Bacon is overrated
Bacon is overrated
I don't care for bacon, it doesn't have much flavor and is often just used for salt, or fat. I leave it out of almost all recipes that call for it and haven't missed it yet.
I don't care for bacon
That's fair, everyone has their own tastes
it doesn't have much flavor
Uh... what? 🤨 I think this is just objectively wrong
It doesn't, it tastes like the artificial smoke that's added, if that flavor even survives cooking until crispy.
artificial smoke
Hmmm. So you're eating low quality bacon and saying it tastes low quality.
Alright.
It sounds like you're just eating bad bacon 🤷♂️ splurge on something from a butcher and then get back to us - it really is totally different.
there's unsmoked bacon out there which very much does not have the taste that you're describing (I know because I specifically avoid that smokey taste).
You're buying the wrong bacon.
Apparently all the restaurants are too.
Bacon added as a side or in, like, a burger typically is your basic, low quality bacon.
If you want the good stuff, find a local butcher or supermarket that has a deli counter and you can often find good quality, pre-sliced bacon. If you're in the US and near a Stater Bros, for example, go check em out.
Where do you buy wour fat and salt free bacon then?
I like it, when it's useful. But does anyone remember the 2012ish bacon craze that everyone fucking had. I think that was one of the first marketing over-reactions to an internet meme. Fucking bacon ketchup. Just add salt to my salt please.
Bacon gum, bacon soap, I swear I saw bacon scented shampoo once... It was stupid. Like overnight, everyone decided everything needed to be bacon.
For a moment, I wondered if Sanrio had went nuts and replaced Hello Kitty with a talking slice of bacon.
that's what it was like, like every marketer around the world said "Oh look, bacon is funny on the internet, let's make our stuff bacon". Freaking wild time, and I know most of it went unsold
You have cause and effect backward. Baconmania was the product of a marketing campaign. The marketing campaign was the source of the meme, not the follower of it.
Looking over your comments, you've fallen prey to crappy industrial food practices. And it's hard to avoid tbh. Most of the bacon out in stores doesn't have much flavor. You have to either research brands to find a good one, or live close enough to where someone makes bacon the right way so you can get out while bypassing the bullshit. Mind you, just because someone is making bacon on their own farm, that's not a guarantee it's good, but it's likely to be better than the crap in most stores.
Good bacon is very flavorful. Yeah, there's salt to it, that's part of making bacon. But you get a lot more than that assuming the person making it stays fairly free when curing. It doesn't have to be just salt. But smoking rather than using liquid smoke is the real flavor power. Liquid smoke tastes anywhere from just fake and off to outright unpleasant.
Unfortunately, the ability to be certain of a local producer is long gone. Even butcher's shops are harder to find in populous cities. And it isn't like us rural and rural adjacent folks van guarantee access to local goods just because we're near a farm. Industrial food exists for a reason beyond just profit (though that's why it's usually not that good), and keeping a supply chain going means that most farms, even those that are family owned and operated, don't sell to the public at all, even if they do make some product for themselves.
Like, the guy I get most of my pork products from is a rarity. And he doesn't sell openly, you have to know him already, and be aware that he's not a grocery store. You get what you get, when it's ready, and not one damn day sooner lol. Same with the cousin that I get beef from.
Like, the guy I get most of my pork products from is a rarity. And he doesn’t sell openly, you have to know him already, and be aware that he’s not a grocery store. You get what you get, when it’s ready, and not one damn day sooner lol. Same with the cousin that I get beef from.
Seems like the best type of people to get food from
Man, it really is. There's drawbacks to living in a semi rural area, but the ease of obtaining fresh foods is nice, albeit not always possible due to needing to know someone to get some foods because it's more profitable to sell it off in bulk.
No bullshit, im so spoiled with beef now that it's absurd. Having access to reasonably priced (essentially at cost) meat that I know how the cattle are fed and treated, and has amazing taste has ruined me for grocery store beef. We don't even eat beef often, because of a combination of ecological impact and price (even at the family discount, it ain't cheap).
Pork products, I can't say that every product is automatically better than store bought, but anything processed will be unless you pick brands very carefully.
