Bacon Salt and Baconnaise

A pair of Seattle entrepreneurs have developed two new bacon products which are setting the internet afire: Bacon Salt and Baconnaise. The Seattle Times has a marvelous article profiling creators Justin Esch and Dave Lefkow here.

I have tried bacon salt, and I can attest to its amazing deliciousness. Although it doesn't taste like eating bacon as much as it tastes like licking a slice of bacon: salty and smoky, but not meaty per se. Bacon salt is wonderful on mashed potatoes, eggs, hash browns - anywhere that you would usually apply bacon, but prefer not to for dietary reasons.

Baconnaise recently received mainstream attention when Jon Stewart sampled it on his show in late February. Unfortunately, Jon Stewart did not care for Baconnaise. ("Can I say something to the makers of Baconnaise? I know we've mentioned your product a lot on the show tonight. Don't send us any more of it.") But to be fair, he was trying room temperature Baconnaise (actually, with the studio lights, it was probably pretty warm), and he tried it on a "sausage wrapped in a pancake on a stick" product from Jimmy Dean.

I have no doubt that if Stewart had tried properly chilled Baconnaise on, say, a sandwich, his reaction would be more kind. In fact, other taste tests have sung the praises of Baconnaise for its "incredibly creamy, smoky flavor" (YumSugar). Even The Onion's A.V. Club - a notoriously tough group to please - said that Baconnaise "won about the closest thing to A.V. Club taste-test approval we've seen from something that wasn't entirely made out of sugar."

Miraculously, both bacon salt and Baconnaise are kosher and vegetarian. Baconnaise even comes in Lite, which has fewer calories and grams of fat, for the health-conscious bacon lover.