Arabian Kabsah

Variations on traditional Arabian Kabsah, usually made using mutton ‘on the bone’, but we us prefer off the bone, lamb or chicken .

(serves 4)

• · 500 gms diced chicken breast or lamb
• · 1 medium onion
• · 1 can coconut milk
• · 4 teaspoons Arabian Spice Blend*
• · 8 oz long-grain rice

Chop the onion and lightly fry in vegetable or sesame oil. Add the chicken or lamb, stir-fry until meat is browned. Add Arabian Spice Blend, continue to stir-fry for 2 minutes. Add the coconut milk and turn heat down to a simmer, stirring occasionally.

Meanwhile, cook the rice in the usual way, adding a little Arabian Spice to give colour.

Serve either with the meat and rice mixed, or separately, and with Arabian bread ‘wraps’ with a drizzle of Zatar Spice* and olive oil.

*Arabian Spice and Za'atar are sold in our Online Shop (click)

BaconSalt Movie on YouTube . . . . .

Dave Lefkow (one of the inventors) posted this on YouTube - clips from American TV programs about BaconSalt (or "Bacon Salt")

The BaconSalt Movie - Click

*

Crazy4flavour (Stu Nutt) Twitter conversations: selling BaconSalt online to UK and Western…

Crazy4flavour (Stu Nutt) Twitter conversations: selling BaconSalt online to UK and Western…

Crazy BaconSalt Cartoons - Walter Newton

I just had to post this - A Glaswegian illustrator and animator has come up with some comic illustrations of his perception of the BaconSalt factory in Seattle. Hopelessly non-factual (we all know - don't we? - that BaconSalt is not made from pigs), but had me chuckling.

Lots of other illustrations on the site, as well as some great animations. Check out "Chess" and the "Panda" - Totally Hilarious.

Great work Walter!

It would be impolite to post one of them on our blog, but here's the link again -
http://www.walternewton.com/?p=184

Now I'd better get back to work (but I've saved Walter's web site location for a re-visit)

"Southport Visiter"

Food News journalist of the southport Visiter, Amy Salter, commented below that she's "testing" Bacon Salt and promising some ideas on her blog: The Kitchen - The World of Food

Looking forward to seeing them Amy - and if you come up with some new ones, I hope you'll share them with us here!

Bacon Mary!

I came across a neat idea this morning, and tried it out. And Bacon Mary sounds much nicer than Bloody Bacon!

1. Half-fill a glass (take your own choice of size!!) with Tomato Juice
2. Add a half level teaspoon (or to taste) of Peppered Bacon Salt
3. Add Vodka - to taste (I like them strong)
4. Ice - Stir - DRINK

CHEERS!

More New Products

It's been a while since the last update, but there's lots of news . . . . .

We've added two new BaconSalt varieties - Cheddar and Applewood Smoke.

Cheese is just a natural bedfellow to Bacon, so that one should be very popular. When I've been in a hurry, a cheese and bacon sarnie was quicker to make with Cheese and BaconSalt, and now I can 'grab a bite' even faster with the Cheddar BaconSalt!

We've been asked to get the Applewood in, so that one's available on the shop now too. Next? Maybe the Jalapeno in our next shipment???

Another new taste from the Middle East is Za'atar Spice. This one's very popular as a condiment for bread; Traditionally used with Arabic Bread (a bit like Pitta, but thinner and round-shaped) but these days very popular as a fill in Croissantes. You can also use it to 'spice up' Hommus, or even flavour meat in cooking.

Last Week at the Food Fair




We had a stand at the local Food Fair which was located conveniently close to Pippins Restaurant, so a swift negotiation with the manager and I was carting bowls of chips to the stand and sprinkling them with Hickory BaconSalt. With me wandering around in front of the stand, and offering 'BaconSalt Chips' to the passers-by resulted in Amanda getting mobbed with sales!

There was a total range of customers who tasted chips with BaconSalt and made a bee-line for the counter - everyone from 10 years old to pensioner ladies! The stand was a complete success, thanks to Pippins Chips.