And don't get me started on how much better chicken is when the breed isn't so focused on time to market. I just don't have a good relationship with the locals that sell chicken lol. So it's a less frequent thing to have the better meat.
We have our own eggs now, after having adopted the first chicken last year. Our little marans hen lays almost every day, and they are soooo good. Rich, with a superb white. She's almost totally free range since our birds are pets, so there's a distinct shift in flavor from egg to egg sometimes. And that's a plus, imo. The depth of flavor is amazing compared to caged hens, but it isn't so strong that you can't bake delicate things with them too.
Legit, making friends in a community shared with farmers is always going to benefit you. And, when you treat them like a friend and neighbor, you end up learning more about the foods they raise in conversation, as well as sometimes getting a call for help and doing some work. That's a good thing as well, imo.
doesn't have much flavor
Are you just getting Oscar Meyer "bacon?" Cuz good bacon overpowers everything you put it on usually.
Agreed, but for a slightly different reason. It's the curing process that is the star. There's beef bacon. Tofu bacon.
When I want something pickled it doesn't always have to be a cucumber. Picked jalapeno is great. Jardiniere is fucking delicious.
I'm saying curing makes things salty and crispy, which is awesome when you want it. Just wish it wasn't always pork.
We had a local butcher once. I miss them. Turkey bacon, deer jerky...
I don't know I've had anything other than American "grocery store" bacon. I've never found bacon to have much flavor once its cooked until crispy. It tastes like salted nothing. I make a carbonara that has pancetta in it, but other than the texture, even then, I'm not sure how much that adds to that dish with all the other things in it.
Assuming you're talking about American bacon strips, it depends on the bacon, and it depends on how it's cooked. Finely sliced and super crispy ... ehh, I'm not into that. Give me some nice thick peppered bacon, just at the cusp of becoming crispy.
I will murder for candied bacon.
Yes, American bacon strips. Once you get to candied bacon, you can get that flavor with candied anything, maybe add some smoke or maple syrup. I don't think I've ever had thick bacon of any sort.
You can easily find thick cut bacon at any grocery store. It's far and away the better choice. If you've cooked bacon before, you know it's a nanosecond between "done" and "overdone," and you also have to stop cooking it before it's "done," because carryover heat will continue to cook it after it's off the heat.
... you can get that flavor with candied anything, ...
Oh, my sweet summer child. There's a restaurant chain in Chicagoland called Lazy Dog. I don't know where else they are, if anywhere. Go there and get their candied bacon.
OP has apparently never had Fletchers thick sliced pepper bacon that Costco sells. Bacon is the best meat, and I'll prove it. It's the meat you add to other meats to make them better. Filet mignon? Considered the best cut of beef. Wrap it in bacon? Even better. Scallops are among the best seafood meats. Wrap it in bacon? Absolutely delicious.
I love it but the pigs make me sad
Salt, fat, yes, but also smoke and sweetness. Complex flavors are contained within.
Edit to add: Of course everyone has preferences. You don't have to like bacon, and your feelings are valid. But, if you think that bacon doesn't have much flavor, can I ask you if you've been eating "uncured" bacon? Because "uncured" bacon is an abomination unto the lord. It's garbage, and worse it's a lie. "Uncured" bacon is cured with celery juice. It's fully cured. There's nothing uncured about it.
See, nitrates and nitrites are responsible for the curing process. Nitrates turn raw meat into smoky cured meat, and nitrites give it that lovely pinkish-red color. It's a chemical process that makes meat taste better and last longer.
Nitrates and nitrites are found in root and leafy vegetables, and kill bacteria. They are also found in wood, but we don't really eat wood. They can also be produced via a variety of chemical processes that won't be appetizing at all.
Cured meats can be bathed in nitrates and nitrites, or they can be smoked. The smoke will provide the nitrates and nitrites, although a lot of "naturally smoked" products have added nitrates and nitrites.
Both are good for you in small quantities, and bad for you in large quantities. You shouldn't eat bacon with every meal, but the quantity of nitrates and nitrites in bacon are fine in moderation.
