Bacon Jam

Bacon Jam combines smoked bacon, onions, brown sugar, honey, butter, and coffee plus spices and other seasonings to create a luscious spread. You’re going to love it!

Bacon Lovers Rejoice!

If you love bacon as much as we do – you’re going to love this Bacon Jam! It’s sweet, savory, rich, and smokey with loads of bacon and other flavors in a chunky, luscious spread.

Our Bacon Jam recipe starts with smoked bacon, cooked down with onions, brown sugar, and honey. It gets additional deep, rich flavor from a variety of spices and seasonings, plus strongly-brewed coffee is added to mix, as well as apple cider and balsamic vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, and a splash of bourbon.

It all gets cooked down into a thick jammy spread, like a chutney or our tomato jam.

• It’s outrageously good with intensely deep flavor in every spoonful.
• You can enjoy bacon in jam in so many ways – spooned on burgers or grilled steak, spread on crackers or toasted bread, and you can even mix it into meatloaf.
• You can keep a jar on hand in the refrigerator, or freeze some – so you always have bacon jam when the craving strikes.

• Bacon – We love using a cherry wood smoked bacon, but any good quality smoked bacon will work in this recipe.
• Onions – We used a mix of sweet onions, red onion, and shallots – but you can use any combination of sweet, mild onions in your jam. The flavor may vary a bit depending on the mix of onions used.
• Fresh Garlic – Don’t use the jarred garlic.
• Butter – We always cook with unsalted butter so we can season with salt separately.
• Sugar – You’ll include brown sugar plus honey or granulated sugar. Note that honey will add a flavor to the jam, while the granulated sugar adds a more general sweetness. You can also use agave nectar if you don’t want to introduce a honey flavor.
• Coffee – You’ll need a half cup of strongly-brewed coffee. You could add brewed espresso if you’d like.
• Ciders – We added both apple cider and balsamic vinegar.
• Worcestershire Sauce
• Bourbon – Or any other kind of whiskey. You can leave this out of you are opposed to cooking with alcohol, but note that any actual alcohol evaporates off while the jam cooks so you are really adding this for a hint of flavor.
• Hot Sauce – A dash of favorite hot sauce helps cut through some of the richness of the jam. (Don’t worry, you aren’t adding enough to make this a spicy jam – although you could if you’d like!).
• Other Spices and Seasonings – Kosher salt, black pepper, dry mustard, and freshly ground nutmeg.

1. Chop and cook bacon to crisp. Remove from the cooked bacon from the pot, then discard all but a quarter-cup of bacon fat.
2. Saute onions, shallots, and garlic in the remaining bacon fat for three minutes.
3. Add cooked bacon back into pot along with all other ingredients on the list.
4. Simmer for 30-35 minutes until reduced to a syrupy consistency.
5. Pulse in a blender or with immersion blender – just enough to break up any large pieces and blend to a chunky jam-like consistency.
6. Serve warm over cooked burgers or grilled meats, slices of grilled polenta, or slathered on toast or an English muffin. You could also add it to this meatloaf recipe, or to this muffin recipe.

• Can I make Bacon Jam ahead of time?  Yes, we think the flavor of this jam improves as it sits.
• How do I store leftovers?   Store refrigerated in a tightly covered container for up to two weeks.
• How do I reheat leftovers? Serve this jam at room temperature or slightly warmed through in a saucepan.
• Can I freeze?  Yes. Freeze portions in zipper seal freezer bags (squeeze out as much air as possible), then thaw when you want to eat some of the jam.
• Is it possible to can this jam? Not sure. Safe canning practices require you to know the acidity level of the food to determine if it’s high enough to be safe to can. Unfortunately, we don’t have a way to measure the acidity level ourselves, so would suggest that you freeze the jam instead.

This Bacon Jam recipe originally appeared on A Family Feast in July 2014. We made some changes to the post and updated the photos, but the delicious recipe remains the same with some very minor tweaks.

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