Backstrap with Smoked Cream Cheese and Bacon Jam Appetizers

I’ve spent the past 20 or so years of my life cooking for a family of five, including a couple of big-eating boys who thought three big meals and a couple of snacks was the bare minimum to keep them alive.

This is the perfect recipe to use up leftover backstrap.

Now that all three kids are older and out on their own, I’m relearning what it means to cook for two. I don’t always succeed. That means getting creative with leftovers. When I found myself with some leftover backstrap, I decided to use it for an appetizer.

This appetizer uses sliced backstrap, smoked cream cheese and hot pepper bacon jam for the perfect combination of flavors and textures. All images by Michael Pendley

Now a good appetizer, in my book, anyway, needs a few things. First, it should be easy to eat on the go. I like to serve up appetizers that folks can snack on while they mingle and talk, not something they have to sit down at a table and grab some silverware to consume.

Next, it needs to have a balance of flavors and textures. Creamy and crunchy go tougher, as do sweet, savory, and a bit of heat. This one nails all the requirements.

Start out by smoking cream cheese. That is as simple as putting a block or two into an aluminum pan, scoring the surface in a cross hatch to get a bit of extra surface area, and then shaking on your favorite seasoning.

Score the surface of the cream cheese in a cross hatch pattern to hold more rub and smoke flavor.

For this one, I did a sweet and spicy BBQ rub. If you want even more sweetness, give it a thin drizzle of honey. Try hot honey for extra heat. Place it into the smoker at 225 degrees for about two hours. That’s it. Done. Try some by itself on a cracker. Good, isn’t it? It gets even better.

Season the cream cheese with your favorite BBQ rub, and then smoke at 225 degrees for two hours.

After you have that ready, the recipe goes together really fast. Start with your favorite snack cracker. I used Ritz. Spread on a layer of the cream cheese.

Spread a layer of soft cream cheese over the crackers.

Top it with a thin slice of grilled backstrap.

Top the cream cheese with sliced grilled backstrap.

Now comes the sweet and heat part. I like to use hot pepper bacon jam. You can make your own by adding red pepper flakes to the bacon jam in this recipe, but you can find it in the jelly section of most large supermarkets.

Find hot bacon jam in the market or make your own. You can substitute hot pepper jelly if you don’t want bacon jam.

If you can’t find it, and don’t have time to make it, substitute hot pepper jelly from the market. Just spoon a bit onto each backstrap slice. That’s it. Serve and enjoy. I told you they were easy.