Pairings | Bacon

Which wine pairs best with salad?

Which wine pairs best with salad?

Asking which wine to pair with salad is a bit like asking about what wine to match with meat or fish. There's no single answer. It depends on the vegetables you use, what other ingredients it contains and what type of dressing you use.

Who’s pairing what? From bacon and beer to Earl Grey and lemon cake . . .

Who’s pairing what? From bacon and beer to Earl Grey and lemon cake . . .

A new series for the Wine Pros section on what’s been happening in the world of food and drink pairing over the past few weeks:

A cocktail pairing dinner at The Seahorse

A cocktail pairing dinner at The Seahorse

One of the main events at the Dartmouth Food Festival this weekend was a dinner at Mitch Tonks Seahorse restaurant cooked by London chef Mark Hix. The unusual factor though was that every dish was matched with a cocktail.

What food to pair with coffee

What food to pair with coffee

For many people coffee is a regular companion to food whether it’s breakfast or that great German institution of kaffee und kuchen (coffee and cake) - only the amount of caffeine they might consume holding them back.

Bacon sausage bread

Bacon sausage bread

If you like a bacon sandwich and/or a sausage sandwich what better idea than combining the two in a bread as Niamh Shields has done in her Bacon: The Cookbook. Stroke of genius!

Bacon Tart

Bacon Tart

A traditional - and delicious - recipe from a book I discovered called Cape Winelands Cuisine compiled by Hetta van Deventer-Terblanche. Basically it's a savoury bread pudding rather than a tart but none the worse for that.

Poppycooks' Bacon-y Garlic-y Potato-y

Poppycooks' Bacon-y Garlic-y Potato-y

Given TikTok megastar Poppy O'Toole (aka @poppycooks) passion for potatoes I really had to pick a potato recipe from her fab new cookbook Poppy Cooks so here is the recipe she calls Bacon-y Garlic-y Potato-y - which really does what it says on the tin.

Glazed bacon ribs and Meursault

Glazed bacon ribs and Meursault

What do you pair with a classic Irish dish of bacon and cabbage? Guinness might the traditional answer but when the bacon is celebrated northern Ireland butcher Peter Hannan’s amazing French trimmed dry cured bacon rack, glazed and cooked on the barbecue and served with an outrageously creamy parsley sauce then something a little more extravagant is called for.

Sticky chicken tulips, prunes, smoked bacon, toasted pecans and star anise

Sticky chicken tulips, prunes, smoked bacon, toasted pecans and star anise

There was so much interest when I posted this pairing from 67 Pall Mall's new book Wine and Food in my Match of the Week slot recently that I had to follow up the the recipe from chef Marcus Verberne.

 Waffles, bacon and champagne

Waffles, bacon and champagne

Champagne for breakfast always seems particularly decadent but it works brilliantly especially with waffles as I discovered at a pop-up in London last week to celebrate Veuve Clicquot’s 250th anniversary.

Boiled bacon and cabbage with Irish stout

Boiled bacon and cabbage with Irish stout

With St Patrick’s Day falling on a Monday this year - and in Easter week into the bargain - many are expected to be celebrating this coming Saturday so here’s a reminder of just how great an Irish stout (Guinness or otherwise) is with that classic dish of boiled bacon and cabbage.

Bacon, egg and claret

Bacon, egg and claret

You might think the idea of eating bacon and egg with good claret is sacrilege but bear with me.

Duck liver, bacon and onions with orange wine

Duck liver, bacon and onions with orange wine

There’s still a lot of suspicion about orange wine with many in the wine industry taking the view that it’s faulty rather than, what it actually is, a different style of wine.

5 fun places to have breakfast in London (updated)

5 fun places to have breakfast in London (updated)

Have you noticed the number of restaurants which have started offering breakfast - and I don’t just mean a full English?

Dublin coddle

Dublin coddle

If you're wondering what to prepare to celebrate St Patrick's Day, Coddle could be the answer. Here's the version from J P McMahon's magnificent new The Irish Cookbook.

Après-work tartiflette

Après-work tartiflette

With the first serious snow of the season you may be craving après-ski food but lack the time, energy or ingredients to rustle up a fondue or tartiflette.

Which wines to drink on St Patrick's Day

Which wines to drink on St Patrick's Day

It’s hard to avoid the obvious on St Paddy’s Day. Guinness, Bailey’s and Irish whiskey are the usual suspects but if none of these appeals here are the sort of wines that will work with classic Irish fare.

Lapin au vin and Au Bon Climat Pinot Noir

Lapin au vin and Au Bon Climat Pinot Noir

The other night I went back to one of my favourite restaurants Ransome’s Dock, a friendly neighbourhood restaurant in Battersea that has great food and an even more stellar wine list, put together with detailed and well-written tasting notes by chef/proprietor Martin Lam. (You can download it from the site)

Calf's kidney and Côte Rôtie

Calf's kidney and Côte Rôtie

My match of the week for last week has to come from the sublime WIMPS lunch I had at the Ledbury which members can read about here. It was hard to decide which the best pairing was but I think the calf’s kidney and 1998 Gilles Barge Côte Rôtie just shaved it.

 What wine to drink with a Scottish (or English) breakfast

What wine to drink with a Scottish (or English) breakfast

A question from one of the members of our Facebook group which you may want to join if you enjoy chatting about what you've been eating and drinking.

Sweetcorn, feta and green chilli waffles and pink grapefruit juice

Sweetcorn, feta and green chilli waffles and pink grapefruit juice

Soft drinks don’t often feature in my weekly pairings but this combination of an inventive savoury breakfast waffle and some lovely fresh pink grapefruit juice at The Modern Pantry last week was spot on.

John Dory poached in red wine with Daniel Rion Nuits-St-Georges

John Dory poached in red wine with Daniel Rion Nuits-St-Georges

It was hard to pick just one pairing from the stellar meal I had at Marcus Wareing in London last week but this combination of robustly cooked John Dory and 2005 Nuits-St-Georges from Domaine Daniel Rion was the most interesting, underlining that red wine can be just as good a partner for white fish as for meatier fish like tuna.

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