Fakin' It

Last night, the Forkquarters hosted a BLT Jubilee. In preparation for my upcoming column (May 30), The Spoonstress, two friends and I tested a bunch of variations on the classic BLT sandwich.

Following the same format as the Mix-in Mixer, we all tried some of the same creation and discussed its merits. Fortunately, there was no melting ice cream to deal with this time.

I won't spoil the details, but I can say that kalamata olives were popular. Also, the added ingredients were chosen partly for their acronym potential.

While we mostly used regular bacon, we also tried Morningstar Farms Bacon Strips out of curiosity. The vegetarian bacon substitute isn't bad, but don't worry, I'm no convert. If I made bacon more than once every Presidential election, I might consider fakin' bacon more often.

Curiously, the bacon substitute replicates the white bits of fat, which I find to be an odd choice. As someone who likes lean bacon, I'd be OK with something less realistic (i.e. the Lightlife brand).

On the plus side, the fake version doesn't shrink nearly as much as real bacon (see photo). And the fake bacon has its health benefits, which we mitigated by cooking it in real bacon grease. In hindsight, preparing vegetarian bacon in what can only be described as a vegetarian-hostile manner was an odd choice, but it certainly aided the flavor.