I don’t remember if it was here on boingboing or somewhere else, but I remember seeing a recipe for vegan “bacon” strips. I did not pay much attention though since I don’t like the insides of bananas and my vegan friends don’t like fake meat type things in general.
If the flavor of the peel is as mild as you say, I wonder now if I would not find them yummy transformed by alchemy into bacon!
But then I am left with conundrum of what to do with the horrid insides!
Give the horrid insides to your vegan (or non-vegan) friends to make smoothies or banana bread?
Frankly, I don’t think banana peels would ever really taste like yummy bacon. Maybe some smoke flavoring and maple syrup would help, but it just wouldn’t have the required umami, I don’t think. A friend once told me he put some kind of mushrooms in his smoker and they came out tasting like delicious bacon, but I think mushrooms come with their own umami, so I could see that working fairly well. But it seems to me that banana peel “bacon” might be just a seasoned snack that kinda-maybe reminds one of bacon. That’s said without my having tried it, of course.
Nothing wrong with seasoned snacks, of course! I’m just more in the “don’t try to make food into a substitute for something it isn’t” camp.
Looking around it seems to be a huge viral thing. I went through several before settling on posting this one (too many sites that were also pushing “clean” eating woo and other Goopy-stuff)
ETA: and even if they ARE organic scrub the fucking outsides! They have touched everything the banana has during it’s three week journey from farm to being as brown as they specify 
The woo, it’s everywhere
I think you are right though, it’s probably a pale imitation. I might give it a try though - maybe a little truffle powder in the marinade? Though the tamari might be enough umami? I guess I could freeze the insides to give to friends. But then I have to wear gloves so I don’t touch food they will later eat…sigh. Maybe I will just go make some bacon…
That’s interesting, I didn’t know that it’s a viral thing! I just was looking at the pile of banana peels I was about to put in the compost, like I do every week, and finally decided I really should do something edible with them 
That “bacon” recipe you linked to does look good. Between the smoke flavoring and frying them, it seems like that would give it a running chance.
One thing about using very ripe bananas with lots of brown spots (as they say to do), in relation to using organic bananas: Organic bananas may not turn brown like that. I’ve often found them to still be even partly green on the outsides, when the insides are fully ripe or even over-ripe. (I was trying to research why I keep finding that to be true, and it seems that organic ones aren’t gassed to be ripened in the same way as non-organic ones are, but I don’t fully understand it yet.)
I had heard something about that somewhere too, but I also have no idea of the mechanics (or biology…or chemistry) of how that works.
This is people trying too hard to have it all. Want to give up animal products? Sorry, no more bacon. Can’t come to grips with being an omnivore? Sorry, no more cheese.
The amount of processing that goes into most vegan substitute foods makes them as ecologically unsound as meat.
It’s usually calcium carbide-generated acetylene - I’m not sure if they recover the acetylene but if not it’s not great for carbon emissions. I remember hearing stories of farmers in decades past filling a shed with green fruit, generating too much acetylene and later checking out the shed with a cigarette in hand. Not recommended for those allergic to explosions.
Edited for the grammerz.
Same here. I fluv home made kale chips, though, which is kind of what I imagine the banana peel bacon might be like, just a little more labor intensive, and a little more toothsome. Maybe.
That may be true generally but the banana recipe linked doesn’t look anymore involved than say BBQ ribs or, well, anything marinaded.
I mean - marinade, fry, eat. What’s so processed about that?
I’m a bit surprised that ethene gas triggers the organic filter for people. I mean Bordeaux mix is acceptable in biodynamic wines. It definitely wouldn’t make me think I needed to wash the banana peel afterwards. It’s the same gas they produce themselves (that people recommend you put unripe avocadoes in with bananas because of).
What a strange conference format! I’m not saying it is necessarily bad, but it seems like it would be difficult to get discussion going if nobody gives a talk beforehand.
I have no idea, honestly, since I don’t eat them.
In my original post I just meant that you should scrub anything that you are going to eat the skin/peel of. The recipe I linked to was only concerned about pesticides on the outside.
I just know that there are lots of contaminants that can get on anything during the transportation and storage phases! Something being organic doesn’t mean it can’t be dirty - it’s not magic, after all.
It does rely on people reading the materials beforehand. Which goes about as well as it does with students. But it’s a recent trend, meant to cut down on having faculty drone on for 20 minutes, and allow for more discussion.
Well, I’m glad that I haven’t had to “give” a “paper” in one of these yet. I actually like the presenting part.
That said, this conference is actually relevant to my research. If I had the time and if timezones were aligned better, I would have registered, so thanks for the heads up.
I’m excited for it. My hope is that it is done in a way that non-academics and academics alike will enjoy it.
I have a half-full schedule each of those days, so I’ve signed up and we’ll see how many of the sessions I manage to see. I’m hoping they’ll either provide a permanent link or a transcript after the event, so by signing up I’ll have access to anything like that, too.
That’s great! Maybe there’ll be some discussion to bring back here.
Call me crazy…
My favorite bread is toast. And my favorite spread is sweet and hot.
So, I add hot sauce to my jam and jelly.
