July 12, 2015: Bacon and Lacrosse (what's not to like?) and PALEO BACON

MY LIFE WITH BACON continues this week with a few comments about bacon and pulled pork at Lacrosse tournaments, and some bacon at STONEHENGE.

THE US ARMY BURIED STUFF AT STONEHENGE, believe it or not. I've always wanted to figure out how to get Stonehenge into the blog. Well, here's my chance. A bunch of British archaeologists unearthed some WWII US Army mess gear there. 'Mess' in Army parlance means 'dining facility', believe it or not.

What did they find? Tins of sunscreen and bacon (in separate containers). The sunscreen was intact, but the bacon tins were empty! That makes perfect sense. No soldier is going to get sunburned in England! But they have to eat! Interesting read here.

BACON AND LAX - a great combination. Here's the Daug Pound courtesy of Red's Comfort Foods:

Attended the Bluegrass Lacrosse Festival a couple of weeks ago. The Vendor Village had a number of great food trucks, including one with a smoker trailer, and a great hot dog/hamburger truck (Daug Pound, above). Red's Comfort Foods has a great Facebook page. Of course I ordered some pulled pork from the trailer, and some bacon and hot dogs from Red. Great stuff.

My friend Paul Rokos sent me a neat recipe: Pork Carnitas. Go here for the recipe; it features pork shoulder and looks great by itself or in tortillas!

THIS WEEK'S BACON IS PALEO!  Many people have lamented that folks have a hard time obtaining bacon that doesn't have sugar in it. Well, it exists! Wonderful middle daughter Caitlin purchased it for me recently. Boasts "Sugar Free Dry Rubbed" and "Eat Like A Caveman" "Paleo Friendly":






















Packaging looks great. No real aroma out of the box; maybe faint hickory but I couldn't tell. It cooked up pretty translucent, which is usually a sign of overcuring, and was pretty white. You can see that in the three-step photo below; cold, mid-cook, near end-cook; and then finally, on the paper towels.

It did taste pretty darn good, although wife Debbie said (as she usually does), "not enough salt", but it was nearly perfect for my taste. However, for the price, and for the size (8 ounces) it wasn't worth the trace sugar that is washed off the pork belly before smoking. Below, drying. It was pretty good.

Crispness, 3 out of 5; flavor, 3; succulence, 2.5. Lots of shrinkage.