Back Online! (Whoops)

A couple of days ago we discovered a problem - the latest update on the web site had a fault, and nobody could get anything on the "shop" page. A quick phone call to our webmaster fixed it, but nobody had been able to buy for a week

The site is back in operation now, with several great updates . . . .

Baconnaise (Bacon-flavour Mayo)
Black Lemon Powder
Eastern Spice Blend
BaconSalt Refill Packs - save you 30% or more when you already have your BaconSalt shaker-jars

Check it out!

Baconnaise

Okay - Folks asked for it, so now we have it . . . . .

A limited stock of Baconnaise (regular and "lite"). It ain't cheap, but it's a lot less than paying shipping from Seattle! £9 a jar (roughly a one pound jar) but another £2.30 for 2nd class post.

It's not on the web-shop (yet? - depends on the response), but if you want some, please email (stuart@crazy4flavour.co.uk) and I can send a Google Checkout invoice (same system as buying through the web, and the same credit-card protection from Google). If there's demand, then we'll bring a lot more.

Justin and Dave were on "Oprah" in USA last week, and that finally pushed us to rush in some Baconnaise stock.



See the video here

Sunflower snacks

I've got a little behind (my wife likes it though!) (sorry, couldn't resist that) but here's a response from "Bernie" from Denmark (we all know the Danes are really into Bacon)

Hey Stu.
Got my order today. I made a snack recipe you might wanna try out, its good!, (Bernie's Bacon Seeds) roast some sunflower seeds on dry pan just until they are a little crispy, put the seeds in a little bowl and add some sunflower seed oil (only to make the bacon salt stick on) then add bacon salt hickory (don't be cheep) enjoy! :)

Thanks for that Bernie - it gave us an inspiration for the "tasters" at the local food market last week; we didn't get sunflower seeds, but we oiled and "salted" peanuts with BaconSalt, as well as popping some corn with the magic ingredient. Both tasted great and were well-received by our visitors.

Pity about the British weather that day though :(

Lemon Roast Chicken!

Oooh! In all the years in the Middle-East, I used Lemon Powder to cook lamb - never thought much about other ideas (apart from mashed-potato patties, fried for breakfast, and a few other things like that)

Yesterday, Amanda cooked us Roast Chicken and generously rubbed it with Black Lemon Powder (after "annointing" the skin with olive oil) and - Wow! It was fantastic hot, and the left-overs (it was a big chicken!!) were even better cold for lunch today with a salad and new potatoes.

Normally we use Bacon-Salt on our roast chicken, but this will be a new addition to our regular family menu - maybe with Bacon-Salt stuffing ;)

There was a slight delay in the packaging for the new spices from the Middle-East, but now we have stocks all ready to ship and we're just waiting for the web shop (www.crazy4flavour.co.uk) to be updated so we can start selling.

Baconnaise, Bacon-Choc, and other spices

We have a few jars of J&D's Baconnaise coming in shortly. It's going to be a bit expensive, due to the cost of shipping 450-gram jars, but we've had inquiries so we'll give it a try. If you are interested then email us at the address on the Sales Site by which time we should have firmed-up the price.

We're just adding the finishing touches to the packaging before we can offer "Amanda's Bacon Chocolate" (pretty much as per the recipe here on the blog, but all done for you). The inspiration came from "Mo's Bacon Bar", a chocolate bar with real bits of bacon in it that sold out in Selfridges 2 days after it went on sale at six quid a bar (75 grams)! Ours will be a fraction of that price - including postage - and trust me, it's good!

Packaging is now done for the Black Lemon Powder and the Arabian Spice Mix - pictures are offto the web-site designers and these should be on sale within days now.

Business Picking up :)

After almost 4 months or hard work, trying to promote BaconSalt, business is starting to pick up. A good number of orders received in the last 24 hours, and a good "representation" from the Scandahooligans! It seems that the Danes introduced Britain to Danish Bacon, and now Scandinavians are almost our best customers!

Work progresses on the web-shop upgrade, and we're almost ready to "launch" the two new spices from the "East" - Black Lemon powder and Arabian spice blend - indeed, samples have already gone to a few customers.

