Best Gifts for Bacon Lovers

With the bacon craze sweeping the nation, it's clear that the world is full of bacon lovers! If you know somebody who is obsessed with bacon (or even who just loves this salty, porky snack) then you're sure to want to come up with a thrilling gift they're just going to love. But how do you do that? Should you gift them with a pound of bacon? Of course not! You just have to know the right kinds of gifts to get for people who want to cook and eat a lot of bacon. Where to start, where to start?

Focusing on bacon paraphernalia and cook books, this guide will help you to choose the best possible gift for the bacon-lover in your life! You don't have to buy them bacon to get them a great gift, and they're sure to love something from this page.

This guide includes cute gifts and more serious types of gifts as well. You should be able to find something for every bacon lover in your life!

If you know somebody who loves bacon, chances are that they enjoy experimenting with new ways to eat bacon. More and more bacon is making its way into sweet treats as well as its typical use as a savory snack, and who wouldn't want to experiment with some o these interesting recipes for everybody's favorite form of pork? A good quality cook book will have a variety of recipes from fresh and new to tried and true. Check the book out before buying it and, of course, check the reviews for the books that you're buying to make sure that they are absolutely top quality for your loved ones.

It's recommended to pay careful attention to reviews on Amazon, particularly when making a purchase from the site. Customers generally have a very good perspective on the books and this may be even more important with cook books, since the content of the reviews will tell you how simple or difficult the recipes in the book are to complete. For example, Bacon Nation (right) includes recipes that require specialty ingredients which may be difficult for inexperienced cooks to find (or which some people won't want to bother obtaining). This type of feedback should help you to choose the best books possible for your bacon lover!

Sweet bacon treats have become more and more popular. Denny's now has a bacon month during which they sell bacon milk shakes, bacon pancakes, and all sorts of bacon-y sweets. So why is this? What is it about bacon that makes it pair so well with sugar?

If you haven't already guessed it, it's the saltiness of the bacon that both contrasts and compliments the sweetness of maple sugar or other delights. Maple in particular is often paired with bacon, as is chocolate.

Have you tried this phenomenon? What do you think about chocolate-dipped bacon or bacon paired with maple syrup? Do you like it? Hate it? Weigh in with the poll on the left, and tell other visitors what you think!

(I've never personally had sweet bacon. I can't seem to force myself to eat it. Tell me in the comments if you think I should. I'm curious as to what you think of it!)

Most people simply cook their bacon in a frying pan or skillet (and surely, there are some great skillets and frying pans out there!) but it can also be cooked in the microwave and in the oven (on cookie sheets). It seems there are even some new ways of cooking bacon that don't particularly make sense to me!

Any vessel for the cooking of bacon will make a great gift for somebody who loves bacon, particularly if you include some of the bacon itself into the mix of items with your gift. A pan or a skillet works well, a griddle does the trick if you're not looking to keep the grease, and you can even try a microwave cooker if your budget is a bit smaller.

When choosing gifts for bacon lovers, it's very easy to simply rush to get the bacon. Try other things first, experiment with the kinds of things that your bacon-lover might enjoy, and then think about tossing the meat in at the end. Don't make the meat itself the highlight of the gift, but something added into the mix to give your bacon-lover a way of interacting with her other gifts. She'll absolutely love a gift box or basket of bacon. You could also try doing a breakfast gift basket instead. Most of these include bacon, but make sure that your bacon-lover enjoys the other things that are part of the basket!

Without going crazy, Amazon has some cute options for bacon-lovers. The key here is to make sure that you're not purchasing a gag gift for somebody you love. Try to find something that may be humorous but which won't leave them feeling let down. Your goal is to make them laugh rather than to disappoint, and you can't really go wrong with a cute gift that is also practical. A good example of this type of gift is apparel. Of course you want to avoid the bacon dresses and shoes, but nothing's wrong about a t-shirt! Amazon has some cute t-shirts that you might consider for your bacon-loving friends. Take a look to the right!

• Melting chocolate or hot chocolate to go with bacon.
• Caramel to eat with bacon and popcorn.
• Maple syrup (the real kind) to be eaten with bacon.

If you're looking for some ways to supplement your bacon gift, you may find some good suggestions listed to the right. Most of all, you want to make sure that your gift matches the personality of the person you're shopping for. If you're shopping for somebody who's serious, then cookware may be ideal (and don't forget to include some bacon to cook with your cookware as well!), or if you're shopping for somebody who's more fun and laid back, you might try t-shirts or gag gifts that they will enjoy and which will make them laugh. Bacon: A Love Story is a good book for this particular purpose!

Cook books will probably work for most any bacon lover because, if nothing else, they contain wonderful pictures of bacon, by itself, cooked into food, raw and hot. Whatever kind of bacon your loved ones enjoy, they're sure to appreciate a cook book because it provides them with new and unique ways of exploring bacon in its many varied forms. If you can't decide on a cook book, then you can always go for a bacon gift box or basket. Anyone who enjoys eating bacon is sure to be on board for more bacon!

You can always have a little bit of fun with your gift and incorporate Kevin Bacon into the gift in such a way as to amuse the person receiving it. Maybe include a Kevin Bacon movie (Murder in the First is my favorite), or play a game of 6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon as a party game. Have fun with it, and see how far you can get!

And feel free to use the comments section here to play some 6 Degrees as well, just for fun!