BACON IN THE NEWS begins with another fraternity / sorority being kicked out of UCONN, my wife's alma mater. Story here. Seems a bunch of pledges were forced to lie on the floor and sizzle like bacon. What a travesty. And it didn't just happen once, but multiple times. Of course, it wasn't the bacon routine that got the groups kicked out. It was the excessive drinking. The bacon play was an accessory to the crime.
More news later today when I have time; check back this evening for an update!
THIS WEEK'S BACON IS FROM INOVASI, a local Lake Bluff restaurant. Earlier last week, we received an email promo from Inovasi, which launched its "Bacon Tuesday" deal. They guarantee that their burgers are the best on the North Shore. Of course, we had to check them out. And naturally, we expected that they would have a bacon burger.
I got the "Johnny Cash" burger with a side of bacon, and my wife got the bacon cheeseburger (of course, artisanal cheese and heritage bacon). Inovasi is innovative and works the farm-to-table thing. Great food, ambiance and drinks. The burgers were excellent, the bacon 'interesting'. The bacon had good crispness, but was 'brittle' and the edging had hard parts. Chewable but hard. The flavor was also fascinating. Come to find out that the bacon is seasoned, and smoked, there in the restaurant.
And the bacon comes from a 'heritage' farm in Iowa called Becker Lane Organic (logo above). If you're in Chicago in the summer, here's what they say: "Stop in and see us in person at Green City Farmers Market in Lincoln Park, Chicago on Saturday mornings during market season." Great site.
The bacon itself is sold across the street from Inovasi, at Wisma, owned by the same folks. The bacon was labelled as a full pound, and weighed in at 16.4 ounces. Post cooking there was very little shrinkage and came in at 7.9 ounces. It produced only 80 ml of bacon fat.
During cooking there was a lot of 'snap crackle & pop' - very noisy bacon. From an appearance perspective, the bacon was brown out of the package, and once the cooking started, it had a very high degree of translucence. This is an indication of over-use of cure. Picture above.
The bacon seemed to cook too quickly, but I don't think those dark areas are actually burned. It's the natural coloring, fully cooked. Well, ok, there might be a few burned spots. Just as in the restaurant, the bacon had hard edging. The flavor was overly sweet, and had a spice taste that I couldn't quite place. Overall, I give it a 3 on flavor, a 4 on succulence and a 3.5 on crispness. Good bacon which will generate a lot of conversation at the breakfast table.
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