The bacon pickle fries were not a disaster, but they were a disappointment.
The bacon did not wrap properly around the pickles; I am unsure as to whether this is due to the bacon not being tight enough, or because the pickles were too small, or both. The bacon also did not crisp as much as I’d prefer, either; I suspect that this is due to the nitrate-free thing. Still: the bacon cooked, the pickles did not burn, and the two flavors worked well together. My wife was surprised at how much she liked the dish, because she was frankly skeptical about the whole affair.
I often have the same problem with bacon-wrapped cooking – the issue seems to be that the bacon needs to be exposed to extreme (400(f)+ broiler) heat to get that nice, classic *crispy* .. but that’s a good way to destroy whatever the bacon’s wrapped around.
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I solve this about the same way I solve recalcitrant pizzas – the ones where the cheese just won’t brown up even though the crust is nice and crackery – I switch the oven to ‘broil’ for a couple minutes and pay *close* attention…another word for ‘broil’ is ‘carbonize’ …
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Not sure how well that’d translate to your pickles, but it works very nicely on the bacon-wrapped dates.
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Mew
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p.s. use the expensive round wooden toothpicks, and soak ’em in water for an hour or two before skewering the bacon to the filling .. *seems to* ensure a better hold..
Also helps if you cook the bacon to floppy almost done first.
Especially if you’re cooking something like bacon wrapped shrimp, where the shrimp needs to be cooked, but for a much shorter time than the bacon.
So, bacon and a pleasant surprise for your spouse (recovering bum knee).
– While I realize this is not perfection, this really does count as a win though.