Sombody gets it, bacon IS the meat.

Too often bacon is relegated to the duty of garnish, and add on to a sandwich to enhance and improve. A job it does well and without any complaints. Sure you got your BLT or B³ the way I do it (substitute bacon for the other two, then you got something), but that gives the lettuce and tomato equal billing. Well we heard from friends that a local sub shop chain "Sub-Contractor" had a little something for the Lords of Bacon, #6 Bacon and Cheese. That isn't the toppings, that IS the sandwich. How friggin awesome! Bacon Jason and I decided to head up the street to the Sub-Contractor closest to the office and see for ourselves. The staff was super friendly and we chatted about bacon, I am not sure if they thought we were nuts or what with the way we were going on about bacon. The people at work have learned to tune us out so we forget sometimes our level of bacon obsession can freak people out when they meet Bacon Jason and I for the first time. In any case, they were friendly, and didn't seem like they would spit in our food even after ordering a "large Farva".

We both got the #6 and grabbed some napkins to mop up our drool. There was a list of toppings you could add just as you would any sub sandwich, I went for some lettuce for color, and I am still nervous about tomatoes so I opted for olives. The iPhone doesn't do a macro focus too well so the picture here is pretty crappy. You ever eat some place where the food is decent but the service is so bad you won't go back? The service here was AWESOME and I may go back for food again. I feel bad for the review I am about to give because the staff was so great, but honesty is always best I feel. The bacon in the sandwich was too crisp, I mean like extra crispy, what you might use as pizza topping. Not bad, but very, very crispy. The sandwiches were crunchy, not sure that is a good thing. Perhaps if the bacon were a little less on the crispy side this would be a very repeatable sandwich. But as it stands, we both felt like once was enough. We left a little disappointed but with a belly full of extra crispy #6 and a hope of someday finding the ultimate bacon sandwich.

Boss Hog Style Bacon

You didn't think we ordered JUST jerky from Baconfreak.com did you? Of course not, we went with the Boss Hog Style Bacon - Hickory Smoked Brown Sugar Cured bacon because it just sounded so damn good. Turns out we picked a popular one, as I was writing this I noticed over on baconfreak that this very bacon is featured in the latest edition of Maxim magazine. Congrats to them for getting the attention they deserve.

If you take a look at the picture you will see this is some meaty bacon. It smells fantastic from the time you open the package and after you cook it up. My house smelled like someone was cooking bacon over a campfire once I was done cooking this up. The downside of that is the scent lingered well after I had eaten all the bacon, and was making me hungry for more. This is a great wake to the smell of bacon type of bacon, if you are lucky enough to have someone cook this for you to wake you up, you are in for a great day indeed. This bacon did not suffer from the usual shrinkage you get from average bacon, it will never shout "I was in the pool!"

This is the first of the many bacons available at baconfreak.com, and if this is any indication of what the other bacons are like, I am going to LOVE reviewing each and every one they have. This was full of flavor, very meaty, and a great stand alone bacon. Not too salty, and a great sweet smokey flavor make this one of the best bacons we have tried so far here at LoB. We noticed from the packaging that it was shipped from Moorpark, CA. This is literally around the corner from where Bacon Jason and I live, I wonder if they have like a factory store where you can walk up and get bacon, that would be awesome. In any case it means a very fast turn around on shipping, so that is a bonus.

Boss Hog receives the first of what I expect to be many great reviews, four and a half strips!

Bristol Farms Bacon, part 2 "Da Licious"

Okay, so I have been very lax in my posting, but I assure you it is because we have been busy busy busy with a lot of different bacon products. So be prepared for an onslaught of reviews this week. But first some unfinished business, as you may recall I grabbed some of the butcher counter bacon from Bristol Farms, and have been meaning to post the second part for some time.

This is for the more expensive ($6.49 per pound) "Applewood Smoked Bacon" I found at the butcher's counter. Let me tell you this is some THICK ass bacon! It it has one of the best stp (slice-to-pound) ratios so far, coming in with a whopping 11:1 ratio, that's 11 slices in 1 pound of sweet glorious bacon. This stuff fried up like bacon steaks. It had some moderate shrinkage but a very nice smokey aroma. This bacon was far superior to the other bulk bacon hands down. Well worth the extra two bucks per pound. I can see myself picking this up again, but it will have to be more than a pound, its just that good. Now if my bacon colored Honda didn't stick out so much in the parking lot.

Great flavor, smokey aroma and incredibly thick slices garners this bacon a hefty four slices.

Bristol Farms Bacon pt 1 of 2

O.K. so I work in an area that is kind of "hoity toity", I believe I mentioned the Porsche & Jaguar crowd in a previous post, while my bacon colored Honda suits me just fine, I do like to see how the other half lives by going to the premium markets and scoping out their bacon selections. On my way home I stopped at Bristol Farms. It is a pretty cool market, it reminded me of Whole Foods, but with Mountain Dew. They didn't have much in the way of packaged bacon, some Oscar Mayer, Farmer John's, and a house brand. The butcher's counter was quite large and when I checked they had two types of bacon. When I saw how thick the cuts were, I knew I had my bacon for the evening. The first was a generic "Thick Sliced Bacon" and an Apple wood Smoked Bacon that ran about $2 a pound more.

