Holiday Appetizers / Pig Candy

Pig Candy is a great sweet and spicy treat to have around the house for the holidays. It is fairly easy to make and is a great snack and goes well with my other appetizers of Jerky and Smoked Cheese.



This cook is my no-carb low calorie version and I used the following ingredients.

4 pounds of the thick cut Country Bacon from Sam's Club

Sugar Twin Granulated Brown Replacement Sugar (Calorie free-no carbs)

Ground Cayenne pepper

Crushed Hot Red pepper flakes (in black pepper container)

I start by adding some Sugar Twin to a bowl and then adding enough ground cayenne pepper to make it as hot as I want it. I like it SCREEMING HOT and use way more than most folks can handle. For you folks that don't like it very hot, just add some cayenne and taste it and then get it as hot as YOU want. Some of the mix will cook and wash off of the bacon so do make it a little hotter at the start.



I would normally smoke this in one of my Backwoods cookers like you see in the picture but I cheated this time and did it in the kitchen oven so it won't have any smoke flavor but I was pressed for time and just didn't get the smoker out and fire it up for this treat. The Shame of it.....much better in a smoker.



I don't like this treat cooked in it's own grease so I use raised cooling grids in the pans to keep the bacon up and out of the grease.



After I apply the hot spices & sugar to the top side of the bacon, I placed it in a 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes.



I pulled it out, and then turned the bacon over, and added the spices again, and placed it back into the oven for about 25-30 more minutes or until it is done to suit me.



This is the final product just out of the oven and cooling on the top of the stove.



I then cut each strip of bacon in half and this picture shows the results of my 4 pound cook.



I bagged up the Pig Candy and have it ready for the holidays.

Good Stuff!!

Holiday Pig Candy

There are many methods of doing this fine treat on a cooker or smoker and mine may be a little different than most as I don't care for the bacon to be cooked in its own grease. I cook the bacon on racks as you will see in the pictures.



This treat is very simple to make as it only needs the bacon, brown sugar, and your favorite heat. I usually use one or two types of crushed red pepper and a couple of ground red peppers. You want the real thick country bacon and about two pounds of brown sugar per each three pounds of meat. I usually get the bacon from Sam's Club. There are 12 pounds in the picture.



I got Mommie to help and this is the way I set up the prep area. It is more work that a person might think to get 2 pounds of the sugar pressed into the three pounds of meat.



It took about 45 minutes for the two of us to get the first 6 pounds of Pig Candy ready for the smoker. As you can see in the picture, I use a cooling rack in my pans to raise the bacon up out of the grease. You do need to empty the grease out after two cooks.



This is a couple of trays ready to go to the cooker. I don't add the heat until halfway thru the cook or most of it would wash off.



I used some hickory chunks for the smoke wood.



This shows the meat on the cooker which is running at 350 degrees with a dry pan. I also am using quite a bit of smoke wood as the bacon is only on the cooker for about 50 minutes. Wood doesn't last very long at 350 so you need to watch it and add if needed.



At about 25 minutes, I pull the tray off the cooker for the hot stuff. This round was for my hot so I sprinkled on both the ground and crushed red pepper. I use just the crushed red pepper for what I call my mild bacon. I also reversed the two trays in the cooker at this point to be sure to get both trays cooked even. I then cooked it about 25 more minutes. It comes of the racks and I place it on a pan to cool and the cut each piece in half.



I did about 8 pounds of the mild and 4 pounds of the hot.



I vacumed packed it into about 10 bags for my gift baskets.



How about that for a gift basket? A bag of my smoked jerky, a bag of my Pig Candy, and a couple of sticks of my smoked cheese along with a bottle of Jack.