Recipe: Bacon Coleslaw

This recipe for Bacon Coleslaw is very quick and easy and adds a little different spin onto a coleslaw salad. This recipe is from Warren’s mother, Barbara… as I’ve mentioned before .. I have a pdf file of all the recipes she gave to Warren and his sisters. I know how important it is to keep old family recipes… family recipes are a gift from one generation to the next… and as we make them … we remember wonderful memories of past family meals.

Warren’s mother put together cookbooks of all her recipes in her file for them… I thought.. what a lovely idea. From what I’m told she was an excellent cook. She also was an outstanding artist. I’ve seen her art work… which is so beautiful… a wonderful way to remember her. .. and so with her cookbooks.. her recipes live on also.

Unfortunately, Warren’s cookbook was taken.. so his sister sent me copies and put them in a pdf file… one of my goals this year was to work my way through some of them… and share them here.

TIPS

The bacon flavor in this coleslaw is light… if you prefer a slaw with a little more punch of flavor… you might want to consider adding about ¼ cup of finely chopped onion…..

I used thick sliced smoked bacon.. it adds a wonderful flavor to the salad.

As I almost always do, I made the bacon in the oven… (click the link for directions on how to make bacon in the oven)....and simply took out 3 tablespoons of the rendered bacon fat out…

I put the ingredients (except the shredded cabbage and carrot) in a small sauce pan and heated it until the sugar dissolved… then I used a large bowl to toss the cabbage and carrots with the cooled dressing…

The original recipe doesn’t add the crumbled bacon until just before serving… I added it right away.. this way the bacon flavor would be absorbed better into the cabbage.

Periodically while it was chilling in the refrigerator, I would take it out and toss it with a large spoon.

Since the bacon is salty and the salad needs to marinate a bit for the flavors to develop… I recommend you add the amount of salt listed in the recipe… refrigerate it for the recommended 2 hours… then toss it again …. taste it and then adjust any seasonings… don’t adjust any seasonings before refrigerating.

This salad goes very well as a side dish to a barbeque… and is perfect for a picnic since there isn’t any mayo in it… you don’t have to worry about it spoiling.

I hope you enjoy this as much as we did.






Recipe: Bacon Coleslaw

All you need:

6 slices of bacon, cooked until crisp and reserve 3 tablespoons of bacon fat
1/3 cup vinegar
1/3 cup sugar
¼ cup water
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
1 medium head cabbage, shredded
4 medium carrots, shredded
¼ cup finely chopped onion (optional- see tip above)

All you need to do:

Stir vinegar, sugar, water, salt and pepper in a small saucepan.

Heat until sugar dissolves. Cool.

Finely chop the cooked bacon.

In a large bowl, toss the cabbage, carrots and bacon with the dressing. Reserve a little of the chopped bacon to sprinkle over the top (optional).

Chill 1-2 hours, tossing periodically.