I picked up a pound of both and headed toward the front of the store. On my way I just happened to be in the refrigerated beer section, and there on the shelf, my favorite beer Hacker-Pschorr Weisse, thick bacon and good cold beer, this store may be alright. Part one is the generic "cheap" bacon and once I cook up the other package I'll post part two.

This is what it looked like in the display case. It is a really thick cut and for me that is a plus, I prefer the thick cut to the thin. You can see from the picture that it is a pretty fatty bacon, but more on that in a bit. The package was just over a pound and once I got it open I counted 13 slices. That a great ratio for thick bacon. Time to cook it up. When cooking anything other than "instant bacon" (review coming soon) I usually use the standard LoB approved method, but tonight I felt like mixing it up a bit, being a little more hands on. Tonight I am going to cook it up on the George Foreman Grill, ok... not exactly hands on, but a little more involved than normal. I think I may have been inspired by the Office quote on Royal Bacon Society the other day.

This is a close up of the thickness of the bacon, you can sort of see that it is a fatty bacon. Let me tell you my bacon butter jar got topped off from this batch. I cooked it up till it was barely crispy, and gave it a trey. I was concerned that it would be too salty, but it wasn't. It had a good flavor, hint of smokiness, but it had a very fatty finish. Don't get me wrong I love the hog fat..... mmmm hog fat.... but this had an oily after taste. So it gets points on thickness but loses them on the greasy finish. A smokey finish or at least a meaty taste after you finish is what draws you in for another piece, this just didn't have that. Overall it was a mediocre bacon, it would be great for a BLT or sandwich bacon, but doesn't cut it as a stand alone bacon.

I give it 2 and a half strips.

Boar's Head & the Lakers **Guest Post**

Our good friend Charles reviewed some tasty bacon....

"Forewarning: I am not a bacoterian and don't have the palette of a sommelier. However, I am a bacon carnivore. I promised Bacon Chris for a review, so here it is. While hitching a ride with Chris after imbibing ales and what-nots during happy hour at BJ's Brewery (thanks Chris) we took a detour to Gelson's to check out the bacon selection. Two packages really caught my eye. One was a peppered bacon which looked like it had 8 meager standard slices for $8. The value
proposition wasn't there and I can't even remember the brand name. Nevertheless I was tempted because I had never gnawed on pepper-laced bacon. The other one had an incandescent glow of red originating from the core of this vacuum-pack. The name, rather brand was Boar's Head. It was a product of Canada, but it definitely wasn't the ham-type nor was it Peameal bacon. This was true bacon so I snatched it out of the display fridge and immediately took it to the check register (as well as picking up a roasted chicken).

The following night while the Lakers were down 20, I needed a distraction. Furthermore, I was hungry so I reached in the fridge and pulled out the Canadian-made pork belly. I went against the cooking instructions and obeyed the Lords of Bacon cooking technique. I pre-heated my oven and threw in several slices of the Boar's Head. Lo and behold, Kobe's team is within 7 points and I hear the crackling of cooked bacon. Okay, so I don't know whether it was because of baking it, as opposed to the traditional frying, but DAMN, these slivers were amazingly delectable! Salty, of course, but not overpowering; there was no hint of hickory nor applewood, but tasty just the same; the texture really got me. It was like eating moist beef-jerky--a little bit chewy but melted when it hit the back of your throat. I had to bake the rest. When I ate the last piece, wanting for more I look up at the TV screen, the Lakers took out the Spurs 89-85 to take a 1-0 lead. What a night!"

4 out of 5 strips

Gelson's Premium Center Cut

So a few of us went out for a beer and a little of the 1st game of the Eastern Conference Finals. We arrive at the bar and while its not especially crowded or busy, our seemingly annoyed waitress took 10 minutes to let us know she would be with us in "just a minute". I did not have a good feeling about this. Another five minutes later and we were able to order a couple pitchers and some appetizers (sliders with bacon...duh). Maybe it wasn't going to be so bad. Thankfully there was a game on, and good conversation and good friends, if this had been a mission of drinking and boozing, we were off to a rocky start. I know, you are thinking "Whats this got to do with Gelson's", its coming don't be so impatient, bacon is life and life is about the journey. Bacon Jason arrives and when our waitress comes back around he orders an iced tea and then made what seemed to the rest of us a reasonable request. "How many slices of bacon come when you add bacon to a sandwich? Can we just order a plate of bacon?" Not only did it seem reasonable to us, we had done exactly that in this establishment before. However our server, obviously having a bad day, and unable for her sake to "fake" it; looked at us all as if we had asked her to climb up on the bar and copulate with a donkey. I'm not sure if she was a bacon hater or was baffled by the request, or what exactly, but somehow she wandered off and we didn't get to order a plate of bacon. Needless to say our already stellar service became even less of a priority for Miss bacon hater. We were eventually able to get a second round and Bacon Jason this time did not ask but simply told her "Bring us a plate of bacon, 10 to 15 strips". As she scurried off to the kitchen to see if putting "just" bacon on a plate was even possible you could tell she was anticipating a fleeting moment of joy when she was able to come back to the table of bacon jerks and tell them "I'm so sorry but we don't do that!" I saw her emerge a few moments later, glare at our table, and proceed to the little touchscreen console where they put in the orders, apparently she was the only one in the service industry that didn't feel like serving tonight. I made a mental note to look for floor scraps, spit, and anything not right with the bacon that I knew would be arriving soon. (trust me we will get to the Gelson's) More talk, drinks, and basketball and what light through yonder kitchen door breaks? Is that the sound of angel's trumpet's in the distance? The oh so difficult special order of a bunch o' bacon on a plate emerges and is brought to our table and after a quick loogie check there was much rejoicing. I have found that a lot of restaurants really phone it in when it comes to bacon, but this stuff was full of flavor, warm, not to greasy, all in all good bacon, and had it not been for the service of the one waitress, worthy of review. All but our vegetarian friend had some and we all agreed, bacon is always worth the wait. So time passes, yadda yadda yadda, more of the same lackluster service and we decide to head out.

