Bacon

Oven Baked Bacon

by Mark Fitzgerald

"It was the policy of the Church, from the time the pioneers arrived in 1847, until the railroad was built in 1868, to send, each year, a train of freighters from Utah to the Missouri river to bring Church immigrants. I was loaded with flour which was left at the "Supply Forts." This flour was used by the immigrants on our return trip. It took four or five months to make the trip. 

When we arrived at Florence, on the bank of the Missouri river, the immigrants were there. Our train of fifty wagons was loaded with 500 immigrants, flour, bacon, and provisions for our company. My wagon was loaded with bacon, which was used when we reached Laramie, Wyoming. Here I was loaded with buffalo robes, which after a few days, were distributed among our company for their use."

While different than bacon the 1850's pioneer migration consumed barrel loads of salt pork.  Bacon is cut thin, cured or smoked.  Salt pork was usually left in a slab and far saltier.  Leaner cuts of the belly were used for bacon.  One of the reasons the pioneers used salt pork is that you could pack it in a barrel and keep it refrigerated for a year.  Though the pioneers used more salt pork bacon was also common.

While you could get salt pork for a pioneer trek recreation, I think it would be easier and more familiar to deal with bacon.  With an oven bacon can be pretty easy to cook for a crowd.  By cooking it in the oven you have the added benefit that it does not curl up.  It also gives you the bacon fat to use for other recipes.

We plan on serving bacon cold with biscuits as a lunch, which was a common "nooning" meal.  To do this we make sure to get as much fat off of the bacon before chilling it.  Though not common on the trail, I think we will need to provide tomatoes and lettuce to have a true BBLT (Bacon, Biscuits, Lettuce and Tomato).

Ingredients

• 12 ounces bacon

Directions

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Spread out 12 slices of bacon flat on a cookie sheet. Cook for 15 to 18 minutes.  For easier clean up place on parchment paper.

Information

Makes 12 1 ounce servings (about 1.5 slices per serving)
45 calories per serving

Make sure to see how this recipe fits into the entire menu we have cooked up for LDS Pioneer Handcart Trek recreations.