Today there is a reason to celebrate. Today we are making bacon powder. Yes, you read that right: Bacon. Powder.
Why, you might wonder, would anyone want to waste bacon by making a powder out of it? Why not just eat bacon? I see your point. I mean, isn’t bacon just about everyone’s favorite food?
After all, it’s awesome by itself, excellent with eggs, top-notch on a burger. Heck, it’s even tasty on a salad. Bacon, while fabulous by itself, maybe even better in a supporting role, however, when it lends its smokiness, saltiness, meatiness, and of course, its fat, to other dishes.
Due to the fact that bacon powder is made with bacon fat, it can, in a long-term survival situation, be substituted for other fats in almost every imaginable recipe.
The fact that it’s high in calories may even be a bonus.
Whatever you’re making, it will be better with a bit of bacon. Or bacon powder. That’s just a fact.
Related: How To Smoke Bacon The Old-Fashioned Way
What You Will Need
Converting bacon to bacon powder is easier than one might guess. And once in a powder form, bacon can be further preserved for long time use, making it an ideal addition to your long-term or prepper’s pantry.
For this particular demonstration, I am using two harder-to-find ingredients. If you want to make your own bacon powder, just make sure you have them in hand first:
- tapioca maltodextrin (A thick, starchy white powder, maltodextrin is used to improve flavor and extend shelf life and thicken food products.)
- dextrose (A form of sugar made primarily from corn, dextrose is also used to extend the shelf life.)
Both have been around practically forever, and considering they are considered food additives, they are safe for general consumption. A simple internet search should yield multiple ordering options.
If you end up having tapioca maltodextrin or dextrose leftover (and I expect you will), you can follow the same basic instructions to turn any liquid fat into a powder.
You will also need measuring cups and spoons, a sieve, a food processor, and a jar or plastic bag large enough to hold the finished powder. You may also want to use a vacuum sealer to preserve the final product.
Ingredients: bacon fat, maltodextrin, dextrose, salt
Ingredients
- 4 fluid ounces of bacon fat, cooled but liquid
- 3 cups of tapioca maltodextrin
- 1 teaspoon of salt
- 1 tablespoon of dextrose (optional, but recommended for preserving flavor)
Directions
- Put all of the salt and dextrose and half of the maltodextrin in the bowl of a food processor.
2. Pulse while slowly pouring in the bacon fat.
3. The mixture will form a paste.
4. Once all the bacon fat has been added, add the remaining maltodextrin and pulse until a powder forms.
5. If you want your powder to be fluffier, put it through a sieve.
6. Put in a jar or a zip-top plastic bag and store in the refrigerator. Your bacon powder should be good for several weeks when stored this way.
7. It’s important to note because of the fat in bacon, it will never be able to be fully dehydrated and will always run the risk of turning rancid.
To preserve your bacon powder for up to two years (or even longer), I’d recommend vacuum sealing and freezing. (Since I don’t currently own a vacuum sealer, I’m storing my bacon powder in my freezer. It would last, frozen, for at least several months.)
Benefits
Benefits of vacuum sealing, beyond the increased shelf life the process provides, include:
- Less space is required for storage.
- Mold and bacteria are locked out.
- Protects from freezer burn.
- The flavor is better preserved than with other processes.
Related: 6 Easy Ways To Remove Mold Naturally
Unfortunately, for bacon powder to last for any significant amount of time, electricity, in the form of refrigeration (or freezing) is required. But with a food item as versatile and useful as bacon powder, it’s worth it.
Bacon powder can be used to flavor literally anything—from meat to vegetables to baked goods—earning it a starring role in my prepper pantry.
What do you think? Is it worth your while to give making bacon powder a shot? And what about long-term storage? Do you have any other ideas for how to accomplish shelf stability, especially without electricity?
You may also like:
How To Make Gun Powder The Old Fashioned Way in Less Than 30 Minutes
100+ Long Lasting Foods that Can be Stored Without Refrigeration (Video)
MMM’ Bacon
Well what do I say about bacon. I like mine a little rubbery, not cook till its like a paint stick. That’s my wife.
