January 15, 2009

• The Art of Bacon

        

  BLT: The State Sandwich

  

  BLT. They are the most recognizable initials in America, better known than CEO, POW or even the ABC‘s. These days, people think more about sandwiches than reading or writing and in Iowa the BLT defines the high art of layering foods on bread.

  Just as geography and climate merged to serve the ultimate clam chowder in New England, and the best chili verde to New Mexico, Iowa is uniquely placed to create the best BLT’s in the world. By late July, the happy coincidence of hot weather, rich glacial soils, small town lockers and free-ranged hog farming turns the state into Canterbury for sandwich pilgrims. For here between the valleys of the Missouri and the Mississippi, the best smoked pork bellies meet the best heirloom tomatoes and lettuces on earth, while artisan bakers make breads worthy of killing pigs.

  Though it has been proposed, the BLT will probably never be proclaimed Iowa’s official food. Half of the state doesn’t like to identify with rural traditions like pigs and things that grow in dirt. For the other half though, the BLT possesses all criteria of gourmet extravagance. Simultaneously salty and sweet, soft and crunchy, its hot bacon meets its cold mayo and lettuce. Serious gourmets add the bite of arugula. A full rainbow of colors dance between slices of bread. What other dish provides so much diversity?

  To appreciate this gorgeous gift of summer, we visited two Iowa artists who celebrate the tomato in both their gardens and their canvasses. Bill Luchsinger and Karen Strohbeen are the state’s digital couple, having worked in that medium for decades, long before David Hockney made it cool, and digital cameras made it popular.

  

  “Karen at the Flow” by Bill Luchsinger

  As producer and star of the syndicated TV series “The Perennial Gardener with Karen Strohbeen,” the couple is used to getting their hands dirty creating things from seed.

  “I love tomatoes, not just because I am an artist and they are amazing to look at either. I save their seeds. I have to save seeds, to plant them in winter, then transplant them in Spring and weed them in Summer. It’s an entire year’s cycle of anticipation, and it’s one that never disappoints me,” explained Strohbeen.

  

  “Tomatoes are like lobster and sweet corn. There is such a narrow window of opportunity to enjoy them, so we eat them every day when we can,” added Luchsinger, going on to explain that they won’t eat typical supermarket tomatoes, which are picked before they ripen, usually in Mexico, waxed and shipped north to be exposed to gasses that assimilate ripening.

  Normally Bill and Karen grow their own heirloom tomatoes, but last summer they were so busy working on a large art commission in Holland that deer ate their plants in rural Macksburg. So we met them for a BLT workshop at Arthouse, the Des Moines gallery which represents them and doubles as a restaurant so supportive of fresh and local foods that it hosts a farmers’ market.

  Pie aficionados, Bill and Karen once spent months exploring Iowa lockers for the best rendered pork lard to make crusts. For our BLTs, we visited several of those same places, plus a few others that produce bacon from hogs that are free ranged and treated humanely. That means: the pigs have access to pastures and to hoop houses with dirt floors and deep straw bedding; They are given no hormones, nor antibiotics and are not force-fed. Unlike confinement pork, no free range pig’ tail is ever eaten by neurotic pigs crammed behind it.

  

   “Karen” by Bill Luchsinger

  Still, Luchsinger and Strohbeen stressed they prefer free range bacon for culinary, as well as humane, reasons.

  “It tastes infinitely better,” Luchsinger summarized.

  To complement heirloom tomatoes, we baked: traditional bacon from Ireton’s Perry Creek, plus a leaner one that farm makes from pork shoulders; both cured and uncured bacons from Niman Ranch of Thornton; a double smoked bacon from Polehna’s in Cedar Rapids; an Audubon Family Farms’ free range bacon; a Sheeder Farm’s free range bacon from Guthrie Center; and bacon from Lewright’s in Eagle Grove. In addition, we brought two unique bacons, also from Niman Ranch – a pancetta, or Italian style bacon, and guancialli, which is made from pork jowls.

