Bacon Apple Butter

One of the big things that separates a good meal from a great meal is a sauce!  If you like to eat out at nice restaurants like we do, that is something that they all have in common, a fantastic sauce pairing that goes along with the main course.  

It can provide a balance of flavors, it can tie a dish together, and it can provide a needed level of moisture/fat with a leaner cut of meat.  After years of watching cooking shows and a little experimentation myself I've learned some basics in sauce making and how to combine flavors.  If you are novice learning some basic skills in this world will certainly help.  

Here is a link to an article talking about the 5 French Mother Sauces.  Might sound a little fancy but most sauces that exist in the world are a spinoff of these base sauces.  From this you can play with flavors that pair with your main dish.  Another thing I would recommend is a book that I pull out on occasion, The Flavor Bible.  

This book is fantastic in that it allows you to look up a food, say pork, then it gives you a list of other foods, veggies, and spices that pair well with it.  So combine that with the basics of how to make a sauce and you are pretty much set!  

The cool thing about The Flavor Bible is that it highlights the ingredients that work best.  For this Bacon Apple Butter, I knew we were making pork so take a look at pairings above...

• Apples; in ALL CAPS means it is great
• Bacon; highligthed
• ​Butter; also highlighted
• Cinnamon; also highlighted
• Lemon; ALL CAPS
• Onions; can't see it here but ALL CAPS

You could call me a good cook/chef but I'm just a rule follower!  Pick things that pair well together and it is a lot harder to screw up flavors.  

Ingredients

• 4 strips thick cut bacon, chopped
• 1/2 yellow onion, diced
• 1 apple, skinned and diced
• 1 cup applesauce
• 2 tbsp butter
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• Juice of 1 lemon
• ​1/4 cup water
  
• Salt and pepper

Directions

1. Add the bacon to a medium saucepan, and render out the fat.  
2. Remove bacon bits and most of the bacon grease, leaving behind about 1 tbsp.  
3. Add onion and apple and cook for 6-8 minutes until onion is softened.  Add the remaining ingredients, including 1/2 the bacon bits, cover and simmer on low for 15 minutes or up to 45 minutes.  
4. Use the remaining bacon bits as a garnish on top of your finished dish.