Today's customers have also been sent samples of "Amanda's Farmhouse Bacon Chocolate". After sample-testing at the local market, it appears that folks either love it or think it's "disgusting"! So our customers can make up their own minds now - free!

Amanda's off to her evening job now,and I have "screen-eyes", so time to quit. Thanks for the support from all of our customers!!

New Products Introduced

Two new spices added to the range - Completely different and we believe not available elsewhere in UK.

Black Lemon Powder - Uniquely now available from us, this is lemons, dried from orchard in Iran and ground to a fine powder in the processors in Bahrain to use as a "rub" for lamb (or mutton or even goat!). The lemon counteracts the greasiness often found in lamb dishes and gives a tang to the meat that is incomparable. We have used it at home since I discovered Black Lemon some years ago in the Middle-East, and now it's on sale here.

Arabian Spice Blend - From the route of the old Eastern Spice Caravans, the Arabian Spice Blend is 16 different herbs and spices which are traditionally used in the Middle-East to give an exotic flavour to chicken and lamb. Marinade the meat in the spice, and then cook in the marinade, slowly, until the meat is tender and just thicken the juices before serving. It can also be used as a "base" for an aromatic curry - just add what you need to make it hot (as hot or otherwise as you like)

These new products opens up your kitchen to a whole flavour experience.

Keep watching - soon we are planning to add still more to the range.

Overseas Adventures

As promised, the Crazy Team are hunting for new tastes to add to the web-shop, including the long-promised Black Lemon. My travels have taken me to the Middle-East, places where Bacon is banned - Aaagh!

How do you survive in a country where there's no bacon, ham, pork? And where some of the local food tastes like **** to Westerners? The answer is in BaconSalt (not "Bacon Salt"!) I took a supply with me, and no worries about getting grabbed by the Airport Customs for "smuggling Bacon", as BaconSalt contains no Bacon (and not too much Salt), but it makes the unfamiliar grub taste acceptable - Gooood.

I'll be back at the shop soon, with new additions to the range (Oh, what I go through for you guys) and Amanda is faithfully keeping the orders going out while I've been away (and that is going to cost me on my return - there has been mention of a weekend trip to Liverpool - errrr?)

Liver and Bacon(salt) DOG FOOD !?

We've just heard that one of our customers has a very "special" show-dog. Apparently, it's normal for those who go for dog-shows to take along some liver to feed their dogs, but this guy's dog likes his sprinkled with BaconSalt!


He tells us that all the other dogs take great interest when his dog gets fed, so we've suggested that he take along some of our flyers to the next dog show - but maybe he doesn't want the other owners to know the secret of his success!

Something . . . in the State of Denmark

Looking at the "analytics" on our shop site, I can see a sudden "spike" in hits from Scandinavia and Denmark in particular. We've also seen higher number of "buys" from there too in the last week. Can't tell "who" the hits are coming from of course, just the internet company and the town of connection - and they are all over the country.

Not that we're complaining of course (!) but curious to know "what we're doing right" all of a sudden.

Meanwhile, I must get on with posting some more recipes; I'm afraid I've been relaxing and eating the Bacon Chocolate (which we are now making in one-pound batches!), and not working on my posts. Me BAD! ;)

Largest Order Yet!

Woot! Today saw our largest order to date - Thanks to SJ from Finland who placed an order for 12 jars! Hopefully the Post Office will accept a 1.25kg "small overseas parcel", or we'll have to bring it back and re-pack in two bags. (It only just fitted in our standard shipping bag, and we double-bagged it for extra security, though we use pretty tough bags and have never had a problem so far)

Either SJ is planning to work his way through all the recipes, including the ones on the previous pages, or he has a LOT of friends who like Bacon!

Any more out there like that?

Bacon Chocolate (Improved method!)

We didn't get to try out the Bacon Chocolate again when intended - the kids ate the chocolate! But here's how we did it when we got another supply . . . . .

My problem was "burning" the chocolate in the microwave - NOT the way to melt chocolate I am informed! This time the choc was broken up and placed in a large bowl, a size that would fit over a saucepan without the bottom of the bowl reaching more than halfway down the saucepan. Quarter-fill the pan with hot water, and then slowly simmer the water whilst stirring the choc as it melts. The bowl should not touch the boiling water, but be gently heated by the steam.

