If it looks like a duck and it...oh wait!

Yesterday's mystery item yielded some great guesses--many of which were partly correct.  But I have to give it to Jill for suggesting a cat-shaped fruit roll up!  It took me a minute but after staring for awhile, the cat image jumped right out.

However, those of you who guessed bacon were very close.  This is what duck bacon looks like after it has been sizzling for five minutes.  Now, y'all know how much I love bacon so I couldn't resist picking up this D'artagnan Duck Bacon from the Co-op.  I'd actually forgetten it was in the freezer until the other day.  So with about a pound of lamb riblets (more on those tomorrow) to cook up I knew it was time to bring it out.

The key things to know about duck bacon are these:

• It has much less fat than pork bacon
• It cooks up in about five minutes when prepared on top of the stove
• It shrinks up to about half its original size after cooking
• Even though it looks like a fruit roll up when it is cooked--it is as tender as can be and it tastes awesome!

This bacon is not salty but you won't get that crisped edge of bacon fat that you can get with pork bacon.  As you would expect, it tastes delightfully like duck.  I could see eating this with poached eggs and toast but yesterday I used the rendered fat to saute my carrots and onions for the lamb riblets and then diced up the bacon to flavor the pot.  Duck bacon will probably work in any dish that calls for bacon but I don't think I'd recommend them for cookies.  Stick to pork bacon for that.  D'artagnan also makes duck proscuitto--you just know I've got to get my  hands on some!