The amount of nitrates and nitrites used in curing meat is highly regulated. In the US, you cannot call anything "cured" unless it has a specific amount of added nitrates, and the amount of nitrites is limited.
Except there's a loophole.
If the nitrates and nitrites come from a natural source, like celery juice, then they aren't regulated at all. It could be higher or lower concentrations of each, and there's no requirement to document how much of each is present in the recipe. And because there are no "added" nitrates or nitrites, it legally cannot be labelled with the word "cured."
So bacon manufacturers have figured out that they can market this "uncured" bacon as a healthier alternative to normal bacon. But we don't know for sure that it is healthier, in fact it might be worse for your health. The only thing we know for sure is that it tastes like celery.
Now, celery flavor works in a lot of recipes. It's distinctive and subtle when paired with carrots and onions in a mirepoix. In bacon, however, the celery flavor competes with the salt and the smokiness to make the bacon blander. It's just bad.
But the label tests well with shoppers. Who doesn't want guilt-free bacon? It costs the same (celery juice is just as cheap as manufactured nitrates and nitrites) and it tastes almost like regular bacon. It has all the same fat, calories, and sodium content.
So Write your Congressperson! Tell them you demand new legislation regarding the labeling of so-called "uncured" bacon. I guarantee that if we got rid of the misleading implication that it is a healthier alternative to bacon, the product would disappear entirely.
Or don't. It's not really that serious.
See, nitrates and nitrites are responsible for the curing process. Nitrates turn raw meat into smoky cured meat, and nitrites give it that lovely pinkish-red color. It’s a chemical process that makes meat taste better and last longer.
And as an added benefit they're rich carcinogens among other negative health delights.
I've never tasted those other flavors in bacon I've had.
See my edit. You might be eating "uncured" bacon.
'Overrated' as in exceeds expectations
I agree.
I started making my own, and I couldn't disagree with you more. Store bought bacon isn't good. Butcher or homemade is the way.
100% agreed. Baconmania is the product of a long-term marketing campaign that rivals "a diamond is forever" for its complexity and longevity. And the tragedy is there's so many far better things you can make with pork bellies, but everybody wants these carcinogen-laden, sodium-rich rashers instead.
!unpopularopinion is over there...
I do not eat animal products anymore, but when I did there was a salt cured smoked bacon we drove into VERY rural Tennessee for, where I swear I smelled crosses burning, and that is bacon like no other. The smokiness is so intense. It can be shipped anywhere in the US and if you want to give real bacon a try it's called Benton's.
I was initially puzzled about the differences in bacon between US/CA and Aus, thought it must be due to different animals or meat production. Then I realised that it's just a different cut of bacon - mostly only the "streaky" bacon seems to be popular in US/CA. In Aus we usually have shortcut or middle bacon, and it's way better IMO. Like a bacon steak in comparison, meatier and not swimming in fat.
I don't eat meat anymore but I didn't like bacon when I did. Always eather too hard and gross or too chewy and gross. If anything I was jealous that everyone else seemed to be getting something out of it that I wasn't.
I agree with your second sentence, but nothing instead of gross. I have no idea what everyone else is getting out of it.
The crispy crunch is what I preferred to the actual taste of bacon. I've been trying to cook up sliced mushrooms for a similar texture, but I've been really unsuccessful in my attempts thus far. My omelettes have been woefully squishy ever since getting bacon out of my diet completely. Spicy pork sausage tho, I'll have to look a pig in the eyes to give that up.
I like almost all types of sausage. If you want crispy, try toasting some panko. You won't get any big pieces though.
It's good as an addition to say a burger. Eating it straight? I want meat, not tiny thin meat strips.
I've heard the same thing said about eggs and things like tomatoes.
The issue is your eating low quality factory farm shit.
The difference in flavor is insane for most things between factory and locally grown by responsible farmers.
I've never really thought about eggs, but I've tasted the whole rainbow of tomatoes. I will note, that for things I really like, I like the cheap/bad versions too, just nowhere near as much as the good stuff.
You may just not like bacon, that is ok, but good bacon does have flavour.
Good, more bacon for me