Zingerman's Guide to Better Bacon

It’s hard not to love bacon, and now my favorite Ann Arbor, Mich.-based specialty food retailer, Ari Weinzweig, has written the definitive guide to it. In his latest book, Zingerman’s Guide to Better Bacon: Stories of Pork Bellies, Hush Puppies, Rock 'n' Roll Music and Bacon Fat Mayonnaise ($29.99; zingermanspress.com or zingermans.com), he guides us through bacon’s history, from medieval England, where it was used to promote matrimonial harmony (I’ll be sure to try that) to 19th-century drovers who were crucial to the hog trade. Ari illustrates how bacon moved from a delicious farm staple to a huge-selling flavorless commodity, and how it’s going back to its roots today. “Bacon is so integral to the culinary history of this country,” he notes. “The roots are so deep in our cooking, I think of it as the olive oil of North America.”  

Dive into the book to meet bacon makers from Wisconsin to Kentucky to Connecticut, educate yourself on what makes each bacon different from the next, and try any of the 42 recipes, like Oyster + Bacon Hangtown Fry or bacon fat mayonnaise.

Ari and his business partner Paul Saginaw have made a huge impact on the food industry since they started Zingerman's Delicatessen in 1982. Most recently, Ari was recognized as one of the “Who’s Who of Food & Beverage in America” by the 2006 James Beard Foundation, while both partners were presented in 2007 with the Lifetime Achievement Award from Bon Appetit magazine for their work in the food industry. Today, Zingerman’s Delicatessen is an Ann Arbor institution with more than 500,000 visitors every year. In recent years, the team added on with a bakehouse, creamery, mail-order business, catering, training division, the Roadhouse restaurant and a coffee company.—Denise Shoukas

Denise Shoukas is a regular foodspring.com contributor and is the author of foodspring’s food forager blog.