Bacon was invented long before the age of electricity as a means of preventing meat from spoiling. Now, however, in this modern age of canning, refrigeration and cryogenics, we don't need to make bacon anymore.

And yet we do.

Why?

Because we love it.

WHY YOU NEED TO LEARN THIS

I was a bit confused, truthfully, at first, about what would make a good mid-winter story, and therefore enlisted the advice of my editor as to which one to choose from the many ideas we'd kicked around. Without a moment's hesitation, he said, "I like the bacon idea … because, well, bacon!"

And that pretty much sums up why you need to learn this.

Because, well, bacon.

THE STEPS YOU TAKE

What is it about bacon that so inflames our passions? Of course there's that terrific smoky, porky flavour. Perhaps more importantly, though, it satisfies two of our most basic taste cravings: salt and umami. I won't bore you with the details. Suffice it to say that these two tastes are related to chemical compounds our bodies crave. Bacon fills that salt craving because it's made by curing pork belly in salt. Lots and lots of salt. Because one of the functions of salt is to draw out moisture, and because water has no taste, the umami gets increased as well.

Unfortunately the sad truth is that most of us don't get the most out of our bacon. We just cook it and eat it, never realizing that every package of bacon gives us not one, but three awfully useful and terribly delicious products. Let me explain.

Obviously, there's the bacon itself. Cook it in strips to your desired doneness and have it with eggs or on a BLT sandwich. (Add a couple of slices of avocado for a "BLAT." Or, strips of orange rind for a BLORT? OK, I made that one up.)

Alternately, slice it raw crosswise into inch-long, quarter-inch-wide strips called "lardons." Crisp them in a pan and they're perfect sprinkled over nearly anything: salads, soups, baked potatoes, vanilla ice cream, chocolate pudding.

O, Bacon, is there anything you can't improve?

(By the way, lardons cook more evenly than bacon strips and therefore look better than crumbled bacon, which often has large pieces of undercooked bacon fat attached to overly crisp meat portions.)

Here's the thing, though: If all you're doing is eating the cooked bacon, you're consuming less than half of its original, raw weight. The rest is being wasted.

And we can't have that.

So, what is that unused portion? First there's the melted (a.k.a. "rendered") fat. After your bacon is cooked, pour the fat through a fine mesh strainer into a lidded glass jar and keep it in the refrigerator. It has all the same porky, smoky flavour as the bacon itself. Use it to sauté vegetables or sear meats for an added element of smoky umami.

Then there are all those little brown, crispy bits that stick to the bottom of the pan as the bacon cooks, like dehydrated clumps of smoky bacon juice. They can add a pile of flavour to soups, sauces, braises and stews. Here's how:

After pouring the fat into your glass jar, deglaze the pan with broth or white wine or even water. Scrape that deglazed liquid into the jar with the fat. The liquid will sink to the bottom and, when it cools, turn into a super flavourful, gelatinized goo protected from any microorganisms by an airtight seal of solid bacon fat. Next time you're making a pan sauce or a simple tomato sauce, use the fat to sauté your aromatics, then scrape in that gelatinized goo. Trust me, it's worth the small effort. And the best part is, because of that airtight seal, it'll last in your fridge for — well, not forever, surely, but it might just still be good when they reanimate your cryogenically frozen head.

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Here are a few more ideas:

1. Barding: This simply means covering with fat. The most common iteration of this is meat loaf covered with bacon strips. For larger roasts, like a boneless turkey breast, weave the strips into a blanket.

2. Bacon jam: Crisp 1 pound of bacon lardons; remove them from the pan. Sauté 1 each minced shallot and onion in the fat, then add a couple of ounces each of brown sugar, maple syrup, cider vinegar, bourbon (if you like) and brewed coffee. Add the bacon back, reduce to a syrupy, jammy consistency, then pulse it in a food processor and serve with crackers, cheese, bread, omelettes or freshly cooked vegetables.

3. Bacon dressing: Like an unreduced bacon jam, just crisp some lardons, add some sliced red onion, vinegar and a little maple syrup and pour over fresh greens — spinach is traditional.

WEAVING A BACON MAT

If you know how to make a lattice pie crust, it's pretty much the same technique.

Lay bacon strips next to each other with sides touching. Bend back the odd pieces.

Lay another bacon slice crosswise across the even pieces, nestling it so it touches the bent back pieces.

Replace the bent back pieces so they cover the crosswise piece.

Next, peel back the even numbered pieces all the way to the first crosswise piece.

Lay another crosswise piece over the odd pieces so that it touches the bent back even pieces, then replace the even pieces to their original position.

Continue on with this until you have a beautiful bacon blanket that you'd be happy to swaddle your baby in. If your baby were made of meat loaf.