I don’t know if I will try this but if any one dose please let us know how it taste. I keep my bacon fat just the same as my grate grandma did, in a mason jar. I have some that is over 5 yrs old. Once a yr I heat it up and then put it back in my jar so I can have it for later. I don’t use it very often because it is a precious item to have.
Now I know why grannies food tasted so gooooooooooood…
Some times I will season my old skillet with some just to keep the flavor in it.
I like to salt cure my bacon it last a lot lot longer and no frig, then if I want to make some dry bacon powder I can.
Going to get some more bacon curing soon.
Keep on prepping, the door will be closing soon, so get what you need soon.
Hey, don’t “squeal” like a pig under a gate if you don’t get what you will need to survive…. lol
Ok, so it sounds like this is not bacon powder, it is bacon *fat* powder …
I always use bacon powder/ dust as seasoning… make anything taste better!
An interesting topic.
I can understand adding bacon to stuff to enhance the taste. I am having a little trouble latching on to why go to the trouble of making bacon powder when one can just chop up bacon into small bits and add it to whatever you want bacon flavored.
I always cook the whole package of bacon at one time. I am basically lazy and hate washing extra dishes. I don’t eat the whole package of bacon at one time. I know there are baconphiles out there who would think nothing about devouring a pound and a half of thick sliced bacon in a New York minute, however, moderation in all things.
I freeze the cooked bacon. I have not chosen to vacuum seal the bacon because I am like red ant’s wife, I like my bacon crispy. Hey, reasonable minds can differ. I just put it in tupperware and stick it in the freezer. When I want bacon I take it out and nuke it in an 1100 watt microwave for 30 seconds and it is nice and hot. I have a feeling that if I vacuum sealed the bacon, it would get crumbled in the vacuum sealing process but that is just a hunch, not based on empirical testing.
I know that bacon cooked and frozen and kept frozen will remain edible for at least two months in the freezer due to empirical testing, finding a tupperware container in the freezer full of bacon that I had wondered when we ate it to the eureka moment “Aha! I knew it was in there somewhere”.
I wonder if one just sunk the cooked bacon in the jar full of bacon fat would it keep. Sort of bacon confit a la duck confit. That was the way the French preserved cooked duck meat in the days before refrigeration. Preserved the duck meat in its own fat in an earthen jar.
There is an article about how to preserve meat in fat in Claude’s archives somewhere.
Actually, making bacon powder sounds a lot like making pemmican. You have the bacon fat, you have the meaty portion of the bacon. Instead of berries you use dextrose which is a sugar. In pemmican the berries supplied the sugar. This eliminates berries in lieu of dextrose.
Kristin: Have you tried eating the bacon powder without mixing it into something else? If so was it edible?
Bacon powder might even be a substitute for pemmican. Dare we say it, better tasting pemmican?
A tough question is which do you like better, a hot juicy fresh steak or six strips of sizzling crisp bacon? Decisions, decisions decisions. Can I have them both at the same time?
Readers’ choice: Am I ready to try out for the Comedy Club Circuit?
Anyway, thanks, Kristin, for an interesting article and the work that went into developing the material for the article. It raises some interesting questions. Like other semi-preserved meat based foods, making it in the fall just before freezing and keeping it in some storage facility where it might stay frozen all winter to be thawed and eaten as needed during the cold season to stave off starvation which in subsistence civilization was of utmost importance, bacon thus preserved prior to the cold season and stored in areas that tended to stay frozen all winter might just work well in an ETOW situation. If, after the end of the world, dextrose wasn’t readily available, dried berries or other dried fruit could be substituted for the sugar portion of the formula.
I would think that vacuum sealed and kept in a freezer the shelf life of bacon powder would be as long as it remained frozen. You have salt and sugar, both preservatives together with the fat which is also a preservative sealed in an oxygen free package and frozen. It might deteriorate in taste somewhat after decades in the freezer but I don’t think the food value would be lost. Protein, carbs and fat, a balanced meal. Perhaps a little light on certain vitamins but for the short run would sustain one. It takes a while for vitamin deficiencies to develop. Perhaps in pemmican the berries provided Vitamin C. I haven’t investigated how much Vitamin C is present in dried berries.
For me, this was a very thought stimulating article.
left coast chuck
Man dud you can wright some stuff and I would love to talk to you in the flesh.
