May 3, 2015: More Bacon Crime; Bacon in Charlotte; Maple Flavored S&S

MY LIFE WITH BACON CONTINUES THIS WEEK with some Bacon on Travel, some Bacon Crime, and an evaluation of Stop & Shop's "Maple Flavored"

WILL THE BACON CRIME WAVE NEVER END? This week, a duo were arrested for stealing bacon and other meats from a grocery store.

I think they are in for some serious hard time. Isn't $300 and above considered Grand Larceny?

A line from the report reads "Deputies found ribeye steaks, ground beef, bacon, pork ribs and a gallon of bleach in the car..."  I'm one of those people who tries to guess what people are going to make for dinner based on what they have on the belt at the check-out aisle. Clearly these people are carnivors and were planning on a meat-heavy meal. But what recipe calls for bleach??


ADVENTURES IN BACON - this week, my NEPS business travel took me to the CSWeek annual conference with the Utility industry, in Charlotte, NC.


For the first evening, my friends at Inlet treated me to a great meal at Farenheit, which is a very hip restaurant in Charlotte, steps away from the Convention Center. The menu, viewable here, is excellent.



Of course, we ordered and rapidly consumed the pork belly dish, "NC Shrimp Potsickers" which has "Crisp Heritage Farms Pork Belly, Mango Mustard" as ingredients. When I asked, "where does the bacon come from," which is my most commonly asked restaurant question, all they could tell me was "Heritage Farms".  The dish was quite good.

I told the waiter (who broke a water glass within 10 seconds of initially approaching the table) that Heritage Farms is a pretty common name - surely he could find a little more detail. But noooooo, all he could tell me was that the bacon came from there. So today, I did a quick search, and sure enough, here's Heritage Farms North Carolina:

My friends at Inlet treated me to another great meal on the penultimate night of the conference, this time at a really cool place called Roosters, on College Street in Charlotte. This is a true farm-to-table restaurant. They treated us to a nice plate of bacon:

Naturally, even though we had a Vegan among us, I again inquired about the pork products. Our Vegan friend, Nicole, loves animals but didn't mind those around her acting like true omnivores. The assistant chef, Alfred (?) was a great fellow, and took me back to the kitchen, where lardons were hanging, and bacon was stored for their various dishes.

I asked for and gratefully received a hunk of belly that had been in a brine for a few days, then smoked. Buddy and farmer Paul ("Green Acres") Rokos wanted me to take a picture of it with his hand resting on the belly...

The pork belly received "special treatment" by the TSA. The TSA guy who worked on it dutifully logged this exception into his special form... "PORK BELLY" he wrote in large capital letters. Thankfully he didn't open the shrink wrapped package. It went through the X-Ray and hand inspection unscathed.

Upon arrival home, I immediately stuck it a sous vide water bath for a couple of hours to make sure it was fully cooked.  Next week, I'll cook some up and share the results.

THIS WEEK'S BACON is Stop & Shop's "Maple Flavored" (picture above). Like most people, I do get nervous about "flavored" on the package, and sure enough, the ingredients list "maple flavoring"... looking that up on the FDA website, the 'flavoring' contains molasses and a few other normal-looking things, but I still don't trust it.

The bacon stuck together (of course, I had it in the freezer for about two months before cooking), but I've seen this before. It was awfully stringy and kinky.

Weighed in at the advertised 16 ounces. The flavor was strongly maple, but it tasted a bit like the way I remember pop tarts tasting, but without the cinnamon.

In fact it was as overpowering as an over-cologned waiter. Unwelcome. I don't recommend it. I'll share one picture during the early cooking process...