wasn't able to taste the maple syrup or coffee at all. There is a cider vinegar flavor but it's not overwhelming or too strong. A plus is, it smells really good :)

I think it looks better on the bread so I'm going to make some up on the tray that are ready to eat. That way people who are considering it can try it on an impulse. When people start saying it's good, others will go for it. It's bacon so there will be people who will just see the fat and calories on a slice of white bread....but oh well. I'll let you know how it goes! Wish me luck!!