Keep up all that you do and for me, you rock bro…
Trust me, I don’t say that just to any one…
Remember store bought bacon has preservatives and home made bacon has real bacon with no preservatives.
Well, I would like to give this post a couple of thumbs up but will limit myself to: thanks for the kind words, R.A. they are appreciated. You made my day for me.
I will bear in mind your warning about the extra nitrates that commercially preserved meats contain these days.
With the baking powder stay for longer periods of time, without refrigeration or freezing if you pressure cooked it in canning jars? I would use small 4 ounce canning jars so that once opened you can store it in the freezer and would use it within the amount of time before it goes rancid. Have you tried pressure canning/cooking it?
Clark – What do you dust? I’m having a hard time with this one and I can’t find a time when all this prep work would come in handy in the kitchen when it is so simple to just use a little bacon fat saved in a jar in the fridge directly in a recipe.
I wonder if freeze drying would help extend its shelf life? I realize freeze drying doesn’t work well with fats but, wouldn’t removal of what moisture there is be a benefit?
I am confused. Is this the white chocolate of bacon? Just like white chocolate doesn’t actually have any chocolate in it, only cocoa butter, this doesn’t have any actual bacon in it, only bacon fat.
The top picture is misleading because that is finely chopped bacon.
The bottom line is that I’ve read this and I still want to know how to make bacon powder.
I really expected this to be putting some cooked bacon through a blender/food processor until it became a powder. Like someone else, this is more Bacon Fat Powder than Bacon Powder. Grinding up cooked bacon (maybe after dehydration?) would seem to make more sense, and might even last longer..especially with a vacuum sealer…..and we already know how great bacon flakes taste in a salad…I can almost taste this in a meat loaf or hamburger recipe! YUM!
I wasn’t confused, I just didn’t read the recipe carefully. You are right, this is not preserved bacon, it is bacon fat mixed with sugar.
I wonder if there is a missing ingredient in the recipe as that is certainly a bowl of chopped bacon in the lead picture.
Kristen, where oh where is the bacon?
I can see adding a cup or two of chopped bacon to the fat/dextrose mixture to make a pemmican type bacon based emergency food. But seeing that the recipe is just bacon fat and dextrose actually sounds kind of yucky.
Note to self: Next time read the d_ _ _ _d recipe before spouting off.
I’m wondering if you could pressure can the bacon pieces or the bacon powder. Usually, there must be some type of liquid for pressure canning purposes, but the bacon might make its own “juice” in the form of bacon fat. Just a questions, but worth some research. What are y’all’s thoughts?
Interesting article.
I buy precooked crumbled bacon. The package is equal to the meat of 5 lb of bacon. I pay $11.?? For it all sealed in plastic that has a ziplock once opened. Bacon here cost close to $4 for the cheapest, poorest quality junk. This stuff will keep sealed for months and is tasty too. I add it to salads, vegetables, potato dishes, soups, and hubs fav, gravy over biscuits. Its good in my cornbread too.
I’m using from one bag and have 2 put back. I do miss the grease jar but we’re enjoying the meat. I’d bet it would make tasty pelican. I do have a 10lb tub of lard in the pantry. Lard disappears from the store as fast as it is set out. Supply seems limited. Coconut oil is cheaper than lard now.
If some of you make this fat powder I’d be interested in what you think of it. Probably tasty.
Clergylady: Where do you buy the pre-cooked crumbled bacon? If I assume that it must be kept refrigerated would I be making a wrong assumption?
The large bags of crumbled bacon can be found at Walmart or Sam’s Club. If left unopened, it will keep for several months unrefrigerated, but once opened, needs to be refrigerated. It is a great convenience, but I wish that it lasted longer in the “unopened” state.
I too am a bit confused by this article. Is it about powdered bacon meat, or just powdered bacon fat? The recipe doesn’t even mention the meat, although the article does…was it presumed to be self evident?
I thought I knew the conclusion before reading the article. Now I want to try “my” way. Cook the bacon, freeze dry it, then food process it into a powder. Side note – I keep our bacon grease in glass jars until full then freeze them in those same jars. No expansion. No breaking. Cheers!
LLC:
You can get shelf stable precooked bacon in most supermarkets. I’ve never bought it, because it’s so much more expensive than regular bacon, but I think it’s in the bacon/lunch meat aisle. I think it has to be refrigerated after opening.
