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Peanut Butter is the New Bacon

Peanut butter bacon cupcakes
Peanut butter bacon cupcakes Photo: SanFranAnnie

Did you see that hot young thing at last night’s dinner? It’s got such buzz. “Classic yet inventive” they (we) are calling it. That’s right, we’re talking about peanut butter. It’s been showing up a lot around town, accompanied by its new pal bacon, which seems to be a hit when paired with just about anything. Could bacon be grooming peanut butter as its replacement for when it finally, mercifully dies?

Ryan Farr’s bacon-peanut butter brownies have been going strong over at the Ferry Building while Lori Baker’s bacon peanut brittle flies off the counter at Humphry Slocombe. Peanut butter is also venturing out into its own crazy pairings, such as Humphry Slocombe’s peanut butter-curry ice cream. There’s mainstream press attention, too. Savuer has a recipe for peanut butter-bacon truffles, and Chow shares a recipe for peanut butter-bacon-scallion canapes. Then of course there are the classic combinations such as Specialty’s peanut butter chocolate cookies — the “and eggs” to peanut butter’s bacon.

By the numbers on MenuPages, peanut butter trails bacon in its menu appearances. Only 139 restaurants carry it compared with 612 serving bacon. But that may grow as the cult forms. There’s already a music video tribute to the childhood lunch food, though it too has old-guard training wheels: It’s sung by Bacon the pig.

Peanut Butter is the New Bacon