Episode 018 Bacon Jam Burgers

Intro: Welcome to Let’s Make Dinner, your audio library of amazing dinner recipes you can get on the table any night of the week. I’m your host, Susie Weinrich. 

Susie Weinrich: All right, y’all. We are out here keeping it real today, and I’m going to share with you the best recipe for Bacon Jam. You heard it right, Bacon Jam. It’s a pound of bacon made into this delicious, jammy, syrupy condiment that you can put on top of burgers, on top of cream cheese, or eat it with a spoon, but that might be weird. Okay. I’m going to start off by reading you this comment from the actual recipe on my site, momsdinner.net. Jill says, made this and it was so like five ohs, good. I called a burger place I knew that made Bacon Jam and they wanted $8 for four ounces. My daughter didn’t think it would be as good, but it was delicious. One of the best recipes out there, I feel. Okay. First of all, yes, one of the best recipes out there. Second of all, this is some high-dollar stuff, people. If they were selling it, for $8 for four ounces, that means that Bacon jam is worth $32 per pound. $32. That’s like prime tenderloin or prime rib prices. So this is a recipe you want to have in your arsenal. This is a recipe that you want to make at home and not buy at a restaurant. It’s actually made with super simple ingredients, most of which you probably already have. So we’re talking a pound of bacon, yellow onions, garlic, brown sugar, and raisins. Stick with me on the raisins, Worcestershire sauce, balsamic vinegar, and water, and then if you like a little kick of heat, you can add some cayenne pepper. 

Tips and Tricks: Let’s talk about the raisins for just a second. This is a very salty and tangy dish. To balance out the saltiness and the real richness of the grease and the bacon, the raisins and the sugar are the perfect balance. Your bacon jam is not going to taste like raisins. It’s not going to be like you’re eating oatmeal raisin cookies. They just add a nice little texture and a nice little sweetness throughout your bacon jam. So if you think you can stand it, definitely don’t skip the raisins.

One more thing. When we’re talking about serving the Bacon Jam, we’re going to be talking about serving it on top of burgers. If you don’t have a good burger recipe or you need a little help in the burger department, pop back to episode number one where I go over the perfect grilled hamburger. It is full of tips and tricks to make a killer grilled burger.

Bacon Jam Burgers Recipe: Onto the Bacon Jam recipe. You are going to start with one pound of bacon and you need to cut it up into one-inch pieces. So of course, you could use a sharp knife and a cutting board, or if you have a pair of sharp kitchen scissors, go ahead and use that just to clip the bacon into one-inch pieces. Now, pop it into a large skillet over medium, medium-high heat, and you’re just going to cook it until it’s nice and crispy.

Once that’s all done, take a slotted spoon and transfer all of the bacon to a paper towel-lined plate. The bacon grease that is left in the pan, you want to make sure and reserve that because we’re going to need it for the next step. So pour all of that grease into a heat-safe container. Note: a mason jar is not heat-safe enough. I have made this mistake and I poured hot bacon grease into a mason jar and it literally cracked in half. So a better option would be like a metal bowl or something like that. 

Now you’re going to need two cups of yellow onions, and I find that this is about either one large onion or two small onions. What I like to do is thinly slice it and then give it a nice, rough chop so you don’t have any long strands of onion left. Pop that into your empty skillet with three tablespoons of bacon grease. Let that saute for about 15 to 20 minutes until the onions are nice and soft and translucent. However, while those onions are sauteing, you want to go ahead and rough chop the cooled bacon so that there aren’t any really large chunks of bacon left.

Now back to the onions. Once they’re nice and soft and translucent, you’ll add two minced garlic cloves in there and give it a stir. Then you can add all of the bacon to the pan as well as a third of a cup of brown sugar. Stir everything so that the brown sugar coats all of the bacon and the onions, and let it cook for about two minutes. Then you’re going to add two tablespoons of raisins, one tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce, three tablespoons of balsamic vinegar, and about a third a cup of water to that bacon mixture. Then you’re going to let it simmer over medium-low heat for about five to eight minutes. While that simmers, it will start to get kind of thickened and syrupy, and that’s when you know it’s ready.

You can give your bacon jam a little taste, see if you want a little more sugar, see if you want a dash of salt, and see if you like it a little spicy. You can add some cayenne pepper and then let it cool and you can serve it right away on top of your burgers. Or you can put it in an airtight container in the fridge for about five to seven days, and when you’re ready to use it, you can just reheat it on the stovetop right in a skillet.

For serving this bacon jam on top of the very best burgers you have ever had, I’m going to give you the building blocks. Are you ready? Start with a brioche bun that’s lightly toasted on the grill. Top the bottom bun with a little green leaf lettuce or romaine lettuce. A slice of tomato that has been seasoned with salt, pepper, onion powder, and garlic powder. Then add your burger, pile on the bacon jam, and then sprinkle on something that’s called Boursin cheese. It’s amazing. Now if you’ve had Boursin cheese and it’s not your favorite, it’s just really creamy and buttery and garlicky. If you don’t like that, you could also use blue cheese. Pop that top bun on and you are good to go. You are going to crave these all summer long. 

As far as side dishes go, of course, I just recommend your classic barbecue burger side dishes. So fries, sweet potato fries, sweet corn pasta salad. Coleslaw, baked beans, whatever you like to serve when you have a barbecue. 

I will place the link to the full principle recipe for you in the show notes so you can find the recipe for Bacon Jam whenever you’re ready. 

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Outro: Until next time, I hope this episode of Let’s Make Dinner, makes your dinner time a little easier.