I live in Charleston SC, but originally hail from PA Dutch country, and was pleasantly surprised to run across this posting about hot bacon dressing, one of my favorite Dutch condiments. We still use my grandmother's recipe , which is similar but with a small amount of grated onion and dry mustard added. It's great with lettuce, but I especially love it over wilted dandelion greens' which I rarely get any more down South (too many chemicals used on lawns down here, which was not the case when I lived in PA). We often had the dandelion greens and bacon dressing with homemade pot pie; certainly one of my fondest culinary memories growing up there. I don't recall the dandelion greens being very bitter, and I don't think I would have eaten them as a youngster if they were bitter. We always picked our own dandelion- it was easy to find the greens in the otherwise brown turf, and would cut them off using a paring knife. Grnadma always told us to only pick the smaller plants/greens that hadn't yet developed any flower buds, as these wouldn't be bitter. Once the plant got larger or developed flower buds, they weren't edible any more. I don't know if there is any validity to her admonition or whether it's just an old wives tale, as I've never tried harvesting or eating budding or large leafed dandelion, but with Spring coming, you might try it again with that in mind and pick the smaller, budless greens. I'm getting ready to smoke some Canadian bacon on Tuesday using your recipe, and I appreciate the effort you've put forth in your recipes. I'm looking forward to eating the bacon. Thanks!
