New recipe for Mattie

[sherrill]

Candied Bacon

8 smoked bacon slices (we slice these very thin from a slab with a slicer)
4 tbsp light brown sugar
1 pinch cayenne pepper

Preheat oven to 325°F
Drag bacon through brown sugar till lightly coated arrange on silpat* on sheet pan
Sprinkle remaining brown sugar and cayenne evenly over slices
Place another silpat on top and place in oven
Bake for 15 min, raise oven temp to 375°F and bake for 5 min, check and see if crisp.
Check every min until ready. Be careful because it can burn easily.

Starting low keeps the bacon flat during cooking; otherwise it would ripple.

A silpat is a silicone baking sheet. If you don't have any on hand, you can use parchment paper.

[Rocket Jones]

Along those lines, here's a recipe for a homemade rice topping from Just Bento (http://justbento.com/handbook/johbisai/homemade-furikake-no-5-sweet-bacon). Good stuff for sprinkling over plain rice, if you like that (I do).

Sweet-salty bacon furikake
You’ll want to try to select a fairly low fat bacon. A dry-cured one is best. You can also use a cured ham like proscuitto.

About 150g / 5.25 oz lean bacon
1 Tbs. mirin
1 Tbs. raw cane sugar (or regular sugar)
1/2 Tbs. soy sauce
Chop up the bacon quite finely.
In a large frying pan, sauté the bacon over a low-medium heat until it’s rendered a lot of its fat and is fairly crispy, but not burned.
Drain the bacon on paper towels. Wipe out the pan to get rid of any bacon fat.
Add the other ingredients over a medium heat. Stir until the sugar is melted. Return the bacon and stir around until the liquid is gone.
Let cool completely. Optionally whirl it in a food processor until very finely chopped.
This will keep in the refrigerator for a week or two (if it lasts that long).