Once it is all molten and nicely fluid, then add a rounded teaspoon per 100 gms of choc. (more if you prefer, but we found that the "subtle" bacon taste was perfect)

Once well-mixed, pour the choc out onto a cold plate with a sheet of grease-proof paper on it. Once it has cooled (meanwhile clean out the bowl with your finger!) break into mouth-sized portions and consume at leisure.

Initially the choc flavour is most obvious, but the bacon-flavour develops deliciously, and finally there's just a tiny crunch from the BaconSalt spices that remain after all of the choc has dissolved.

Next time we're in town shopping, we're going to look out for some of those little rubbery ice-trays for fancy ice-cubes. The ones with bunny-shaped moulds should be great for Easter!

Roasted Pork Belly with a BaconSalt crust

Thanks Gerard for another recipe (no wonder you just ordered another 4 jars of BaconSalt - You really have great ideas for it - Keep 'em coming!)

Roasted Pork Belly with a BaconSalt crust

1 pork belly joint - can be anything up to 3-4lb's
Mustard - English/ french/wholegrain - whichever you prefer
A selection of spices
BaconSalt Original or Hickory
Molasses or dark brown sugar
Breadcrumbs

Heat oven to 200 degrees

Season joint liberally with BaconSalt
Mix your spices with breadcrumbs - i use cumin, coriander, curry powder, black pepper
pop a big spoon of mustard in and mix it to a malleable paste - similar to playdoh or plasticine
grate in some molasses if you have it, you can use brown sugar, syrup, anything sweet and soluble - I added some dark rum, butter and grated citrus zest as well to moisten it.
make a layer of your mixture on the skin side of the joint - it should be at least a centimetre thick
Dust BaconSalt over the top

Place in oven and cook for at least 1.5 hrs. The spice/ sugar mixture will slowly dissolve into the pork belly and the molasses will make it nice and sticky. The savoury BaconSalt mixed with the sweet spices will take it to new heights of flavour.

Gerard

That sounds really "something else"! I've just added a nice big pork belly joint to our shopping list for this week. Seems there are things us Brits can learn from our Colonial Brethren!

Beer-Butt Chicken (BaconSalt Style)

This one's from Gerard, down in Brighton. A "Baconey" version of an old favourite.

BaconSalt Beer-Butt Chicken

This is an amazing BBQ idea and really encapsulates the BBQ mentality of the southern states of the USA. Its designed to be cooked in a covered BBQ, but an oven is just as good, especially as it's not summer yet.

1 medium chicken
1 can beer - I used Budweiser
1 lemon
BaconSalt Original
Korean Red Pepper
Szechuan Pepper
Cumin powder
Coriander powder
Garlic
Butter

Take the zest off the lemon and slide it under the breast skin of the chicken
Rub all spices over chicken
Rub BaconSalt all over chicken, until it is orange - really get it in there
Open beer, drink 1/4 of the can
Using a normal can opener, remove the top of the can or spike extra holes in it
Add mashed garlic cloves, lemon, butter and BaconSalt to the remaining 3/4 can of beer - it will fizz.

Sit the whole chicken upright over the can - it should stand like a tripod, using the can and its two legs. You may want to refer to the picture for this.
Keeping it standing upright - place it in your oven at around 200 degrees and cook for 1.5 hours or more, depending on taste - i like it extra crispy

The joy of this recipe is that no matter how long you cook it, it wont go dry, as the can is providing hot flavoured steam on the inside, whilst the skin just gets crisper and crisper on the outside. The can's contents will boil and steam, the outside remains super crispy.

When it's done, just switch off the oven and leave it in there for 20 mins or so to rest. To remove the can, simply lift the chicken off of it, it will slide out easily but will be very hot. The skin will be crisp and bacony, the meat will be lovely and moist and even the thickest part of the chicken will taste of beer and bacon as it's been cooked by the flavoured steam.

