(The trusty Lodge 8″ cast-iron skillet with Nueske’s apple-cured bacon this morning).
I saw the recipe by Frances Lam in the Times this morning. I have read the times for years, a family tradition that was passed down from the Socotra family’s days living near the Short Hills in Jersey a century ago. I continue to read it in order to better understand what delusion our intellectual betters expect us to believe on any given day. It is hard to keep track, particularly in this amazing electoral cycle with so many spectacular delusions on display.
I was on the way to something else, but the recipe was evocative, and it tripped something I have been meaning to do for some time, going back even before the mid-Pacific trip that produced a jet-lag so profound that it has taken the better part of a week to emerge from the fog.
Naturally, I wanted to share something with you about Nueske’s bacon, and combining their astonishing applewood-smoked taste with the Slovakian pierogie was too good to pass up.
This all came about due to a discussion about bacon at Jim and Mary’s dining table in suburban Las Vegas. Mary and I are Detroiters, born and bred, and Jim lived there for a time when he caught her fancy as she tinkled the ivories in a local piano bar not far from storied Eight Mile in the Motor City.
I don’t know how we got onto the topic of bacon- it might have been about the kind of politics practiced in the Silver State- but as far as Mary is concerned, there is only one kind of bacon worth mentioning.
The brand started in Wisconsin with the arrival of the Nueske clan from the Polish Steppes in the late 1800s. By the time of the Great Depression, times were tough, and founder R.C. Nueske couldn’t find smoked meats as good as those his family made.
“So,” Mary said, with emphasis, “he decided to market his smoked bacon, ham, poultry and sausage to friends, neighbors and general stores around northern Wisconsin, and eventually he got all over the Mid-West and down to Detroit.”
Nueske apparently was confident that his smoked meats would sell despite the crushing Depression. I nodded as Mary noted that “People needed cheering up, with something new and exciting to try. The result was a hit, and Nueske’s has been producing premium-quality smoked bacon, ham and sausages for eight decades.” She looked kind of inspired by the time she finished, and my mouth watered.
Mary’s endorsement was so glowing that I immediately- and I mean, like immediately- sent away for their sampler package. It is a daunting amount of bacon to go through, but I am taking my time. Frozen, a package will last at least a year, though I don’t expect to test the limits.
We went on to other things, the first of them being an afternoon stop at the Sierra Gold Lounge on N. Buffalo Ave, I eventually arrived back in the Imperial City about the same time as the bacon did, and I have been reveling in the variety and taste of real applewood-smoked rashers ever since.
(Mary dropped us off so we didn’t have to drive, and we took the two seats on the lower left. Sierra Gold is a great place for afternoon tippling. The waitress was wearing- oh, hell, it is Vegas. You know what she was wearing).
So, having obligated myself to escort some of shipmate Fred’s Australian student group to the Udvar-Hazy Large Airplane Annex to the National Air and Space Museum this morning, I am going to leave it at that.
The article in the Times is worth a look- it is pretty lyrical in it soaring description of the Slovak-Polish staple pastry, and it inspired me to buy a copy of “perfect Pierogie Recipes” by Rose Wysocki and a cleaver little aluminum press to cut the fifteen kinds of dough that Rose assures me she will help me master.
But really, any recipe that starts out with a half-pound of bacon, Yukon Gold potatoes and goat cheese, with the very real possibility of sour cream and chive dressing, ought to get your attention, right?
I will let you know. I wound up hitting the Nueske’s site, and the sausage sampler should arrive about the same time as the recipe book. I intend to make a batch from scratch, and will let you know how it goes.
Copyright 2016 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com