MARCH 24, 2013 - Farmland vs. Dreymiller & Krey

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.

It weighed in at 16.5 ounces - a five ounce bonus, pre-cooked.  Post-cooking, it weighed 7.9 ounces, a 52% reduction in weight - relatively low!  

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

    

 

MARCH 17, 2013 - USINGER'S VS NUESKE'S APPLEWOOD SMOKED

MARCH 17, 2013 - USINGER'S VS NUESKE'S APPLEWOOD SMOKED

MY LIFE WITH BACON continues.  As you may know, Debbie and I headed back east to mourn the passing of our good friend Jim Collins.  Jim also loved bacon (one of many things we had in common) and one of the foods served at Ann Lee's house was bacon stuffed mushroom caps.  They were wonderful!  Crunchy and succulent, Ginger and Pickles Catering in Glastonbury, CT did an outstanding job on ALL the food.  But the mushrooms were the best! I loaded up on 'em.


THE HEALTH FACTORS OF EATING BACON are complex.  In last Sunday's post, I pointed to this study that said it's plainly unhealthy to eat bacon or other processed or red meats.  After having read multiple reviews from multiple science-oriented sites and blogs, I think this quote is the best (highlights mine), from James Randi's site:

"Given the totality of research, it does seem likely that there is a small but real health risk from eating red and especially processed red meats. It is unclear if this risk is due to other associated behavior, or directly to the red meat. It may, for example, have more to do with eating fewer vegetables."

So my take is to eat healthy (which means eating Primal), take your vitamins, sweat every day, and I think that'll wipe out any health risks.  But then again, I'm an engineer/sales guy/futurist/bacon lover, not a doctor.

THE SUNDAY BACON CHRONICLES this week pit two of my all-time favorites against one another -

Nueske's applewood smoked versus Usinger's applewood smoked

LET'S START WITH NUESKE'S - another historic company; this one started during the Great Depression.  According to it's Wikipedia article, "Nueske's prepares its meats with a 20- to 24-hour smoking in "16 steel-lined concrete-block smokehouses heated by open fires of applewood logs.  Racks hold 80 sides at a time for about 16,000 pounds a day, with the smoked meat emerging "lean and cordovan-colored, ready to be hand-trimmed and then machine-sliced, roughly 18 one-eighth-inch slices to a pound."  What a cool concept - concrete-block smokehouses and open fires of applewood logs!  And it came through loud and clear as soon as I opened the package!  Wonderful aroma of applewood smoke filled the kitchen. Just beautiful.  Those Wisconsinites really know how to do meat!


Speaking of Wisconsinites, friend Glenn Thomas hosted a sleepover last night consisting of four boys, including my Jack.  When Margo dropped Jack off at our house, he came bearing gifts from Glenn - bacon tchotchke (small bundle of miscellaneous items - word of the day).  Great stuff, and thanks!  Glenn, a Badger, is also a bacon lover (his son often sporting a bacon T-shirt).

I'VE HAD MY EYE ON "101 Things To Do With Bacon", by Eliza Cross.  I can't wait to try some of the recipes - including "Chocolate-Glazed Bacon Brownies", or something called "Monte Cristos"... more to follow on that.  Tonight, though, we're having cast-iron pan-seared steak with my bacon-garlic-scallion brussels sprouts.  Can't wait!

So, back to Nueske's!  The package was labelled at 12 ounces, and weighed in at exactly 12.0.  No false advertising there!  Post-cooking, the bacon was 3.8 ounces for a reduction in weight of 68%  It produced 120 ml of rendered fat.  Here's Nueske's before cooking:

The mouth-fullness flavor was outstanding, as was the final appearance.  The bacon crisped up nicely, but also had a great group of succulent fat sections.  The smell was absolutely astounding.  Wonderful, smokey aroma.  I rate this bacon among my favorites.

ON TO THE USINGER'S! When we moved back to Chicago-land, I was happy to be in a zone where I could get fresh Usinger's bacon. I could have ordered from their website, but it's great to be in the same locale.

LIKE OSCAR MAYER AND OTHERS, Fred Usinger emigrated to the US from Germany.  The store is in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  According to its article on Wiki, "Usinger's produces many kinds of sausages and meats, in many cases using traditional 19th-century recipes. Examples include varieties of bratwurst, salami, kishka, chorizo, liverwurst, beerwurst, bologna, pastroma, frankfurters, summer sausage, blood sausage (Blutwurst), ham and head cheese. It is not uncommon to see a worker from the surrounding restaurants pop in to get Usinger's products for their tables when they urgently need to restock."  What a testament to the quality of this meat! Of course, it may also have a little to do with the demographics of Milwaukee and the demand for these products!  I'll be making a trip up there soon.

Out of the package, the aroma was similar to that of Nueske's.  Package label said 12 ounces, but I got a .7 ounce bonus!  This bacon cooked up great, but came up short on both the crispness as well as succulence factors, but gets a complete 5 (best) in flavor!  It produced 80 ml of fat.  Post-cooking, it weighed in at 5 ounces, for a 64% reduction - a little more protein than Nueske.

