Howl’s Moving Castle was actually the first Studio Ghibli movie I ever saw, and it’s main comic relief (the fire demon Calcifer) is still one of my all-time favorite Miyazaki characters. Though he can be a bit salty and sassy, Cal’s got a good heart underneath it all, so I wanted to pay tribute to him with a dish in our Ghibli menu.
When forced into making breakfast with the new cleaning lady, Calicifer famously curses her by saying, “May all your bacon burn!” So in honor of Cal (and the delicious, non-burned bacon he made with Sophie that day), I decided to make some sweet and spicy bacon!
This recipe features crisp center cut bacon rubbed with cinnamon and cayenne for spice and coated with honey and brown sugar for sweetness. The perfect snack to share with your favorite fire demon!
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Calcifer’s Sweet and Spicy Candied Bacon
“Here’s another curse: may all your bacon burn!”
INGREDIENTS:
- 1 lb bacon (I used center cut, since it has less fat. A good bit of the fat melts away into the bottom of the tray when you cook these, so having a higher meat/fat ratio cuts down on waste.)
- 3 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp cayenne
- 2 tbsp honey
- 6 tbsp packed brown sugar
Makes 1 lb of bacon
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INSTRUCTIONS:
- Preheat your oven to 400°. Line a baking sheet with tinfoil and place a baking rack on top (this will save you LOTS of messy cleanup later). Place 6-7 strips of bacon 2 inches apart on the rack.
- Dust one side of the bacon with cinnamon and rub it in. Add a very light sprinkling of cayenne and rub that in as well. Drizzle on a light coating of honey and—you guessed it—rub it in. Sprinkle on just a bit more cayenne. Flip the bacon over and repeat with the other side.
Not only does rubbing the seasonings into the bacon allow for more even flavoring, but since we’re going to flip the bacon halfway through cooking, it keeps all the deliciousness from falling into the bottom of the pan. - Liberally sprinkle brown sugar on both sides of the bacon, rubbing it in before flipping.
It’s looking beautiful already! - Place the bacon in the oven and allow it to cook for 8 minutes. Flip the strips of bacon over and cook for another 3-5 minutes or until the strips are cooked through and beginning to darken at the edges. The grease and sugar drippings in the bottom of the tray may begin to burn, but that’s ok.
I tried making this with sriracha, but I’ve found that cayenne sticks to the bacon more easily. The sriracha mixes with the sugar and mostly melts into the bottom of the pan. The flavor was great, but it just wasn’t spicy. If you’d like to try it with sriracha, I recommend using no less than 16 dots of sriracha per bacon strip. I used as many as 12 and still didn’t get much heat. - Remove the bacon from the oven and allow it to cool for 5-10 minutes on the rack. Transfer to a serving plate.
- Repeat Steps 2-5 with the remaining bacon until it’s all cooked.
- Serve to a fire demon to placate him after he helps you cook breakfast! 🙂
Gotta have more bacon? Check out our other bacon-y recipes!
Ooooo! This looks so yummy! I must try this. I love Calcifer so much. XD
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I love that Billy Crystal does his voice. It’s perfect!
[…] GET THE RECIPE […]
[…] Love bacon? Love opposing flavours? Then look no further than this super easy Calcifer inspired recipe by Alison (from Alison’s Wonderland Recipes). All you need are a few staple spices, some pre-cut/sliced bacon and you are all set to go. Check out the recipe here! […]
This is a great recipe!!
But (and I really am SOOOOO sorry for being “that person”)… you had stated:
“…and it’s main comic relief (the fire demon Calcifer) is still one of my all-time favorite Miyazaki characters”
Howl’s moving castle was originally a novel written by Diana Wynne Jones, so… Calcifer is not actually a Miyazaki character, He’s a Diane Jones’ character. In fact there are 10 studio Ghibli movies that were originally books. I will say that Billy Crystal did an awesome take on Calcifer, even if the rest of the movie was not at all on par with the book. Miyazaki apparently thought the original story wasn’t good enough for him and changed almost all of the story’s original plot! I wont get into THAT though, there are just too many terrible changes he made, But I just wanted to give credit where credit is due.