Bacon, Beans, and Beer

by Eliza Cross

65 hearty recipes using bacon, beans, or beer as the star perfect for tailgating, backyard barbecues, camping, or man-cave food.   Bacon, Beans & Beer is chock-full of delicious, easy-to-make recipes including appetizers and snacks, soups and sandwiches, salads and sides, easy meals, and even some treats. From sweets like Beer Caramel Corn and Bacon Peanut Butter Cookies to classics like Bacon & Shrimp Po' Boys and Kentucky Hot Browns and Beer Bacon Mac & Cheese, Bacon, Beans & Beer will satisfy the hungriest of diners.   Eliza Cross is the author of more than a dozen books, including recent titles like Small Skewers, Sliders, and Other Party Eats, Sweet and Savory Recipes, and Pumpkin It Up! Eliza's articles have appeared in numerous publications including Sunset, Parents, Writers' Digest, Mountain Living, Mother Earth Living and Western Art & Architecture Magazine.   Combining her love of cooking and design, Eliza develops recipes and styles cuisine for corporate photo shoots. She blogs about cooking good food, creating a peaceful home and saving money at TheYOLOBlog.com, and is the founder of the bacon enthusiasts' society BENSA. Eliza lives in Centennial, Colorado, with her family.

Genres: Cookbooks, Food and Drink

128 pages, Hardcover

First published July 17, 2018

About the author

Eliza Cross is the author of 17 books including her latest, 101 Things To Do With a Smoker, with easy, approachable recipes for adding wood-fired flavor to everything from cinnamon rolls to beef stew.

She is the founder of BENSA Bacon Lovers Society and shares bacon recipes, food festivals and artisan bacon makers. She blogs at Happy Simple Living with easy recipes and ideas for simplifying life.

Eliza lives with her family near Denver.

Reviews

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I won a copy of this book from a Goodreads giveaway. This is a fun cookbook. All of the recipes include bacon, beans, beer or a combination of those, even the desserts. The recipes sound yummy and the pictures are appetizing.

[saranimals · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received this book from a Goodreads giveaway.
The dishes are beautifully photographed, with easy-to-follow directions. This book actually has something for everyone! Numerous recipes use bacon as a garnish, easily omitted for those who don't consume pork products. And the author does include a caveat about non-alcoholic beer being an acceptable substitute.
My personal favorite was the desserts section.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ll start with a caveat that this is not a cookbook designed with my tastes in mind. I’ve never understood the bacon wrapped trend. Why someone would take $25.99 per lbs of fresh, sweet bay scallops and give them the flavor of $3.99 per lbs smoky, salty bacon is utterly beyond me. The same goes for steak; steak doesn’t need bacon, let steak be steak.

While reading and cooking through Bacon, Beans, and Beer, I just kept thinking about what a missed opportunity it was. There are fascinating, complex flavors that a cook can glean from the 3 titled ingredients, but these recipes just go for the heaviest, saltiest, fattiest flavors possible. Especially if you are including “beans” as a general category in a cookbook, you have immense possibilities to add a few light items so that every recipe doesn’t seem like prep for a Super Bowl party. Lentils, edamame, snow peas, green beans, and peanuts are all “beans” yet make little-to-no appearance as the author seems to just prefer beans from a can. This isn’t to say that the recipes in this book aren’t good. They are; I just wish the author would have gotten more creative.

Lastly, my interest in cookbooks is not just the quality of the recipes but the prose that surround them, and Bacon, Beans, and Beer barely has an introduction beyond a rote list of recipes that the reader will find later in the book. I can go on the internet and find a recipe for essentially anything; it is the writing within cookbooks that makes me feel like the author truly curated this specific grouping of recipes for her audience. Is this too much to expect from a book focusing on three of the world’s oldest, most basic ingredients? Maybe I’m being silly, but there are thousands of cookbooks and my expectations are a little higher.

Thoughts on 3 sample recipes that I tried:

Crispy Roasted Chickpeas: The flavor would come through better if you were instructed to sprinkle half of the spices onto the chickpeas halfway through roasting (I honestly think this is what was supposed to happen, but an instruction was left out). Also, the chickpeas needed roasting for a significantly longer time than in the recipe; otherwise, they come out of the oven more chewy than crispy.

Beer & Bacon Beef Stew: My wife loved this, but I think the bacon overwhelms the malty/roasty flavor of the beer. The addition of the turnip as opposed to potatoes was a nice change and something I’ll probably use in beef stews in the future.

Slow Cooker Bacon Barbecue Chicken Rolls: This came out tasting very good, but I kind of wish the author would have gone the extra mile and included a recipe for the barbecue sauce. I can add Joe’s Kansas City barbecue sauce to just about anything and it would taste good. This was such a simple recipe it felt like cheating to just dump in a bottle of pre-made sauce.

(A copy of this book was generously provided to me from Gibbs Smith through Goodreads Giveaways)

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Full disclosure: Goodreads Giveaway winner

Got hungry simply reading this book. Can't wait to try some of the recipes. Fair warning, these dishes are not listed on any diet you may be contemplating, but the taste will certainly be worth it. No one in my house drinks beer (matter of taste, not that we're a dry house)but beer certainly can add a lovely layer to a dish (have you tried beer bread?!?)

I do have one question: When do we get to eat the bacon in the Bacon Minestrone (p. 51)? Is it a garnish? Love a mystery.

[Nikki · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love book bacon beans and beer book and I can’t wait to make the recipe And whose doesn’t like bacon and beer . Great book!!!

[Michael Grizer (He-Him) · Rating 5 out of 5]

We are definitely making some of these soon!