I remember you talking about the Bacon option at Chick-fil-A before… I have discussed it with some of my friends, but have yet to actually order one…

The number one seems so perfect, that I don’t want to screw that up…

Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE bacon…

I actually work for a company that produces sausage and smoked meats, including, what I believe is the best bacon in the world… Unfortunately, my job requires me to ‘taste test’ our products everyday… Maintain that Quality and all… I know, it’s tough, but somebody has to do it…

Since you have touted it so highly (and repeatedly), I am going to make it a point to try this on my next visit to Chick-fil-A… I just hope that the bacon is not too crispy… I hate crunchy bacon… My wife, on the other hand, loves crunchy bacon…

Maybe we could start a poll… How do folks like their porcine bellies fried?

Limp… Just warm it up…
Juicy… Cook it until it is done and then STOP!
Crispy… I like mine DONE and then cooked a little bit longer!
Cruncy… Bac-Os got nothing on me… I want mine to make noise when I chew…
Black… KILL IT! What’s that smell?
Micro-wave… New school bacon, O-matic style…

I will vote juicy…

Intentionally ordered a club sandwich at Five Points Deli this afternoon for lunch after reading this post. Why is Bacon so good?!

I personally like a thicker cut of bacon. Not so thick that you have to cut it into pieces just to get it into your mouth but you get the idea (recently went to Chili’s with friends and they have some promotion for these bacon burgers and my friend ordered one. Needless to say that bacon is way too thick for my tastes. No joke this thing was like half an inch thick). I definitely prefer juicy. Crisp just takes all the flavor away and crunchy would just take all the fun any joy out of eating bacon in the first place.

I went to a wedding a couple of weekends ago, and available at the reception were bacon-wrapped scallops. ohhhhh. It’s this kind of thing that prompts my best friend to say, “Thank you, Jesus, for the New Covenant.”

Amen.

That is a glorious, glorious thing to contemplate.

As for how well-cooked I like my bacon, I’ll take it any way but raw--O.K., raw will do in a pinch—but I spent the first seven or eight years of my marriage reassuring my wife that you cannot overcook bacon. Like Dale Cooper ordering breakfast at the Great Northern Hotel before dining with the divine Audrey Horne (the obligatory hot chick to go with the pork product of preference), I like my bacon crispy to the point of cremation.

Unless it’s being used to wrap stuff, of course, then it needs to be malleable enough to be employed effectively as a ribbon . . . a delicious, magnificent ribbon.

Some bacon, can in fact be “overcooked”(imo)... All bacon is injected with the ‘flavor’ (brine or pickle in the industry) This typically consists of Salt, which has been used since before Christ, for ‘curing’ and preserving meat…

Sugar/Dextrose which adds a ‘sweet’ note and counters the harshness of the salt… but will carmelize during cooking, (sugar will turn BLACK if over cooked)... that is when crispy bacon goes too far…

You will see phosphates on the label b/c they ‘hold’ water, which adds quality characteristics such as juiciness and mouth feel…

Then there is Sodium Erythorbate or Sodium Ascorbate which is a cure accelerator, which act in conjunction with Sodium Nitrite… These work to “fix” the reddish – pink color that is associated with smoked meats… (I will skip the biology lesson on how this works…)

Nitrite gets a bad ‘wrap’ many times in the press b/c it can form nitrosamines when cooked over 350 F.

This is why I recommend cooking the bacon slower… Too many people turn the pan to “HI” and plop the bacon in… I cook my bacon with the stovetop set around 3 -4, and always start it before I cook the grits… With it cooking slower, you have more time to study how it is cooking and take it up when it is ‘just right’, whatever that means to you…

Sorry for the essay, but I do get excited about bacon… (and sausage too…)

And speaking of ribbons… Was it here that someone posted the link to the “Bacon Bowls”? Edible salad bowls made from bacon?

Here: http://www.seriouseats.com/required_eating/2008/02/for-an-edible-container-try-bacon-bowls.html

cheers!

I too have an unhealthy relationship with bacon. There are very few foods bacon does not improve in some fashion. There is a butcher shop near my home in Canton, Ga. that mixes ground bacon in with the ground beef for “Gloria’s burgers” as they are called. Oh my god. They are unbelievable.