  Bill and Karen brought foccacia, ciabatta and baguettes from George Formaro’s brick ovens at South Union Bakery, plus a loaf of Steve Logsden’s ciabatta from Basil Prosperi and a rye bread from Joe Logsden’s La Mie, all in Des Moines.

  “If we can’t find La Mie, or Basil’s or George’s bread, we have to bake our own,” explained Luchsinger. “And we only use Paul’s Grain flours and wheat berries when we bake,” added Strohbeen, referring to an organic farm and mill in Laurel.

  Karen began explaining her BLT philosophy.

  “Both my grandparents were food people. Grandfather on my mother’s side was also a homeopathic doctor and he grew incredible numbers of tomatoes, with confidence they did good things. So I am a tomato optimist. I once tried to draw a slice of tomato. It was so unbelievably complex. So BLT’s are utterly individualistic – not only does everyone make their own, but each one is totally different. They only seem the same, because we have similar memories of eating them. I make mine totally differently every time. Bill’s are more the same,” she said.

  “I only believe in minor adjustments,” Bill explained while building a sandwich with a little unsalted butter, some rye, a big thick slice of rainbow tomato and a little arugula.

  “Because its fairly mild and this sandwich is about the bacon,” he crumpled guancialli on top of the tomato, “Call it a meat lovers’ salt,” he explained.

  Karen had a different approach.

  “I am going to deconstruct my BLT, because that’s how I want to perceive it today,” she explained, selecting slices from five different tomatoes of various colors, laid circularly on her plate. She added some Perry Creek, some of Sheeder‘s, some Lewright’s, plus pancetta and uncured Niman bacon. She sprinkled a little sea salt and buttered a slice of ciabatta.

  

  “Heirloom Tomatoes” by Karen Strohbeen

  “I like the Aunt Ruby’s Green, the Bonanza and the Green Zebra for their color texture and taste. The third one lives up to the promise of the first two,” she explained of the green tomatoes.

  “This is a great hot weather food. For one thing, bacon doesn’t get cold in hot weather and it’s not good cold. Plus, tomatoes are a low fat food that fit’s the season,” she said, adding a confession.

  “Because I grew up on Miracle Whip, I might eat BLT’s differently in the privacy of my house than I do in public.”

  The Perry Creek bacon struck Strohbeen in that part of the brain where Proust set his table. She explained with family history.

  “On my father’s side, my grandparents always had bacon from Brandenburg’s (Locker in Conrad) and BLT’s were a great summer event for me as child. They would even send us Franzenberg bacon after we moved away from Iowa. Perry Creek is the closest thing I have found and Bill and I searched all over for it, too. Frazenberg’s is gone, but this helps me remember it, ” she explained.

  Niman Ranch’s Paul Willis offered an anecdote that might explain the resemblance.

  “Each year, we set up a stand at the Farm Aid concert and serve free ranged pork. Invariably, someone asks us what marinade we used. I have to tell them they just learned what pure pork tastes like and that it doesn’t need a marinade to cover up its flavor.”

  Bringing Home the…

  B

  Ron Muth of Ireton raises free range hogs to animal welfare standards for his Perry Creek bacons that are smoked at Babcock Locker in Alton. Also available at the One Stop Meat Shop in Sioux City.

  Niman Ranch bacons, from free ranged and humanely raised hogs, are mostly raised in Iowa and cured and/or smoked in Webster City. Their uncured bacon contains no nitrites or nitrates and thus turns color faster than other bacons. Many chefs prefer their slab bacon because it insures a deliberate curing process. Niman guancialli is made from unsmoked pig jowls, thus the saltiest and fattiest bacon we tried. All Niman products are sold at the Downtown Des Moines Farmers’ market, or directly from larryclev@aol.com. Their pancetta is sold also at both Graziano’s and Taste of Italy in the Des Moines area.

  In the same Eagle Grove family since 1937, Lewright’s won so many blue ribbons that they quit entering contests decades ago. Owners Barbara and Paul Bubeck even hand pick the hickory logs used in their smoke house. Available at Dahl’s, Randall’s, Lewright’s Deli in Eagle Grove and by mail order: 317 West Broadway Street, Eagle Grove, Iowa, (515) 448-3300.

