Sunday nibbled sleeve x: What's become of the bacon?

We, too, are acquainted with students

of metallurgy who feel the art reached

its apogee in relevance, by isolating

the culinary properties of cast iron,

copper, aluminum, and the molecular an-

omaly, steel, stainless and not. Lit-

erature in their distinctions has been

molded heatedly in the dies of each

of these elements, with a tendentious-

ness which, in calmer times, would em-

barrass any reader. Today, such texts

seem no more than drawn from familiar

kilns of irreconcilable conceit, jaded

by forgetfulness of the subject itself.

Why've they lost the bacon, we ask ap-

ologetically, not to suggest ingestion.

          In a large cast-iron cocotte, render the fat from

          the bacon over medium-low heat until the edges of

          the bacon are crispy. Remove the bacon to a large

          bowl, leaving the rendered fat in the pan. Increase

          the heat to medium high. Add the beef to the fat in

          the pan and brown it on all sides. Remove the beef

          from the pan to the bowl with the bacon. [Now, pay

          close attention for a lapse in content]. Add the on-

          ion, carrots, celery, and mushrooms to the pan. Re-

          duce the heat to medium and cook for 5 to 7 minutes,

          until softened. Add the garlic and cook for another

          30 seconds, or until aromatic. Remove vegetables

          from the pan to the bowl with the beef.

In the past week, we were treated to

four broadcast hours of discussion os-

tensibly of the ends of political ves-

sels, with only the most fleeting nod

to their content. We were treated, in-

stead, just to the fond appreciation

of their properties, as if a boeuf

bourguignon were proprietarily an ex-

pression of their own anatomy. And yet,

what did they do with the bacon in the

shell game we were witnessing, and who

will ever get their answer? Once, there

was a bowl with the beef and the bacon.

Then there was not. Accidental lapse, 

or just more self-absorbed legerdemain?

Now the putative winners are reinforced

in their incompatibilities, and the in-

contestable losers are doubling down in

self-exculpations. Who can be gratified,

when no one is performing as proclaimed,

and all are distanced from compatibility?

Amanda Frederickson

  Editor

The Staub Cookbook

  Modern Recipes for

  Classic Cast Iron

Zwilling J.A. Henckels, LLC

2018©