Vanilla-Brown Butter Cure

On June 23, 2015 at 9:01pm, I sat up in bed, grabbed my phone and typed this message:

Vanilla bacon was a nightmare. Batch after batch of cloyingly sweet bacon, all trying to wrest even a hint of vanilla from ether. These were the dark times.

I gave up on vanilla bacon. But it never gave up on me. Almost exactly a year later, I got this vision: if there is hope, it lies in vanilla salt.

Oh, you fool, younger me! So much heartache! So much sadness! It was in the salt the whole time!

There’s a lot of subtlety going on here. Vanilla plays off the sweetness of the brown butter solids, but bay steps in and plays the diminished fifth in our jazzy chord, making these sweet flavors at home in a savory world.

Cure a pork loin in this stuff, slice it thin, and make eating lunch at  your desk something to look forward to!