Bacon Chocolate (mark 1)

After hearing about Selfridges London store selling out of bacon-flavour-chocolate, (google "Mo's Bacon Bar") I wondered about "BaconSalt Chocolate" (okay, we've already tried it with ice-cream!)

I took 100 gm of Cadbury's Dairy Milk and decided to melt it down, add BaconSalt, and see what was the result. I knew Amanda would call me daft, so I sneaked around the kitchen while she was engrossed in a DVD movie, and tried to gently heat the chocolate in the microwave. This was not a 100% success! At first nothing much happened, and the chocolate refused to melt. but then it started turning powdery - not good! I'd added about 3/4 of a level teaspoon and I then put the dish with the chocolate into a bigger dish of hot water and continued, in the hope it would turn liquid. (it didn't!)

Finally I added a little milk and stirred it frequently, and the consistency improved a bit, so I spread it on a shallow disk and refrigerated. The result had a sort of crunchy "fudge" consistency and I tried Amanda out on it - she was moderately impressed, but said I obviously didn't know how to melt chocolate (well, she used to work many years ago in a Thorntons shop, so she should know!) I think it's even more "more-ish" than regular chocolate and our teenage kids, Holly and Alex obviously like it too as I noticed this morning that a lot had vanished from the fridge before we got up!

Tomorrow Amanda has promised to show me how to do it "properly"!

Bookmark this space!!

Ready for the morning? (after the night B4!!)

Everyone primed for the celebrations this evening? Have you thought about the results that will be felt in the morning? You aren't going to be able to face your usual bacon-and-eggs with mushrooms, tomatoes and more bacon, are you?

This was suggested by a UK Bacon-Lover in Sussex. Piggy Mary!

Ingredients (serves one):

• a pint of Tomato Juice
• a teaspoon of Worcestershire Sauce (Lea & Perrins of course!)
• Ground Black Pepper to taste
• a generous teaspoon of (preferably Original) BaconSalt

Shake all ingredients together (if it hurts your head to shake you can delegate that part!) and add some ice. Drink as quickly as possible!

Happy New Year from BaconSalt UK !

Christmas Left-overs; BaconSalt Bubble&Squeak!

Okay, we were all feeling bloated yesterday. We adapted the "Lemon and BaconSalt Brine" recipe below (by up-rating the usual large Ziplock bag for a bin-liner and increasing the quantity of brine to cope with a 3kg joint of pork and a 4.5kg turkey . . . . . and there was enough food left to feed a moderately-small famine-stricken nation. We grossly over-estimated what our (extended) family could get through and packets of frozen meats are now in the freezer to feed us for the next week or more (hands up others in the same situation!)

After Sunday Lunches, I always save the left-over veggies for breakfast as "good old British" Bubble-and-Squeak for Monday (and maybe Tuesday as well) but today there was so much that I mashed it all in a very large mixing bowl, added a third of a bottle of BaconSalt, and put the burger-press into service to make 2 dozen B&S patties. B&S made with BaconSalt is mouth-watering - I could *ALMOST* forgo the rashers that usually accompany it for breakfast!!

(Why do Bubble-and Squeak and BaconSalt both abbreviate to "BS"?? Need I say more!!)

Happy New Year British and European BaconSalt lovers!

BaconSalt Stuffing

. . . . And with Christmas coming up, you know we all want stuffing!

This easy one is credited to Amanda - Bacon-Flavoured Stuffing. You can use it to stuff the Christmas Turkey, or make it in a baking tin to serve separately. (adjust quantities to the size of your turkey - and family!

• 2 slices stale bread, crumbled
• 1 onion, chopped
• 8-10 sage leaves, torn up
• 1 teaspoon BaconSalt, flavour according to your preference
• 1 egg

Mix all ingredients together, place in an oiled baking tin, bake until slightly crispy at 200 C. That's it!

If you use it to stuff your turkey (or duck, chicken, dodo, goose, crow, albatross etc) don't forget the usual caution about making sure it is cooked right through, as the stuffing stops the oven's heat circulating inside the body-cavity. My personal preference is to use a meat-thermometer to be 100% certain.

