Duck Bacon Jam with Coffee & Thyme

Apparently, I am going for decadent as possible in this week’s posts – between the Melted Ice Cream French Toast on Monday and the Duck Bacon Jam today, it would appear that I am trying to take a few years off of all our lives.  On the flip side, carpe diem.

There are lots of Bacon Jam recipes floating around out there.  Like this lovely lady Bacon & Tomato Jam by Dinner with Julie or this bad boy Bourbon Bacon Jam by Cravings of a Lunatic.  I’d invite both of them to my party any day.

Duck bacon jam getting ‘jammy’

Speaking of parties, I went to a party at a small specialty shop, Liberty Heights Fresh a couple of weeks ago and met a new crush – duck bacon.  Yes, you read that right. But in case you didn’t: DUCK BACON!!!  It’s rich, leaner than regular bacon and highly flavored.

I confess, I have been stalking Bacon Jam recipes recently. With both of these new ideas floating around in my mind, I decided this might be a good time to try and hook up my new duck bacon crush on a blind date with the concept of bacon jam.  It ended up being a double date – Coffee and Thyme came along for moral support.  Sure enough, they all got along swimmingly.

Without further storytelling about how the duck bacon-bacon jam marriage came about, I’ll turn you over to the recipe itself.

Duck bacon, onion, brewed coffee, sugar, balsamic vinegar & thyme

Duck Bacon Jam with Coffee & Thyme

Ingredients:

• 1 lb Uncured Duck Bacon (without added nitrates or nitrites, naturally)
• 1 small Sweet Onion, chopped fine
• 2/3 cup Brewed Coffee
• 2/3 cup Cane Sugar
• 1/4 cup Balsamic Vinegar
• 1/2 cup Water
• 1 tablespoon Fresh Thyme

Method:

NOTE: There will be a lot of turn-the-heat-offs, turn-the-heat-ups.  I rarely make a recipe with this level of back and forth, but in this case do pay attention to them.  They will make your life easier and your jam better.

Duck bacon frying up in my trusty Lodge cast iron pan

Heat a non-stick pan over medium low.  I used my Lodge Cast Iron pan with deep sides – it will keep you from getting a bacon grease burn now and will keep the jam in it’s place later.  Add the duck bacon a few strips at a time and cook them in batches until they are crispy.  As they finish cooking, remove them to clean bowl and set aside.  Be careful – they spit.

Cut the duck bacon up into little bits and then refry so they are extra crispy

Turn off the heat so the bacon drippings don’t burn and use a pair of kitchen shears to cut the duck bacon up into small bits. Return the bacon bitties back to the pan, turn up the heat to medium low again and cook until the bacon is extra, extra crispy.  Be extra, extra careful not to burn them in the process.  Remove the bacon bits from the pan, and again at the risk of a bad burn to either you or the drippings, turn off the heat..

I use my ‘spider’ to take the little bits out of the pan

Now, DO NOT drain the pan.  Giving the bacon drippings a moment to cool down, add the onions to the pan, turn the heat up to medium low again and cook them until they are soft.  Deglaze the pan with the coffee, using a wooden spoon-make sure to scrape up all the duck bacon goodness from the bottom of the pan.

Adding the coffee to deglaze the pan – be sure to get all those delicious browned bits.

Bring the coffee to a simmer and add the sugar, balsamic vinegar and water, followed by the bacon bits, along with a good stir.  Turn the heat up to high and bring to a swift boil.  Reduce the heat to medium low and simmer for 35-45 minutes until everything is thick and jammy, stirring regularly so that it doesn’t stick.  Add the fresh thyme and cook for an additional 5 minutes.

Add fresh thyme right at the very end so that the flavor doesn’t get lost

Finally, we play the waiting game.  Turn off the heat and let the whole thing sit for 30 minutes in the pan to cool.  When you check back in it will be lovely, sweet and slick.

When it is cool, and IF you can stop from devouring it by the spoonful, it can be stored in the fridge for up to 3 weeks.  You’ll eat is all long before then, but you could in theory. It will be sticky and may have some of the drippings solidified at the top after a stint in the fridge.  Just let it sit at room temperature for 30 minutes, give it a stir and you are good to go.

Duck Bacon Jam – A one up on plain bacon jam

Take that, regular old bacon jam!

How do you use duck bacon jam?  Let me count the ways:

1. Delicious on a drop biscuit with a fried, runny egg
2. Crazy good warm with that drop biscuit, some peaches and whipped cream for a twist on a peachy shortcake
3. Nice folded into an omelet with a salty hard cheese
4. Speaking of hard cheese… use that same cheese and top a crostini with both the jam and the cheese and broil. Near instant impressive appetizer.
5. Skip the crostini, cut yourself a slice of bread, slather with jam and add cheese and arugula – open-faced sandwich. Done.
6. Heaven mixed into ice cream.  You’ve heard of bacon ice cream. Well, time to elevate it.
7. Just eat spoonfuls of it.  No judgement here. I *may* have done this while making it.

How do you take your duck bacon?  I’d love to hear!

Lydia, setting food up on blind dates since 1992