May 19, 2013 - Baconfreak review #2 - Savory vs. Sun Dried

MY LIFE WITH BACON continues this week, continuing my review of Bacon Freak fare.  This week it's one standard and one 'specialty bacon.

BACON IN THE NEWS.  Thred items worthy of mention this week.  The first is that the (in)famous Yankee Candle has a collection called "Man Candles"... ugh.

 "As many candle buffs know, the Man Candles collection launched last year on the theory that a man’s den, basement, or garage could benefit from pleasing scents."

Some of their scents include "Riding Mower" and "Man Town".  I can suggest some scents - how about "Locker Room" or "Tuna"?  But I digress.  But in reality, no self respecting man is going to burn a candle in his den.  Anyway, they announced a new scent - it's called "MMM Bacon".  It's taken them a while to jump on the bacon bandwagon. 

Second up on the hit parade is that our friends at Kraft are introducing five new hot dogs, including a Bacon Dog!  I'm actually looking forward to this one. These will be coming to your supermarket shelf in June.  As frequent readers know, I actually like Oscar Mayer bacon, and I think it's good, solid, everyday fare! Well, this dog will be loaded with hardwood smoked bacon (they don't say which hardwood).  A Kraft spokesman said "We know Americans love bacon, and we know they love hot dogs..."  Pure genius!  How much do they pay this guy?  But this dog can definitely hunt - for pigs! 

Finally, an interesting bacon cook-off.  A Real Simple article describes how their staff "pigged out on 58 versions of the best food on earth, bacon."  They don't describe their rating system, but they do list their favorites in several different categories.  In the category of "best original" they picked - guess what - Oscar Mayer "Naturally Hardwood Smoked"!  They call it the "quintessential bacon" that "cooks up thin and crispy, with just the right balance of fat and salt."  I have to agree, Oscar makes good workaday bacon!

ON TO TODAY'S BACON

Today we're rating two bacons that came from baconfreak.com - Rocco's Private Reserve and Smokey's Savory Select Dry Cured Maplewood Smoked.

FIRST, SMOKEY'S.  The package indicated 14 ounces, and it weighed in at 14.4 ounces pre cooked.  A good deal.  Post cooking, it weighed 6.3 ounces, for a reduction of 56% - not too bad.  Produced 140 ml of rendered fat.

On opening, it has a nice maple scent, not at all overpowering.  I noticed that, upon cooking, the fat became translucent - which was a bit of a puzzle, until I looked at the packaging.  It's labeled "no refrigeration required"!  It's obvious that this bacon is loaded with cure and preservatives... do not eat too much of it!  When fully cooked, it was a nice salt balance with chewiness, but not at all crispy.  Overall, OK, but boring.

SECOND, ROCCO'S PRIVATE RESERVE -SUN DRIED TOMATO HICKORY SMOKED BACON.
 Although made by a different manufacturer, this package, too, was labeled "no refrigeration required".  This is generally a red flag.  The label also said, "The Ultimate BLT Bacon", so definitely worth a try!  It's produced by someone called "Coastal Vineyards, Moorpark, CA" They have come up with a very cool idea for their Wine of the Month clubs - one is called "Swine and Wine" - bacon and wine pairings directly to your door each month.  Hmmm.  I do like wine, and I do like bacon....we'll see.  Maybe on my Father's Day list!

The bacon itself weighed in at 14.6 ounces in a 14 ounce package - again, extra bacon!  Post cooking it ws 8.4 ounces (heavy!) and only produced 30 ml of oil.  The problem was that the extra weight was an oil-retention problem on the bacon.  Even after sitting on paper towels, this bacon was heavy with it's own pig sweat!  The tomato pieces toasted up nicely and added a 'crunch' to this bacon; it was also somewhat spicy - as a result of the sun-dried tomatos.  This is good, specialty bacon that really does stand up well on a BLT.  Not for every day use, though. 

	Rocco’s Private Reserve Sun Dried Tomato Hickory Smoked	Smokey’s Savory Select Dry Cured Maplewood Smoked
Crispiness	2	2
Flavor	3.5	2.5
Succulence	2	2
Smell	3	1
Rendered Fat	Very Low!	Medium
Overall	3	2.5

May 12, 2013 - Happy Mother's Day! Big Box Bacon & more

MY LIFE WITH BACON continues on Mother's Day!  All you moms out there - tell your men to go make some bacon and serve it to you in bed.  You deserve it.  A new twist on 'makin' bacon' - you can actually cook food bacon and serve it to her.  In bed.  With her coffee.  Enjoy.