I’ve also seen cans of bacon crumbles available from various prepper food companies.
Thanks, BB. I wonder if the WalMart near me carries it. I will have to check.
Miss Kitty: Thanks for your info too. I am definitely going to investigate it.
left coast chuck, if you don’t readily find it at Walmart, don’t despair – they have been hit and miss recently. From what I understand, they’re having trouble getting it and keeping it in stock. So ……… when I’m able to find it, I literally purchase all of it that is in stock – which is usually not more than 2 or 3 bags at the most!
Sam’s Club carries a big bag of precooked bacon. I still like to microwave it for a crispy version. It’s not that pricey… 11-14 bucks for a good sized package. I haven’t bought any since I moved away from the nearest Sam’s Club.
I went on line to look for pre-cooked bacon. I found several sites that advertised pre-cooked bacon. The best price I found was on Amazon at $1.11 per pound. Folks, that cheaper than I can buy uncooked bacon at Costco.
You have to buy a bulk pack for $89,00 but it is shelf stable which means I don’t have to have a bacon orgy next weekend. It comes in smaller packs inside the economy pack.
I am going to order some just as soon as I send this post. I will post my findings as soon as it arrives.
While I know I won’t make dried bacon as described in the recipe for this article, my curiosity is now aroused and I know I going to fool around with bacon. This site is so valuable. I would have never explored pre-cooked bacon but for this article and the posts regarding it. The same with salt. I just finished reading the book about salt and really learned a lot I didn’t know about an important daily use item.
I have seen cooked bacon in the supermarket but never paid attention to it as I figured it was much more expensive than uncooked bacon. Of course, I understand that the $1.11 a pound is for the uncooked weight. That is a given. I am not getting a little over 80 pounds of dried bacon. OTOH, I am paying almost $4.00 a pound for uncooked bacon anyway. I may be wasting $89 but not every experiment works and I still may learn something valuable in the process.
I tried a can of Yoder’s cooked bacon. Most of the reviews I read of it raved about how it was just like fresh bacon. I can only say that I must have gotten a bad can because there was mostly bacon fat in the can and the actual bacon, well the taste was indescribable — that is to say I don’t have the adjectives in my vocabulary to do justice to how vile it actually tasted. It wasn’t rotten or rancid or whatever. To me it just was vile. Your mileage may vary but I would urge that you buy just one can before you start investing in cases of the product. It won’t hurt so much to toss $15 or so dollars as it will to toss a couple hundred dollars.
I promise to post my results as soon as I have received the pre-cooked bacon. I also plan to try this recipe but I am going to add bacon to it so that it more resembles pemmican.
I used to be able to buy a really good canned bacon at Kmart, years ago. It was by Celebrity, and was made in Hungary. I don’t think it’s available anymore ?, at least in my area. There was a lot of fat, but it had an excellent flavor. That was back when Kmart was still a great all purpose store, instead of a big box wannabe.
I find the pre-cooked bacon to be handy for making BLTs and other uses when you don’t want to dirty a skillet for a single slice or two of bacon. 10-15 seconds on a paper towel in the microwave will heat it up nicely.
You are right in that since someone is cooking it for you, it does cost more, but it is shelf-stable at least for a few months, and could probably be stored indefinitely in the freezer. Take it out of the boxes and they’ll stack easily in their sealed plastic containers.
I keep both regular bacon and pre-cooked. Sometimes I need to be quick with the meal, and that helps.
To answer many of our questions, I did find a recipe for actual powdered bacon. It goes like this:
Cook smoked, thick-cut bacon until crispy taking care not to burn it. Pull bacon from pan, pat dry with a paper towel and rest until cool & firm.
Roughly cut bacon in small chunks with a knife.
Add bacon to a food processor and pulse cut until bacon is thoroughly pulverized.
Store Bacon Powder frozen in an airtight container.
And if one wants to make bacon pemmican, add the fat and something sweet, berries or dextrose powder and voila, you have bacon pemmican.
Thanks, Dupin for your research and post.
I got the package of bacon. I haven’t opened it yet, being pre-occupied with other tasks. The package looks like an MRE package being similar-looking heavy weight green plastic material. The label says that it has a 10-year shelf but another label says that it is warranted for 36 months. The final date on the package is 10/2029 which means that half of the warranted period has already expired because this package was packed 20/2019. That’s one of the problems with buying on line.
It further states that it is distributed by the PA Dutch Trust Foundation. Whatever that is.
The label says there are 80 strips of bacon inside. Other reviews say that it is not individually wrapped inside the main outer envelope but the layers are separated by paper.
I am going to attempt to get to it this weekend but I have to see how other things develop first. I will report my findings after I open the package.
Still have pressure canned thick cut bacon we did in 2012.
No refrigeration needed. Did some just stuffed in jars. And did some with the roll in paper method.
If you just need some quick Bacon flavor that you can add to anything. Try some J&D’s Bacon Salt. Comes in different flavors too.
All right, here is my report on Amish Center Cut Fully Cooked Bacon.
It says it contains 80 slices of pre-cooked bacon. It does. I counted the strips and there was actually 80.5 strips. I guess they threw in the lone half strip just because.
This is beautiful bacon. I wish my cooked bacon looked like these slices. They are full size and look like bacon from a bacon ad. They are tasty right out of the package although 30 seconds in the microwave should make them nice and hot.
The outside wrapping is very heavy duty “plastic” looking very similar to an MRE bag. It is vacuum sealed. It has a reseal bar but I was going to remove all the bacon so I could count the strips so cut the bag below the reseal bar.
Unfortunately once opened, the bacon must be refrigerated or eaten quickly. It is bulk packed with paper separating the rows of bacon. It would be nice were it somehow individually wrapped in, say, eight individuals packages. But that would necessarily increase the price.
The label said it was warrenteed for 36 months but it also said the expiry date was 10/2029. That means the bacon was already one year and 4 months into its shelf life by the time I got it. That still left me eight years and 8 months of shelf life. It also says to store it below 85 degrees.
The bacon is delicious bacon even room temperature right out of the package. There is not a lot of extraneous grease in the package, nor on the bacon. They must somehow blot the grease from cooking off the bacon. It is greasy to handle but hey, it is bacon. If it isn’t greasy I would be suspicious that it wasn’t real bacon but some kind of vegetable substitute.
I might add that two nights ago I cooked up a pound and a half, 15 strips of Costco’ thick sliced bacon. Not counting prep time or clean-up time It took me 2 hours and 10 minutes to cook 15 strips. Using that time frame, it wold take me 12 hours to cook 80 pieces of bacon. These are not thick sliced bacon so perhaps my cooking time would be reduced. If I cut it in half it would still be 6 hours.
I know I could probably cook the bacon quicker by cooking it on a cookie sheet in the oven. But I usually don’t do that although I may start. It just might be worth the extra clean-up time.
For me, the biggest feature is the shelf life. 8 years and four months and I can still have delicious bacon. In an EOTW situation one does not want to be cooking bacon. It seems to carry for significant distances and is an open invitation to all within the radius of the cooking to come and enjoy.
This is stealth bacon. You can eat it cold and it is still delicious. No fragrant odors advertising to one and all that you have a stash of bacon waiting to be shared.
It would be perfect for a camping trip before the end of the world.
I intend to buy two more packages immediately and insulate them in styrofoam ice chests to get maximum shelf life. In a year or so I will order one more hoping to get a new shelf life date and if so, will order one more each succeeding year or two. Despite the cost, most long shelf life food is priced considerably more than fresh or regular canned food. An item like bacon needs special handling and this item seems to meet that need.
Bacon is like putting away sugar for an EOTW situation. It is a luxury item but very satisfying to eat and in addition it provides protein and fat both substances we will need to be careful that we get enough of our daily needs. It also provides salt which we may or may not need due to the fact that most prepackaged meals are pretty high in sodium.
That’s the end of my report on Amish Center Cut Fully Cooked Bacon, available on Amazon. It may be available from other sources but I happened upon it on Amazon and went for it.
I love fun articles like this. Sure, it’s not a survival skill, but good entertainment if you like to cook.
I actually have the ingredients because I bought the tapioca maltodextrin to make powdered Nutella (something I saw in a WTF cooking video (We Transform Food).