BaconSalt at Southport Open Market

Our first "Public Showing" of BaconSalt at the Open Market yesterday. Weather was kind in that it didn't pour with rain - but the wind in the early part of the morning played havoc with the posters and the temperature dropped later in the day, so it was never exactly crowded!

Only a couple of "regulars" had decent takings, but we were satisfied with covering the stall rental and other expenses to "get the word out - even if only locally. Meanwhile the internet sales continue to come in - slowly, but picking up :)


We'll be adding some more recipes over the next few days - Keep watching!

Publicity!

All getting a bit hectic here . . . . Southport Farmers Market on Thursday next, 18th December. Amanda and I will be doing our first "public demonstration" of BaconSalt. Lots and lots of posters, advertising literature etc to prepare, as well as the "tasting samples".

We've also had a call from Sky TV who want to include BaconSalt in a forthcoming program on their UKTV-Food Channel - Guess we'd better subscribe to a Sky package so we can watch ourselves!

You Don't Have To Give Up Bacon!

I discovered BaconSalt because I love bacon - not because I wanted to stop eating it! Sometimes I need a real breakfast (being a healthy growing lad!!) and Amanda frowns as she gets out the frying pan, or at least fires-up the grill.

Coming from the South of England as I do, I've discovered different food-stuffs up here in Murky-Side, including a wonderful "snack-wrapper" locally called a "bin-lid" - more region-wide referred to as a Stottie (see Wikipedia) which is a bread bun, sometimes as much as a foot in diameter, which is split and filled with all sorts of breakfast goodies.
Our frying pan is about the same size as a 9-inch bin-lid from ASDA, so a couple of eggs, with the yokes slightly broken, fit just nicely, and four rashers of (grilled - for my heart's sake!) spread on top, the whole filling dusted with Pepperd BaconSalt makes a great breakfast for a chilly, damp, Murky-side morning.

Amanda has promised (threatened?) to do her "Slimmimg World" (or heart case!) Bacon Flan for me at the weekend . . . Please darling, can I have Bacon and BaconSalt in this too?

Bacon Lemon Thyme Brine for Roast Chicken

A blogger in Singapore recently posted a recipe for Brined Roast Chicken using BaconSalt. His recipe calls for a gallon of BaconSalt brine to marinate the chicken but I've been brining for a while and I save on the amount of brining mixture by using a tough "zip-lock" bag to put the meat and the chicken in. Here's my amended version:

• 1 ½ litres of water
• 5 teaspoons of Bacon Salt
• 100gm cup Brown Sugar
• Small bunch fresh thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• ½ head garlic (halved horizontally)
• 1 Tablespoon black peppercorns (or use Peppered BaconSalt)
  
• 1 lemon halved (or equivalent bottled lemon juice, added after the boiling)
  

Bring all ingredients to a boil and cook until the salt and sugar dissolves. Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature then chill in the refrigerator. Once chilled put the chicken and the brine in a tough zip-lock plastic bag so the chicken is fully submerged and all air is removed. Allow to sit in the brine for 4-6 hours (turn it a couple of times).

Rinse and dry chicken. Rest the chicken uncovered in the refrigerator for 3 to 24 hours. Preheat Oven to 450°F and cook chicken to an internal temperature of 160°F. Allow to rest for 10 minutes before cutting.

Thanks, BaconSalt Singapore, for the recipe!

Sales Coming In

Sales orders starting to come through now . . . .

One was for a lass who works in Saudi Arabia - as I know from sad personal experience, a place where all forms of pig-meat are banned, and the Western Expat population are desperate enough to travel to Bahrain to get their "weekend breakfast fix"! She was on holiday at home in Scotland when she heard about BaconSalt being available in UK and ordered eight bottles to take back with her!

I've done "mock pork barbecues" in Saudi, with veal chops marinaded in pork stock cubes, but I bet with BaconSalt sprinkled over, veal will be even better. Might give the "Turkey Bacon" a lot more flavour too!

Meanwhile, I tried Dave Lefkow's (the originator of Bacon Salt) father's favourite - BaconSalt on Ice Cream - Just on one corner - I didn't think that one did it for me until I got to a bit where there was just a hint of BaconSalt, and that was certainly something I'll check out again. (At the moment I've run out of Ice Cream :(

We're Live - Ready to take orders and ship

Good news -the shopping cart is now running and the first order has been processed through Secure Google Check-out. Sadly it was to our Webbo (she doesn't like that term, "Webmaster", so I have to add that) she's beautiful, sweet, honest, highly-skilled - that's why we hired her!! and MY SISTER!

Seriously, my thanks to Trish and Nigel of LeSoftCo for getting everything up and running. She's asking to put the charge for the "test order" on my bill, but she had a shipment already when I tested out packaging earlier ;)

So now we are at last ready to ship to"real" customers. Lots of stock available and if nobody buys it our family will have 10 years supply. :(

We're Off! Stocks here and ready to ship to Customers

A delivery van arrived this morning, and the guy staggered up the front path with 10 boxes. This can only be my "starter" shipment.

Now to print off the "EU-Compliant" date code and allergy info labels and have the shipping packaging delivered. Have to tell the "webbo" to make the sales site "live" and buy a lot of postage stamps!

Here we go - "BaconSalt UK" is off the ground and should be ready to send out our first orders on Monday!

Almost Ready to Go

Getting close to the launch . . . . I've been "jumping through hoops" for the WorldPay credit card account and that is probably still a few weeks away from being confirmed and the software on our site put in place by LeSoftCo, but the Google Checkout is ready to go online for all cards as soon as the stock arrives - should be here in about a week from now.

The basic price from Crazy4Flavour should be close to the ex-factory US$ price from J&D's, even after the shipping costs to UK have been paid, and postage to UK and even to Europe will be a lot less than postage from USA (and a lot faster!).

We got "hit" badly by the recent change in exchange rates for the US$ (which strengthened by some 20% in the week before our stock order was placed, and paid for!) but hope to keep the price in UK£ just under £3 for all but the more expensive "Natural", and a very competitive price now in €!

Stocks on the way!

I've just had confirmation that my shipment of several hundred bottles of BaconSalt, as well as some catering packs, are on the way from Seattle. Should be here in about a week and a half. By that time the "credit card merchant account" should also be ready to go.

(Just in time - we're running out of the original "sample" of 15 bottles in the family kitchen!)

The Origin of Crazy 4 Flavour

Working in the Middle-East for the last 20 years was a real "hardship post". You've probably heard how most countries there either ban booze completely or restrict its availability. As if this wasn't enough, they make even life harder by not allowing bacon! Imagine - Life without bacon :(

One of my "online friends" on an internet forum http://z3.invisionfree.com/JBSocialBoard/index.php?act=idx posted a link to BaconSalt, probably just to get me drooling, but by that time I was based back in UK and eating far more lovely bacon than my newly-acquired wife thought was good for me, so I checked-out where to buy this apparently wonderful solution to the wife's nagging about my fat intake and my lust for the taste of bacon. I checked through the list of sellers on the web site, and found that there was nobody selling in Europe, so contacted J&D's in Seattle to order some, but it cost me as much in shipping as it did for the BaconSalt! Someone should be selling this wonderful stuff on the Eastern side of the Atlantic!

Look what a wife-approved "healthy" sausage, bacon, and eggs looks like:
The BaconSalt is mixed in with the eggs while cooking, and some more sprinkled on the top - It's awesome!

So began the concept of CRAZY4FLAVOUR. After finding that it really did go with everything,and with my own supplies running out (the kids love it too, and put it on everything!) I decided to import in bulk and sell what our family didn't use!

Company name now registered, the domain in UK (as well as Europe, and the "dot-com") bought, company bank account, all this after ploughing through UK and EU food import and sales regulations to make sure that it did not contravene the myriad of laws that are visited upon us by our well-meaning (but not necessarily bacon-loving) .governments in Westminster and Brussels.

The web site is being built by LeSoftco - not finished yet (as you can see from the link!) - and the procedures for accepting Credit Cards for purchases are under way. All that is left is to get a couple of tons of the stuff shipped out from J&D's in Seattle ;)

Stu