Pig Candy
No Snickers at my place this year for Halloween. Nope. No Smarties, Sweet Tarts, Twix, Baby Ruth’s, or Butterfingers. I’m not handing out any run of the mill candy. I’m handing out pig candy. If your kids are on a kosher diet, my house may not be the place to be on October 31st because the Grillin Fools are taking Halloween candy to the next level.
There is literally nothing to this. Bacon, brown sugar, tin foil and a grill. Place half strips of bacon on a sheet of tin foil and cover them with brown sugar. Use the back of the spoon to distribute the brown sugar evenly:
Place them on the grill indirect. These have been on the grill for about 15 minutes:
You can see how some of the bacon in the middle on the left have black tips? That’s because I took this picture right after I rotated the bacon 180 degrees. The blackened bacon was on the side closest to the fire and the sugar, which has a much higher propensity to blacken than the bacon, got charred a little bit.
Another 15 minutes later and you see a little blackening on the other side:
After I took this shot, I removed the bacon from the grill and served it. That’s the extent of this recipe. I wish I could’ve gotten another shot of them plated but they were gone too fast.
I was serving a dozen or so people all of which I have fed my grilled delights to dozens, and even hundreds of times for some, and someone actually said, “That is the single best thing you have ever served me from the grill.”
A word of warning with these things. This was not the first time I made them. I made them the night before as well. At first I put them indirect and they were looking pretty good:
But then I got impatient as I wanted to eat the pig candy with the turkey breast that was inside resting and ready to carve. Seeing how I normally cook bacon on the stove over direct heat in a skillet I placed the foil right over the fire to accelerate the cooking process. And in just a couple of minutes that beautiful golden brown bacon above became this:
It still wasn’t bad but not as good as the stuff I did the next day, so be careful. The bacon may be able to handle a lot of heat but that brown sugar will blacken in a heartbeat.
That’s pig candy. Short and sweet – literally.
***I just wanted to add, that since making this post I have had turkey candy. That’s right, turkey bacon makes a great treat similar to the pig candy. It’s not quite as good as pig candy, but it’s is really good and minus a boatload of fat.***
If you have any questions about the pig candy, simply leave a comment below or email me.
Also, you can follow the Grillin Fools on Facebook and post your own grillin pictures, or keep up with us on Twitter@GrillinFool (no S)
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Fattie’s (been there), ABT’s (done that) and now Pig Candy!
My vegetarian wife is going to be disgusted when she sees me grillin these bad boys.
Have you ever tried a MOINK ball? A meatball wrapped in bacon. Moo+Oink. I made these for my 22 mo old son and 2 more toddlers on Friday, they loved it. In addition, I smoked a fattie and pork steaks and bourbon baked beans for me and my buddy.
Arthur,
I have heard of them, but I just haven’t tried them yet… I will soon though…
Love this idea. You should serve it in candy wrappers!
A sprinkle of fresh ground pepper onto the brown sugar gives pig candy an added dimension.
Webert,
I will try that next time. Thanks for the tip…
Scott,
Since you like the heat, also try a few strips sprinkled with cayenne or other hot pepper. Or mabe a dash of “Slap Ya Mama.”
Sweet, heat, and meat. What’s not to like, eh?
I know your site is all about grilln, but pig candy is so darned easy to make if cooked in an oven on a rimmed cookie sheet.
Parchment paper on the cookie sheet makes clean up a snap.
Webert,
Doing pig candy in the oven is how I heard about it. I just adapted it for the grill. I think I will try some cayenne or pepper. I was told that ground mustard is really good to and added some but knowing how potent that stuff is I went really light. I went too light. I didn’t taste it at all…
…….Scott
Trick or treat! I’d like some pig candy please. This looks like a real lip smacker.
Ok “fools” for your next project: ‘Bacon Apple Pie’
http://elicooks.wordpress.com/2008/10/09/bacon-really-does-make-everything-better/
Another maker of this pie said that it helps to partially cook the bacon weave, by itself, before placing on the pie.
Webert,
That’s funny. I’m starting to think the bacon mania has gone a little too far. But doing an apple pie on the grill is something I am working on right now. Well, sort of. Not entire pies but small individual servings. Tried it on Saturday. It was good but it could be better. I plan on working on it some more before I debut it on the site…
…….Scott
My husband and I will be by! Do we need a costume? haha
Miranda,
Come on by. No costume needed. I wanted to do a 80′s TV/movie themed costume party but my wife nixed it. We’re having people over and I will likely be making the pig candy, but no costumes required. Optional but not required…
…….Scott
Looks good, if you run cold tap water over the Bacon first, the bacon slices will not curl up… when cooking.
John,
Thanks for that tip. I will try it out tonight when I do four pounds of bacon to give to the adults accompanying the kids on Halloween…
…….Scott
I am smoking some pork steaks Saturday but after that this is my next project.