MY LIFE WITH BACON continues...hey, please send me suggestions on bacons to rate, or to simply comment on the content! I'd love to hear from you. Donations of bacon, cooked or uncooked (the latter properly packaged with cooling) are encouraged.
CHECK OUT THIS HOG LOG (wrapped in bacon, of course)
"Chef John Johnson of Lumiere Place casino rolls a thick layer of cooked bacon into a layer of italian sausage that is wrapped in a latticework of uncooked bacon on Friday, March 15, 2013, as he practices building a nearly 18-foot long "hog log" at River City Casino for the upcoming BaconFest St. Louis. The final hog log will be 50 feet long. Photo by Christian Gooden, cgooden@post-dispatch.com"
THIS WEEK, THE CONTESTANTS ARE
Farmland's versus Dreymiller and Kray Inc.
both Applewood Smoked Bacon
FIRST, THE FARMLAND. The Farmland Company is based in Lincoln, Illiinois. The Farmland brand is part of Farmland Foods, which is a series of brands owned by Farmland Industries, which sounds like a big corporation. Well, it is. Farmland started as a cooperative back in 1929, and today owns and operates a lot of different businesses - among them is meat production. You would think that the bacon is a low priority for their overall business.
During cooking, the bacon wrinkled up almost immediately. During cooking, it was very stringy and shrunk rapidly. I couldn't keep it flat. Major issue with "bacon neck". It looked much more like Candian bacon (which is not bacon) than the real stuff.
It ranks high on the succulence scale - lots of little bubbles of fat. But the bacon tasted very sweet - seriously sweet, as in waaay too much sugar. Not a good bacon flavor, and the smells weren't there, either. I'm not highly recommending this bacon. What do you expect from a huge conglomerate?
LET'S CHECK OUT THE DREYMILLER & KRAY. The packaging says "since 1929", which is the same timeframe as many of it's specialty competitors. They have a very nice, old school website, which is worth checking out. Home page has some great links, including one to a page about "Why Wooden Cutting Boards are Safer." These guys like meat and are serious about it. You can also order on their site. They have a storefront in Hampshire, Illinois, perhaps 25 miles west of Chicago.
The packaging, as you can see at the top of this post, is by actual weight. This package was .49 pounds, and it weighed in at 7.9 ounces (which is 7.84 ounces. However, my scale is only accurate to a tenth of an ounce, so I'll give them the benefit of the doubt). Post cooking, it weighed 3.0 ounces, a 61% weight loss. It produced a lot of fat in liquid form - 140 millileters.
During cooking, it stayed flat and browned evenly, with a little edge curl. Outstanding smoky smell right out of the box. This is excellent bacon, and I rate it highly on crispness, succulence and flavor. Not in the same class as Nueske's or Usinger's, but a great buy.
I'll rank the Dreymiller as well above average; the Farmland below average. The Farmland is on the left in the picture; Dreymiller on the right. You can see the stringiness and Canadian texture of the Farmland, while the D&K looks great with the succulent edge curling.
Dreymiller
& Kray
|
Farmland
|
|
Crispiness
|
4
|
3
|
Flavor
|
4
|
3
|
Succulence
|
4
|
5
|
Smell
|
4.5
|
2
|
Rendered Fat
|
High
|
Medium
|
Overall
|
4
|
2.5
|
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