This Sizzling Side Dish Was A Staple At Elvis' Graceland

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From his humble beginnings to the heights of fame as the King of rock 'n' roll, Elvis Presley was a man of large appetites yet simple tastes when it came to food and drink. Rather than gourmet fare, his culinary predilections instead reflected his Southern upbringing, exemplified by unpretentious, hearty comfort food like fried chicken, BBQ bologna, and tomato fritters. Perhaps most famously, however, Presley adored bacon to such a degree that it has become inextricably linked to his legend.

When Presley was born in 1935, bacon was an expensive luxury for many, particularly in Presley's poverty-wracked home state of Mississippi, and it was not uncommon for households struggling with the privations of the Great Depression to resort to bacon grease sandwiches as an inexpensive yet flavorful means of sustenance. And, according to a list written in the mid-1960s, along with other indulgences like peanut butter, banana pudding, and the ingredients for meatloaf (a staple Presley loved so much, he once consumed it every night for six months), thin, lean bacon was among the foodstuffs that Presley required the kitchen of his Graceland estate to be stocked with at all times.

Bacon was incorporated into many of Presley's preferred recipes. Nancy Rooks, who served as Presley's cook and maid at Graceland from 1967 until his passing in 1977, and later co-authored "The Presley Family Cookbook," revealed to ClassicBands.com that a routine meal for Presley would involve three or four eggs with cheese, onions, stuffing, and a whole pound of bacon, or "about eighteen or nineteen slices." However, Rooks recalled that Presley did not like his bacon greasy: "It had to be dry."

The best-known example of Presley's gustatory enthusiasm for bacon may be the legendary Elvis sandwich, but untangling the truth behind this iconic repast is surprisingly complicated. As it exists in popular culture, the Elvis sandwich  – a fried assemblage of bread, peanut butter, banana, bacon, and optional honey — may be a conflation of two distinct sandwiches associated with Presley. As verified by Mary Jenkins Langstrom, another of his private chefs, Presley did indeed enjoy peanut butter and banana sandwiches, typically fried in a whole stick of butter. "That's the way he wanted it," Langstrom laughed while demonstrating the recipe on a 1987 episode of the "Late Show With David Letterman," much to Letterman's shock. The inclusion of bacon could be attributed to another, far more elaborate (and infamous) delicacy: the Fool's Gold Loaf.

The Fool's Gold was created and served by the now-shuttered Denver restaurant the Colorado Mine Company, and comprised of a hollowed-out loaf of sourdough bread, filled with an entire jar of peanut butter, a jar of blueberry jam, and a pound of crispy bacon. According to numerous accounts, one night in 1976, Presley and his entourage took his private jet from Graceland to Denver to experience this incredible sandwich. When they arrived at the airport, 22 Fool's Gold Loaves awaited them, accompanied by a chest of Dom Pérignon champagne on ice.

Presley was far from alone in his love of bacon, and its appeal endures today. Per Verified Market Research, the United States bacon market was valued at $15.2 billion in 2024, with that value forecast to reach $19.8 billion by 2032.