Level Up The Flavor Of Your Bacon With One Simple Step

If there's one ingredient that most people can agree truly stands on its own, it's bacon. The delicious slices of pork belly (or other sources such as turkey, salmon, or even banana peels), made crispy or chewy as you prefer, are bursting with salty, savory, umami goodness that makes everything better. So how do you improve on an improver?

You season it. And not just with salt, which, despite the inherent saltiness of bacon, is still a great seasoning to add. No, you can add almost anything to your bacon to give it whole new world of flavors and make it that much easier to slip into a new recipe.

Before you balk at the idea, consider the massive variety of bacon you can get from your local supermarket. Smoked kinds of bacon such as hickory or applewood, no-sugar-added bacon, and cured vs. uncured bacon. If all these bacon suppliers can do unique things to add flavors, why can't you?

The simplest way to add seasonings to your bacon is to sprinkle them on right before you cook it. Just a pinch of salt and pepper is enough to elevate its natural flavors, but don't fear being creative. You could sprinkle some dried herbs, such as rosemary or basil, on it before adding it to a sandwich, for example, or you could add some heat with a sprinkle of cayenne powder.

You can also toss just-cooked, thick-cut, chewy bacon in a bowl or bag of seasonings to completely coat it, serving it as an appetizer. Lemon pepper seasoning is excellent here, for example, as is hot honey. If you want fully-coated, thin-cut, crispy bacon, marinate it overnight before cooking instead of tossing it after.

Seasoned bacon can also be an amazing dessert. Brown-sugar or maple-coated candied bacon is a longtime sweet treat, for example, or you could get fancy. Put down a layer of bacon on an oven pan and top it with a thin layer of fruit crumble. However you decide to enjoy your next rasher, just make sure it's seasoned.