The Golden Age of Bacon

The Dallas Morning News declares that we are living in The Golden Age of Bacon.

Never have so many wondrous varieties of bacon graced our table. Applewood smoked, hickory smoked, maple smoked, corncob smoked, dry cured, salt cured, sugar cured, brown-sugar cured, honey cured, molasses cured, peppered, peamealed, cottage bacon, cinnamon bacon, bourbon-vanilla bacon, wild boar bacon, pancetta. Not to mention all the bacon wannabes made from turkey, beef, duck and the like.

Imagine awakening on a cold winter's morning to the aroma of frying bacon, sweet and smoky and salty..."Anywhere you find that smell, people are predisposed to be happy," says food writer Joanna Pruess, author of Seduced by Bacon: Recipes & Lore About America's Favorite Indulgence (Lyons Press, $24.95)

And according to Slashfood, 2006 has been The Year of Bacon.