TikToker's recipe for vegan bacon made from BREAD goes viral (2024)

A New York City magician has charmed TikTokers by transforming a simple piece of bread... into bacon.

Rajon Lynch, who performs as RJ The Magician, didn't pull of the trick with a wave of the wand or an 'abracadabra,' but rather a crafty recipe that involves coating a piece of flattened bread in a smoky marinade and then frying it up in a pan.

The 25-year-old's recipe for'completely vegan' bacon has enchanted his followers, who have called him a 'genius' and vowed to make it themselves.

'This bacon is fake and I made it in 15 minutes,' RJ says in his viral TikTok video, which has earned nearly a million views.

He wrote that it is 'honestly better than a lot of bacon that I’ve had and its made out of one piece of bread.'

The recipe calls for flattening a piece of bread, soaking it in a special marinade, and frying it.

'If you have a piece of bread, you can make at least some version of this,' he says.

'I was in bed the other day and I was like, why can't I just make bacon out of bread. It gets compact, it's squishy, it's absorbent. It'll absorb anything you put in it. And it's made to get crispy.'

First, RJ demonstrates flattening the bread with a roller. He then cuts it into strips, and flattens the strips again.

Then each piece gets coated in a mix ofTabascoChipotle Pepper Sauce, Colgin Liquid Smoke, maple syrup, olive oil, paprika, soy sauce, garlic powder, and MSG or nutritional yeast.

Next, he demonstrates, fry each strip in oil and vegan butter in a pan.

'It's gonna cook fast, but you want it to cook low. Put it on low or medium heat and let it sit for like ten seconds. Flip a lot,' he says.

The bread should begin to brown and eventually take on the color of cooked bacon.

Finally, RJ takes a strip out of the pan and lays it across three forks turned on their sides to give it a bacon-like 'curve.'

'It's literally almost like candied bacon. This is the best thing I've ever created,' he says.

The recipe has earned quite a lot of reaction on social media, and while some skeptics insist that only bacon is bacon, others are grateful for the idea.

'You are a genius omfg,' wrote one.

'Oh this I'm gonna try and I'm not even vegan,' wrote another.

This isn't the first viral recipe that promises to transform bread into something resembling meat.

In 2020, actress, author, and vegan foodie Tabitha Brown, 41,revealed how to make 'bacon' out of carrots in a TikTok recipe video.

Her recipe calls for slicing carrots into thin strips, then coating them in a mixture of Wright's Hickory Liquid Smoke, maple syrup, garlic powder, smoked paprika, and'a little bit of onion powder with pepper.'

'This is your concoction for the carrots that turns it into the bacon,' she says while mixing up the seasonings with a pastry brush, then letting the carrots sit in it for two minutes.

The coated strips can be cooked in an air fryer or oven at380 degrees Fahrenheit for five minutes.

And in June of this year,Bon Appétit tweeted a link to a recipe for David Tamarkin's vegetarian Bread Steak, which the writer said 'hits the spot when a slab ofcauliflower just won’t cut it.'

'It’s fatty. It’s salty. And if you do it right, it’s downright meaty,' Bon Appétit tweeted.

The magazine included a photo for the dish, which is a 'custard-soaked, Parmesan-crusted chunk of sourdough' that has been topped with vegetables.

Tamarkin explained that that he stopped eating steak for environmental reasons, but still craved it, and cauliflower steak doesn't scratch that itch.

So his 'carnivore’s palate' let him to a bread dish that he pan-roasts and then crisps in a broiler after soaking it in milk, eggs, and salt.

'When the bread is ready, it’s browned and crusty on the outside and, just like a perfectly cooked piece of beef, reveals a tender center when cut open,' he said.

Twitter users, however, were not quite convinced this should be called 'steak,' with one writing:'This is one of the dumbest things I’ve ever read in my life.'

'I do not know why the term "bread steak" is making me violently angry but here we are,' wrote one critic.

'That’s maybe a grilled cheese but nothing more,' wrote another.