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The Cheesy Bacon Brisket "Cabin Pie" Steals Our Palpitating Heart At Brooklyn Bacon Takedown
By
Garth Johnston
Published Oct 15, 2012
Modified Oct 15, 2012
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By
Garth Johnston
Published Oct 15, 2012
Modified Oct 15, 2012
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Some silly Manhattanites may not like the succulent, overpowering smell of rendered pig flesh (or the noises required to cover it up) but none of those people were around the Bell House in Brooklyn yesterday for the annual, awesome, Bacon Takedown. They say that bacon is the candy of the meats—and judging by the bacon sweets available yesterday that is so true. Bacon doughnuts, bacon jam, bacon baklava, bacon glazed basement bites, nutella bacon brownies were just a few of the options on hand... and we haven't even gotten to the savory dishes yet!
All in all 20 locals came out to show off their best bacon dishes to a hungry hoard. And really, there were no losers. Well, except for this writer's stomach—which barely knew what hit it after we'd powered our way through all twenty dishes (as well as a few strips of Hormel's Fully Cooked Bacon, the implications of which we'd rather not ponder). The judges' favorite dish was the "Tato Skin Your Face" chedder and potato corquette with chili, rosemary bacon and chive sour cream while the People's Choice award went to the Nutella Bacon Brownie topped with marshmallow fluff and cornflake crust. Personally, though, our favorite was the people's second choice, the "Cabin Pie" which featured bacon and brisket topped with cheesy bacon mashed potatoes and bacon Parmesan crisp.
Curiously, however, our biggest takeaway was that while bacon dishes both savory and sweet are swell...we'd probably have picked a perfectly cooked strip of nice, thick bacon as our favorite had somebody served it. Maybe next year?
Curious about what was offered? Here's the full lineup of talented chefs and their dishes:
- Patricia Clark: Bacon Doughnuts
- Michelle Lamorte: Bacon Jam
- Gordon Lingley: Bacon Belgium Waffle Bomb
- Bryan Gittleman and John Hailey: Baklava
- Becky and Devin Clark: Miss Becky’s Cabin Pie (bacon and brisket topped with cheesy bacon mashed potatoes and bacon parmesan crisp)
- Jimi Daly and Ann Marie Carier: Bacon Crack Rocks (candy peanut butter, spiced chocolate and bacon)
- Cesar Alfano: Mofongo Balls (mashed plantains with bacon and salsa)
- Adrian Ashby and Jon Moneymaker: Nutella Bacon Brownie (with marshmallow fluff and cornflake crust)
- Daisy Bow and Sharon Kendrick: Maple-Candied Bacon and Ancho-Chili Spiced Pecans in a Bourbon -Maple Nougat.
- Sabrina Mossburg and Dana Suozzi: Bloody Bacon Bites
- Ricardo Simmons and Erica Foley: Bacon Dippers (spicy maple bacon with peach and plum dipping sauce and mint garnish)
- Catherine Wernquest and Renee DuBois: Bacon Glazed Basement Bites (oven baked pretzels with vanilla maple bacon glaze)
- Greg Erskine: Bacon Hush Puppies
- Stephanie Wortell and Sydney Rais-Sherman: Quiche L’ Frizzle
- Basil Lee and Kevin Stafford: Tato Skin Your Face (cheddar and potato croquette with chili, rosemary bacon confit and chive sour cream)
- Omar Tumgekar: Blazin’ Asian Bacon Biscuit
- Piers Morton and Bradford Faulkner: Bac-ahh-mi
- Andrew Gottlieb: Bacon Napoleon (sweet corn pudding, brined and braised pork belly, tomato gastrique)
- John O’Rordan (Bacon Queso)
Tagged
bacon
bacon takedown
bell house
candy of the meats
original
Garth Johnston
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