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