BACON IN THE NEWS THIS WEEK was pretty interesting.  Did you see the story of the 105-year-old woman who attributes her longevity to eating bacon every day?  Awesome.  I think she's on to something, public opinion to the contrary.  Her name is Pearl Cantrell, of Texas.  The article is worth a read.

105-Year-Old Woman Says Bacon Keeps Her Alive

 

On webpronews.com they report that she received VIP treatment from Oscar Mayer:

"It seems that her love for bacon caught the attention of Oscar Mayer. The company decided to take Cantrell’s love of meat to the next level by giving her what every bacon-loving child has ever wanted – a ride in the fabled Wienermobile. She was driven around town in the vehicle while waving to everybody.

A ride in the Wienermobile wasn’t the only thing Cantrell received though. Oscar Mayer also gave her plenty of bacon so she could continue spreading the bacon gospel throughout her hometown of Richland Springs, Texas. 

After the events of the day, Cantrell says that she “will never, ever forget it, as long as I live.” Here’s hoping she lives for many more years so she can continue preaching the joys of bacon."

AND NOW ON TO THIS WEEK'S BACON COOK-UP:

BIG BOX BACON BONANZA

Sam's club bacon and section title, courtesy of loyal reader Glenn Thomas

Glenn was kind enough to drop off a consolidated package with 3.5 pounds of Sam's Club bacon.  It was actually two individual packages of about 1.75 pounds each - a brand called "Castle Wood Reserve" in Applewood smoked and Hickory smoked.  I'll be comparing these to Costco bacon.  Hence, Big Box Bacon!  The label says "OLD WORLD QUALITY" and "LEGENDARY FLAVOR".  Labels like that make me nervous.  Seems phony to me.  But then again, isn't that marketing? (Just kidding, honey.)

Also, when it comes to bacon, the words "reserve" mean to me that it's the leftover stuff they keep in the back for when they run out.  Not exactly like the term "reserve" in wine...  And what's with the GLUTEN FREE labeling on bacon??? Of course it has no gluten!! Silly, silly idea.  Marketing.  The top package in the picture is the Costco bacon.

CASTLE WOOD RESERVE APPLEWOOD SMOKED weighed in at 1 pound 13.6 ounces before cooking and 10.2 ounces post.  A reduction in weight of 65.5% with fat measuring 230 ml.  Out of the package, the scent wasn't very strong at all - if you had me guess at which type of smoking wood was used, I'd have to guess!  (Same was true of the Hickory)  It was very thick - some of the thickest bacon I've tested - but with a consistency in the muscle of Canadian Bacon.... ugh.  There were a few nice succulent parts, with average curl.  The flavor - not sticky sweet like some bacons and had a good fat flavor, not oily.  I think a good everyday bacon - a good buy.


CASTLE WOOD RESERVE HICKORY SMOKED weighed 1 pound 12.5 ounces pre and 9.6 ounces post cooking.  It produced 200 ml of bacon oil.  This one had even less of a wood smoke smell both before cooking and after cooking.  I didn't think it tasted like much of anything.

And check this out - a bad case of quality control. Where I'm holding the bacon, it's less than 1/8 inch thick - down below, on the paper towel, it's more than 3/8ths!  How are we supposed to cook bacon like that?

Cooking, it looked like a big slab of ham - NOT crispy, NOT succulent, NOT recommended.

WHAT??  Not only that, but many of the slices looked like Sea Horses! (My dad would never let me have them... maybe it's a baggage thing.  Click link to order.)  That's not the way bacon is supposed to look, my friend.  I don't want my bacon to look like sea horses.  Next thing you know, we'll find some bacon shaped like the Virgin Mary grilled cheese!

Later, when snacking on this bacon, my wife even said it sucked.

NOW LET'S LOOK AT COSTCO'S BACON. 
I previously evaluated 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 Kirkland looks like bacon you'll find in the supermarket; the Pure Farms looks special...we'll see.

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.

SO THE WINNER IS...Costco - not the Kirkland brand, but the Pure Farms.  But neither Costco nor Sam's Club make consistently good tasting, good cooking bacon, at least not the batches I tried.  While numerically, Kirkland's Hickory Smoked, which looks like repackaged Oscar Mayer, seems to do better than Sam's, it's still not unbelievably outstanding. But I would buy it again.

	Castle Wood Applewood	Castle Wood Hickory	Kirkland Hickory	Pure Farms Applewood
Crispiness	1	1	4	4
Flavor	2	1	1	4.5
Succulence	4	1	1	4
Smell	1	0	0	4
Rendered Fat	Medium	Low	Medium	Low
Overall	2	1	1	4

May 5, 2013 Bacon Freak six pack post 1 of several

MY LIFE WITH BACON continues this week with a tour of some Bacon Freak fare.  I've been to their site several times, both to buy bacon as well as to get bacon-themed gifts for my friends.  A great resource for all things bacon... as for the bacon itself, we'll see, won't we?  AND THE LINK AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS POST IS A MUST-CLICK.

