How to make Sticky Burnt Onion & Bacon Jam

Salty, sweet, smokey, bacon-y… this burnt onion & bacon jam may just be the condiment of your dreams.

I’m telling you right now, strongly consider doubling this recipe. Hell, even tripling it! Because not only will you manage to eat a whole jar to yourself, but your friends are going to want some, too. In fact, they may demand this jam accompany you anytime you see them. Yes, bacon jam is that good.

The perfect combination of smokey, sweet, mildly spicy, and packed with meaty, umami goodness, the uses for this jam are nearly limitless. Obviously, eating it straight on a spoon goes without saying. You can use it as a condiment on steak, served with toast & eggs, heck I’d even try topping ice cream with this and see how it tastes.

Theoretically, the step of charring the onion over charcoal is optional, but you will lose some depth of flavor if you don’t char. Also, it pretty much pre-cooks the onions and speeds up the whole process. The other key step is to keep cooking the bacon until it’s totally crisp. Stick with it, it’ll happen, because no one wants weird gummy bits of meat in their jam.

Recipe after the pics.

Burnt Onion & Bacon Jam

Ingredients

• 3 medium or 2 large onions
• 1.5 lb (or 700g) streaky smoked bacon
• 1 tsp chipotle powder
• ½ tsp paprika
• ½ tsp garlic salt
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• ¼c honey
• ¼c balsamic vinegar
• ½c brown sugar
• Optional: dash of bourbon

Instructions

1. Char the onions, skin on, over hot coals, turning every minute for about 5 minutes all up.
2. Allow onions to cool, remove skin. Slice or chop into pieces same size as bacon.
3. Chop bacon into small pieces and cook in heavy based saucepan or skillet until fat has completely rendered and all pieces are crisp.
4. Remove from pan, leave a little remaining fat.
5. Add onions, chipotle, paprika, salt and garlic salt to the pan, cook for 5 minutes on medium heat.
6. Add in vinegar, honey, sugar and optional bourbon. Increase heat to high and boil for 3-5 minutes.
7. Add in cooked bacon, reduce heat and let mixture simmer for 10-15 minutes until desired thickness is reached. The mixture will thicken slightly on cooling but careful not to take it off the heat before it's done, otherwise you'll have more of a chunky sauce than a jam.
8. Spoon into clean jars for storage, you can heat in microwave before use.