A Thanksgiving tale: Why Central Pa. should make peace with glazed bacon and The New York Times
It was an unexpected gift: The New York Times, in its state-by-state breakdown of Thanksgiving recipes that “evoke each of the 50 states,” chose a Pennsylvania Dutch recipe that promised to be edible: Glazed bacon.
Glazed bacon. Just say it. Think about it. Think about tasting it. (Watch it …you’re drooling.)
Finally, I thought. A Pennsylvania Dutch recipe that doesn’t sound like something out of an original Grimm’s fairy tale.
(“Mommy, Mommy, Mr. Scrapple showed up in the middle of the night and took all our toys!” “Dearie, you can’t complain out loud, or he’ll bring the curse of boova shenkel* down on you, and we can’t have you without legs, can we?”)
This glazed bacon, I thought, was not only something I’d eat, but something I’d cook.
And then my fantasy was shattered.
Central Pennsylvanians — the Pennsylvania Dutch, the very people who had, according to the Times, come up with this dish to swoon over — spit it out.
They went after the Times as though sliming it with slippery pot pie. Bacon — much less glazed bacon — has nothing to do with a Pennsylvania Dutch Thanksgiving, many wrote. And they weren’t happy with the insinuation.
Tell us what our Thanksgiving tradition is? Here, come closer, culinary researcher, and let me show you the inside of the hog maw and OH WHOOPS HOW DID YOU GET IN THERE!? Never mind I’m sewing it up fast and it’s going to get a little warm now…
Their outrage sizzled on Facebook:
Liz Troup: Wtf? Uh noo
Keri Leaman: I am sorry…Pennsylvania native…who the hell eats Thanksgiving bacon in this state?
Cathy Lindenberger Culley: I thought this was a bad representation of PA….born and raised here…never ONCE had that!
Connie Keiser: Who comes up with this stuff?
But of course, I thought. Now it makes sense. A specialty that sounded good enough to completely displace turkey at the Thanksgiving table could not be rooted in Pennsylvania Dutch kitchens.
But that just made me more determined to cook glazed bacon.
And I did, this morning.
And my wife said, “Wow! It’s like candied bacon!” (I defy you to find a single negative word to say about the idea of candied bacon.)
And our 20-year-old daughter co-signed the description of “salty sweet with an extra crunch.”
And our 13-year-old son made grunting noises of approval.
I have had five pieces. Each one was like a beautiful Thanksgiving morning dream.
As a native Marylander, I’m not qualified to overcome centuries of tradition and create a grassroots movement for The New York Times’ brilliant decision to give glazed bacon to the Pennsylvania Dutch — to give them a way out of the pig-stomach-and-pork-scrap nightmares of their past and into a world of … well … glazed bacon.
But perhaps there is hope. Again, from Facebook:
Kasie Marie Altland: Never heard or saw that for thanksgiving but i wouldnt turn it down. I love bacon
Mike Griffie: Never have but if ya got a recipe I’ll damn sure start!!!
You got that right.
In fact, I have some cooling now. Smell it? (Careful…you’re drooling.)