BACON IN THE NEWS.  HuffPo posted about bacon last week and gave a tutorial (which I supplemented) on "how not to cook bacon" and it was a true classic.  However, this week, a generally good site called MAN CAVE DAILY said that the bacon thing has gone too far!  The concept is sacrilege, but the guy does make some interesting, and valid points.  Here's one of them:   "...we have giant, festering piles of products that are bacon-flavored despite nature’s insistence that bacon remain bacon and refrain from crudely inhabiting everything else."  With that, I must agree.  The Novelties section of the BaconFreak site is an example of some really over-the-top stuff, but hey, it's fun!

MY BACONFREAK.COM ORDER:  I ordered their special six-pack; you can see the ad on last week's post and probably still take advantage of their discount.  Here's their main logo - what's not to like about this? 

I like the logo, but I think the pig itself is putting on airs.  He seems to be a bit self-absorbed and a little too happy for a critter that's about to be torn limb from limb and used as sustenance for the human race. Interestingly, pigs are one of the few animals, that when some of the population are near others being slaughtered, they don't seem to mind at all, and just continue wallowing in the mud and eating their food.  And they're supposed to be smart?

I sense a little smugness in Mr. Bacon Freak, too.  He certainly appears to be better fed than Porky Pig.

Look at how innocent little Porky Pig looks.  Nice red bow tie and jacket.  He just wants to have fun.  OK, enough with the dissection of pig images.  Let's get to the good stuff: the bacon.


THE PACKAGE CAME WELL DESIGNED and the bacon inside was cold.  Here's what the box and the cold pack look like as they come from Bacon Freak.

BABY BUBBA'S 14 OUNCE, BUTCHER BLOCK, HICKORY SMOKED PEPPERED BACON was first up.  All the packages were listed as 14 ounce.  I think the bacon industry continues to try different weights other than the traditional one pounder in an effort to increase their margins. 

Baby Bubba's certainly had attractive packaging - each flavor has its own artwork and label.  This one weighted in at 14.6 ounces with a partial slice included.  To me, this means that their QC is paying attention.  If the automated weight is a little less than the net listed on the package, they have someone put in another piece.  Very well done, Bacon Freak, very well done.  A .6 ounce bonus, which probably translates into a .15 ounce cooked piece.  Every slice counts, folks.  Post cooking, it weighed in at 6.4 ounces, and generated 115 ml of bacon lard.

Upon opening, the bacon smelled like beef jerkey, and very sweet!  It cooked nicely as you can see from the pictures.  My review?  A little sub-par.  Thick, but hard to chew.  Not crispy at all, and with an oily aftertaste (non bacon oily).  Very peppery.  I guess if you really like beef jerky, you'll love this one!


SMOKEY'S SAVORY SELECT, DRY CURED, APPLEWOOD SMOKED BACON was up next.  Net weight was 14.2 ounces with that little bonus piced in there. 

This one smelled great out of the packaging (of course, just like when tasting fine wine and scotch whiskey, I do a little olfactory and palate cleansing between rounds).  Nice applewood nose to it, without any processing smells or cure aftersmells.  During cooking, the pointy ends curled up (this is a rare, pointy-ended slice).  It was prototype applewood smoke, with a nice balance, but not crispiness or succulence.  Texture was more like Canadian bacon.  Post cooking weight was 7.1 ounces and about 120 ml of lard.


BUBBA'S APPLE CINNAMON was the last to be reviewed this week.  It came in with a .9 ounce bonus weight!  Immediate notes of french toast upon opening, a theme which continued throughout the cooking and tasting.  Very thick.  Very sweet.  Too sweet.

This is truly an apple cinnamon cake of bacon.  If you like French Toast, you'll love this bacon.  You won't mind spilling the maple syrup on this bacon.  However, if you are a purist, this bacon falls short.  It had consistency characteristics very similar to the SAVORY SELECT.  Post cooking, it was 7.7 ounces, and produced 140 ml of oil. 


These will be summarized in a table in the future, but for now, I leave you with a reason I miss New York City so much. 

THE BACONERY  (CLICK THE LINK TO THE LEFT!)  As a result of reading the Man Cave article, I followed a link to The Baconery at 911 Columbus Avenue, New York, NY.  This is truly paradise.  A bakery where everything is made from bacon.  Go to their site. Visit their store. Don't you love life?  I leave you with a sign that is posted there, courtesy of the Man Cave Daily: