Looking for a new level of bacon obsession? Try our slab bacon. This was a cut we reserved for chefs, but we’ve had many requests from home cooks. So here it is at last: the largest hunk of bacon you’ve ever had in your kitchen.

What’s the big fuss? What is slab bacon anyway? Slab bacon is what you get when pork belly is smoked and left whole.

Slab bacon is just bacon before it’s sliced into those familiar strips. In other words, this is bacon in its natural state … also known as a state of bliss.

Our slab bacon comes from heritage-breed hogs that are raised on pasture. These old breeds offer certain advantages when it comes to making bacon: rich flavor and lots of marbling. We smoke the pork bellies over real applewood, and never use nitrates or nitrites. This is how bacon should be.

How big is slab bacon? It’s large enough to satisfy your bacon needs for weeks – or months – to come. The two plates of bacon in our package average 7 1/2 – 10 lbs total.

The best part is that slab bacon freezes beautifully, so just portion it out in vacuum-sealed bags and keep your freezer stocked. You will never be caught without bacon again.

So now that you can get some slab bacon, what will you do with it?

Cooking with Slab Bacon

The benefit of slab bacon is that you can slice it how you like: thick, ultra-thin, or somewhere in between. That freedom allows you to get creative in the kitchen.

Every frisée salad needs lardons – a French term for matchstick strips -and you cannot make those with shingled bacon. Slab bacon to the rescue.

Try diced slab bacon in our carbonara recipe or in a tarte flambée. Or make bacon jam, a sweet & salty condiment that’s excellent on burgers, used like chutney with grilled and roasted meats, or just slathered on your favorite toasted bread. Quite nice on a charcuterie board, too.

Slab bacon is perfect for soups of all kinds. In fact, you can begin soups and braises by rendering a thick slice of slab bacon (think coq au vin, beef bourguignon), which will impart a smoky flavor and just enough bacon fat to get things going.

Baked beans are just crying out for chunks of slab bacon. Try our baked beans recipe with woven bacon on top – it uses both slab bacon in chunks and thinner slices of bacon.

Have you cooked with slab bacon before? How do you like to use it? Tag @dartagnanfoods on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. Let’s talk about food!