QuirkeyBlogEst. 2005

To say JSConf was awesome would be an understatement. EPIC is definitely the word Not only did I have an amazing time, drinking beer with brilliant people, but the conference itself – the presentations, the organization – was simply unparalleled. I think I owe Chris a fair amount of beer. The JavaScript community is definitely the most fun and the most talented I’ve ever been privileged to be a part of.

Making Bacon / Making Code

So the story goes that over a couple drinks after an NYC.js meetup, I got into a little yelling match with Chris which ended in him saying “If you make bacon on stage at JSConf, I will make you the keynote.” Later that week I submitted this proposal (in JSON):

{
  "name": "Aaron \"Fuck that, you don't know me\" Quint",
  "email": "aaron\@quirkey.com",
  "twitter": "aq",
  "location": "B-to-the-K-to-the-L-Y-N",
  "topic_title": "MAKING BACON <=> MAKING CODE",
  "topic_description": "For all the Cookbooks we have, and all we talk about bacon,  you'd think we could actually _make_ something. Its all BS. Have you ever taken a pork belly, trimmed it, salted it, let it cure and then smoked it.  Have you ever _made_ bacon? I have. I'll show you how. I'm no bacon expert and I'm no expert chef. I'm also no coding genius or javascript prodigy. I'm probably a better cook then you, and I probably have written some half-decent code. I probably can draw some sort of analogy between writing code and making bacon. Watch me try.",
  "claim_to_fame": "I'm not famous, I just do a couple things better then you do."
}

The dare turned into a reality. Somehow we were able to keep the fact that I wouldn’t be talking about Sammy.js a secret for over 3 months. I just kept telling people “its a suprise” Though I would have loved to have told everyone how awesome Sammy is, in the end, I think I managed to pack some good messages into this talk. After the rush of doing the talk, and getting a some laughs, I got the best feedback I could have asked for: A ton of people came to me afterwords and said “I’m going to make bacon now.” That makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. If you are one of those people, and you do end up making bacon, send me some pictures and I’ll link to them here. I also promised I’d link up a list of resources for those ready to plunge into the world of home made charcuterie.

My Talk

• Slides
• The Making Bacon Video

Books

• Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing by Michael Ruhlman (the source of the recipe)
• On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen by Harold McGee (the source of ultimate food science knowledge)
• Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky (awesome historical facts about salt curing)
• The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan (the history of industrial food)

Sources

• Butcher/Packer Pink Salt!
• The Sausage Maker.com For pink salt, meat hooks, sausage casings, etc.
• Los Paisanos My butcher in Brooklyn.

On the web

• Ruhlman’s blog
• @Ruhlman on twitter
• Dan barber at Ted

I really hope people actually do go ahead with this. It’s fun and very rewarding. For nerds of any kind, making artisanal foods from scratch provides another way for us to “take things apart”. Really, we’re just refactoring our food chain.

Posted April 20th, 2010 in Conferences, Food, JavaScript
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