Bacon Caviar..

Intro: Bacon Caviar..

caviar is for fancy people..we all know this. so what could be better than bacon caviar??

STEP 1: Assemble Your Ingredients..

you will need:
1/2 pound bacon
1 can chicken stock
bacon salt
agar agar (a seaweed derivative)
oil (i used grapeseed)
blender
cheese cloth
culinary syringe
spoon
small pot for boiling
measuring cups (or your eyeballs)
an assortment of bowls
gnomes (optional)

STEP 2: Chill the Oil.

pour out a generous amount of oil and place it in the freezer..you might want to wait a while to start the next step because this all works better if the oil is well chilled.

STEP 3: Cook the Bacons.

preheat your pan and cook the bacon. be careful not to burn it!!

STEP 4: Blend It Up!!

measure 3/4 of a cup of chicken broth into the blender. add the bacon, 1 teaspoon of bacon salt and blend. make sure to scrape down the sides to get all the good stuff!!

STEP 5: Cheese Cloth.

prepare two pieces of cheese cloth. make sure they will fit over your bowls.

STEP 6: Bacon Slurry.

pour your meat shake through the cheese cloth and squish out as much liquid as you can. you can add the bacon meat to ground beef for tasty burgers!!

STEP 7: AGAR.AGAR

pour the bacon juice into a small saucepan..add 1 tablespoon agar agar, a splash more chicken broth and more bacon salt to suit your taste. bring this mixture to a boil, stir, reduce heat and simmer for five minutes or until agar agar is dissolved.

STEP 8: Getting Ready to Make the Caviar.

pour the mixture into a bowl. you have to work quickly because it sets fast. take the chilled oil from the freezer and pour it into a shallow bowl. fill another bowl with cool water and set up your caviar station with everything close at hand. FILL THE SYRINGE!!

STEP 9: Droppin' Balls.

once your syringe is full, slowly drip tiny balls of the mixture into the bowl of cold oil. they should sink to the bottom. keep on going until you are satisfied with the amount of delectable bacon caviars you have created.

STEP 10: Harvesting Your Balls.

drain off the excess oil and save it if you want to. mine had some floaters but that's ok. dump your little bacon caviars into the cool water bath to rinse off the rest of the oil. feel free to give it a nice swirl with your spoon the separate any that might be stuck together. pour the water and bacon caviar through the second piece of cheese cloth to drain the liquid.

STEP 11: The Finished Product.

voila!! you are classy. serve the bacon caviars on anything you like. they look like regular fish roe so have fun tricking your friends!!

Comments

[Astrolux]

Is that vaseline glass plate?

[cradgr]

You mean Uranium glass?

[Scroopydoo]

Incredible! How long would these last in the fridge? Could they be made a day or a couple of days in advance for a dinner party perhaps? Thank you in advance :)

[TimmyMiller]

also, what are some good things to top off with this? any suggestions

[TimmyMiller]

how do you eat this? i am thinking about trying it although i don't,as i asked, don't know how to eat it? just over explaining it a bit. :P

[bellinghammakerspace]

I want some... You sell this yet?

[kaptaink_cg]

Awesome Idea.. I'll have to try this sometime. Congratulations on your win!!

[eulaliaaaa!]

Just a quick question: What is agar agar? I like to cook things like this so I would like to know.

[ndweeds]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agar

[ehudwill]

Congratulations on winning the grand prize. Great project.

[koala.yummy]

THANK YOU!! i am super excited to have won..woo hoo!!

[bajablue]

Looks yummy... Gotta love that "Pop"! Good Luck to you!!!

[Patrik]

Cool! Hadn't seen the agar-in-chilled-oil approach before. How greasy do they feel after rinsing off the oil?

Any particular reason why you didn't use the more ""traditional"" (I felt a single set of quotation marks didn't quite cut it there) combination of sodium alginate and calcium chloride? Because of the high fat content perhaps?

[koala.yummy]

agar agar is not really soluble in cold water once it has set so you can rinse them as many times as you like.

[koala.yummy]

high fat content and i am wary of most food additives used in molecular gastronomy. salts and modified food starches, etc. also they are not greasy after you rinse off the oil.

[scoochmaroo]

Wow. Bacon caviar. That looks intense. Very impressive stuff - how did you learn about this process?

[koala.yummy]

on the interwebs..just researched different techniques and made up my own recipe.

[meikj]

They look real but what is the consensus on the taste? What exactly would you compare it too. Is it sweet? salty?? mushy???hard?? I am impressed!

[koala.yummy]

they taste like bacon..beads that dissolve in your mouth when you squish them. soft texture, not gummy. lightly salty like regular bacon or you can add more bacon salt to get that caviar "pop".

[canida]

Wow, this rocks! Bacon + modern techniques = brilliant. ;)