  Polehna’s Meat Market, in Cedar Rapids’ Czech Village for 74 years, uses hickory and cherry woods to double smoke bacon from the Preston Locker. We are praying they recover the floods of 2008. Check them out on line: www.polehnas.com.

  Vic and Cindy Madsen free range Berkshire hogs according to animal welfare guidelines. They plant no GMO seed corn and they only feed their hogs the corn they grow. The use both the Irwin Locker and Henningsen’s in Atlantic for their bacons, both marketed as Audubon County Farms. Also sold at the downtown Des Moines Farmers’ Market. Special orders and winter schedule: 712-563-3044, vcmadsen@metc.net

  Sheeder Farms bacon is smoked at Irwin Locker for Mike Sheeder of Guthrie Center. Sheeder’s cross of Large White and Landrace hogs are free ranged and fed no hormones nor antibiotics. Sold at the Downtown Des Moines Farmers’ Market.

  L

  Lettuce used to mean iceberg in Iowa. Now that flavorless hunk is just the tip of the possibilities. Variety lettuces like those of Cleverley Farms of Mingo and Sunstead Farm in Waukee are sold at farmers’ markets all over Iowa. Red romaine, red oak, lolla rosa and radicchio are all gorgeous with green tomatoes. Greens ranged from the mild, such as butter lettuce and mache, which tolerates high temperatures, to slightly tangy like mizuna or tat soi, to the sharp taste of arugulas like roquettes and sylvetta.

  T

  Seed Savers Exchange in Decorah collects, grows and shares the seeds of heirloom plants. So Iowa farmers’ markets are a lycopersicon universe of colors and tastes in late summer. We used Aunt Ruby’s German Green, Jaune Flammee, Peach, Evergreen, White Queen, Hawaiian Rainbow and Dixie Gold from Sunstead; plus Green Zebra, Red Zebra, Ponderosa, Strawberry, Big Rainbow, Cherokee Purple and Purple Calabash from Cleverley.

  Bill Luchsinger and Karen Strohbeen’s art can be found at www.moberggallery.com

   Note – The Second Annual Blue Ribbon Bacon Festival  will be held January 14, 2009 in Des Moines.  At least 13 different bacon purveyors will be on-site at the event sampling their bacon including Vande Rose Farms, Iowa Farm Family, Hormel, Tiefenthaler Quality Meats, Applegate Farms, Coastal Vineyards from California and Django.

  Mr. Baconpants returns from Pittsburg  to document the event for his website  www.mrbaconpants.com. Other websites who have featured the Blue Ribbon Bacon Festival include www.baconunwrapped.com and www.baconfreak.com.  

  Site & time : High Life Lounge and el Bait Shop – 200 SW 2^nd – Downtown Des Moines from 10am – 4pm.

  Cost : $32.50 and space is limited to 280 bacon fans. Entry fee includes a commemorative t-shirt, bacon bracelet, a menu of 7 bacon items, one free drink, unlimited samples at the Bacon Showcase, and a seat in the “Baconology part II” lecture.

  Website – www.blueribbonbaconfestival.com

   

  Schedule of Events [Bacon Showcase open throughtout event]

  10:00 a.m. Registration – Bacon Bloody Marys are served

  11:00 a.m. Bacon Invocation

  11:15 a.m. 1st Bacon Lecture “Baconolgy part II”

  12:30 pm. 2nd Bacon Lecture

  1:00 p.m. Frozen Hosen on the patio [Free Beer on the patio while it lasts!]

  2:00 p.m. 3rd Bacon Lecture

  3:30 Bacon Eating Contest

  Menu (will be served in a flighted fashion throughout the day)

  Bacon & Egg breakfast sandwich

  Bacon Lettuce & Tomato sandwich

  Bacon Cheeseburger Slider

  Bacon wrapped Hot Dog

  Brooks Bacon Popper Pizza from Fong’s Pizza

  Candied Bacon Ice Cream

  2 additional items, which will be revealed the day of the event

   

  • 3:16 pm
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