SO, HOW DO THEY COMPARE?  TOUGH CHOICE THIS WEEK, BUT I'M GOING WITH Nueske's.  I myself am a little surprised.  Nueske's gets the nod because of the combination of succulence and crispness that Usinger's just didn't have.  They were both outstanding in the flavor category, with a small advantage going to Usinger's.  And I do like the Usinger's website better... Usinger's on the left and a pair of Nueske's slices on the right.  You can see what I mean about the succulence:

	Usinger's	Nueske's
Crispiness	3	4
Flavor	5	4.5
Succulence	3	4
Smell	4.5	4.5
Rendered Fat	Low	Medium
Overall	4	4+

Oscar Thick, Hormel Center, Sunday, March 10, 2013

MY LIFE WITH BACON continues with some disturbing news and some very sad news.  The sad news later; the disturbing news is contained in a widely-reported European study about red and processed meats (bacon included).  Seems that even one slice of bacon a day is enough to increase your risk of cardiovascular disease and cancer.  That's very unfortunate.  I'm going to wait to see if U.S. studies corroborate this finding before I buy into it.  I'll be monitoring Mark's Daily Apple to get his take on it.  In the meantime, I'm not changing my eating habits regarding bacon!

I DO THINK THERE WAS A TYPO IN THE BIBLE, in the Lord's Prayer, where it says "Give us this day our daily bread..."; I do think he meant bacon instead of bread.  Bread is just not good for you.

THE SUNDAY BACON CHRONICLES this week features two packages of commercial bacon.  I had hoped to be able to review Carl Edgar Blake III's bacon, which I ordered about ten days ago.  This boy knows pigs!  However, ole Carl must be swamped with orders after this awesome New York Times article.  It really looks like he's raising awesome pigs.  Let's hope I get his bacon this coming week!

HERE WE GO with the continuation of last week's Oscar Mayer review; this week including their "THICK CUT", along with Hormel's Center Cut.

FIRST THE OSCAR.  Read up on Oscar Mayer in last week's posting; a historic company.  The package said it was 16 oz of bacon, and sure enough, before cooking it weighed in at two one-thousandths of an ounce over 16 ounces.  We got our money's worth in weight.  I immediately noticed that the slices were unevenly cut.  It wasn't only one piece, but several in the package.  The slices were also tapered at one end, which was exacerbated during cooking.

The bacon produced 130 milliliters of rendered fat, and post cooking the bacon weighed exactly 5 ounces.  It produced classic bacon wrinkles, just like in the Michael Jordan commercials, where they decry "bacon neck" in T-shirts.  (By the way, the only negative reference to bacon out there.)  This is classic bacon!


Crisps up very nicely with little bubbles of succulent fat.  Smell and taste were bacon as it should be - an awesome everyday bacon for use on sandwiches, with eggs or just by themselves.  Very satisfying flavor; not overpowering.  The weak spot was actually in the flavor; there really was no smokiness to it or much richness.  But great, overall, everyday bacon.

ON TO THE HORMEL.  The Hormel Foods Corporation is a 122-year-old food company based in Austin, Minnesota.  Like Oscar Mayer, George A. Hormel got his start in Chicagoland.  Best known for SPAM, a product whose name has become synonymous with junk email, Hormel also introduced Dinty Moore Beef Stew (1935), and microwaveable bacon (1988).  This is an historic, old-time meat company, and I had high expectations for their well-packaged "Center Cut" bacon.

Sadly, I was disappointed.  The bacon, out of the package, smelled 'piggy'.  It didn't smell bad, and I can't think of another way to describe it.  But it didn't smell good, either.  The package indicated 12 ounces, and it weighed in at 12.1 ounces; a slight bonus.  But a nearly ten percent overage on weight doesn't bode well for Quality Assurance.  It produced 50 ml of rendered fat, not much for 12 oz.  Post cooking, the bacon weighed in at 4.9 ounces - a strong net weight, reflecting that the bacon was high in protein and lower in fat.

However, it scored poorly in several categories.  It didn't crisp up at all (was limp, and that's never good).  It had no succulent fatty areas.  It was flat, limp and looked like Canadian bacon.  The taste reflected the appearance.  Although I wouldn't give it zeros in every category, I'm not buying it again. I'll be using this cooked bacon in recipes and miscellaneous activities.  I'll be putting the Oscar on Jack's sandwiches (he likes BLT's minus the tomatoes - we call 'em "BLT minus T"). 

OVERALL REVIEW.
The Oscar was SERVICEABLE; the Hormel Center Cut, WORTHLESS & WEAK.

	Oscar Thick Cut	Hormel Center Cut
Crispiness	4	0
Flavor	3.5	1
Succulence	4	0
Smell	2	1
Rendered Fat	High	Low
Overall	3.5	1

NOW FOR MY SAD NEWS.  My good friend, Jim Collins, lost his battle with a terminal illness on Saturday night.  Jimmy always beat me in golf, but I usually won at poker.  Jim joined the Tunnel Association on its annual Money Island golf and poker weekend, an annual retreat for chosen few.  He was a good friend, generous with his time and treasure.  We'll be re-naming the annual outing in honor of Jim, and include a toast to Jimmy as part of our opening ceremonies.  Safe journey, Chief.