APRIL 7, 2013 - Easter Hiatus and COSTCO Bacon

MY LIFE WITH BACON continues after a week off for Easter.  Don't think I didn't have any bacon, though!  Below is the crispy, but slightly overcooked bacon served at Brunch at the Deer Path Inn in Lake Forest, IL.  Good bacon for a buffet.

And what a buffet it was!  You name it, they had it.  A good time was had by all.

An additional distraction from our bacon blog was my trip back to West Point with Jack.  We flew to Laguardia airport, rented a car, and drove directly to Grimaldi's in Brooklyn for the absolute best pizza in the world.  If there's anything to compete with my love of bacon, it's a great pizza.  And if the pizza is topped with bacon, so much the better.

Grimaldi's is one of the oldest families to do pizza, and in coal-fired ovens that get over 1,000 degrees.  They told us we had to wait a half hour, and since I timed it, the pizza arrived just ten seconds shy of the 30-minute mark.  We headed up to West Point through Manhattan and headed over to the Army-New York Yankees baseball game.  All the big names except Jeter and A-Rod (didn't miss the latter) were there.  It was great to see Mariano's smile like a 10,000-watt lightbulb illuminating the field.  Small crowd - just over 7,000.  What a great event.

THE CHICAGO HISTORY MUSEUM has a great section on the meat packing industry in Chicago, and what a great history it is.  I took one shot of the Oscar Mayer display, which proudly shows the Weinermobile I mentioned in an earlier post.

ON TO THE BACON.  This week, I'm evaluating two Costco-purchased bacons.  The first is the standard Kirkland Hickory Smoked; the second is a specialty bacon called Pure Farms...

Both come in bulk packaging (good stuff!) and the price is certainly right! 

THE PURE FARMS bacon crisped up nicely, and had only average succulence.  But the flavor was truly outstanding!  It weighed in at a seven ounces, but started at 24 ounces (1 and a half pounds).  It produced 170 ml of rendered fat.  I'd buy this one again and again!   Good thing I have another package.

THE KIRKLAND BACON weighed in at 5.9 ounces after cooking and produced the same amount of rendered fat as the Pure Farms, on 2/3 the original weight.  It had a nice cooked color and a lot of character, but was light and airy, and pretty much flavorless.  NOT RECOMMENDED.

I have a couple more bacons in the bank to show you next week.  And unfortunately, the Swabian bacon hasn't arrived yet!  But when it does, you'll hear about it.

This week's table:

4/7/2013 Costco Day

	Pure Farms	Kirkland Hickory Smoked
Crispiness	4	4
Flavor	4.5	1
Succulence	4	1
Smell	4	0
Rendered Fat	Low	Medium
Overall	4	1