Its a little after 9 and I had planned to swing by the nearby Trader Joe's ya know to peruse their bacon aisle, its a hobby. But alas they closed at nine and I am out of luck, which kinda sucked as I was thinking about bacon now and once you start thinking... ok.... you got me... I never actually STOP thinking about bacon. So Charles bets me that Gelson's is open, did I mention I am giving Charles a ride? Well I am, and he bets me they are open, and since they too are close by, we decide to check it out. For a point of context (and you thought we were close to the actual Gelson's review....silly) let me say a little bit about the stores I keep mentioning. I have like 4 friends that read this, and I am pretty sure they all know the stores I am talking about, however, on the off chance someone that I haven't begged to look at this does read it and has no contextual perspective on these stores, this bit is for you. Trader Joe's is like an Indie rock band when it comes to supermarkets, like say Modest Mouse or Death Cab For Cutie. You may or may not have heard of them or their music, but you know right away they are not an Aerosmith or Rolling Stones. Check em out some time they got good deals and a lot of things you just wont find anywhere else. It was their uniqueness that made me think hmmm I could score some interesting bacon there. But I was too late for that now. Gelson's is (to me anyway) a bit snooty, over-priced "boutique" type of supermarket. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against the store, but that type of store tends to attract the Jag and Mercedes crowd and well, I have never really fit in with them. So anyway, Charles bets they are open and I figured they may have some bacon you don't typically find at your Safeway, or Kroger store, so its on, and off we go. (So close to the review, remember thats what this is about, almost there)

Gelson's is open, and being that Charles had lost our last bet we called it a wash and headed in to the store in search of smoked meats. But before I get to that, if you have whole rotisserie chickens for sale, and its 20 minutes to closing, lets say you have a dozen or more of them, do they leave em under the heat lamps for tomorrow? Shouldn't you like, blow em out on the cheap if you don't? It is 20 minutes to close, nary a Jag, Benz or BMW just a couple of drunks on a bacon bender... but I digress. Let me say this, they did not disappoint on the bacon selection. There was some standard brands like Hormel, and something called a "Range Pack" which was simply a 2lb sliced chunk of bacon in a box, I guess bacon from a box makes you feel more like a cowboy, it could have been the nifty "cowboy kneeling over a campfire" silhouette on the box that did it though. There was canadian bacon in several varieties. Even that abomination and sin against bacon Turkey 'bacon', I'll go into that in another post perhaps. Normally I would relocate that stuff to say, the cold cereal aisle, it simply does not belong with real bacon, but there was a time factor, also the fact we are the only non-employees in the store, made such a mission a little too obvious. There was even some pastrami looking thing called beef bacon, which for some of the same reasons I detest turkey 'bacon' I should scorn this other non traditional non pork goodness, but somehow the generous marbling of fat on the meat, it won me over and I couldn't hate it, maybe in another review one day. They have a few premium brands along the top row, one enticing 8oz for $8 peppered bacon, of which I cant recall the name, some delicious looking Boar's Head brand bacon (no I didn't know they made bacon either) and the house brand Gelson's. (Yay we are here....see wasn't that fun?) I opt for the house brand as I haven't tried it before and its also probably only available here in the Gelson's chain. I felt so exclusive I wanted to drive a Benz. Well Charles cant resist the Boar's Head brand and to be honest who could blame him it was a deep bacony red and looked so tasty sitting there staring at us, hoping we would choose it to be the one to go home with us, little did it know it wasn't going in a BMW but a lowly Honda, we totally messed with that bacon's head. Charles promised to write up a review so be looking for a special guest post soon.

I dropped off Charles and the Boar's Head and hurried home to cook up my Gelson's Premium Hickory Smoked Center Cut Bacon. It was $5 for just 12oz, not a full pound, that means it has to be good right? Well I fired up the oven, thats right oven, its the only way to cook bacon. I'll post on the virtues of oven bacon later, or you can google it, trust me though, no pants + frying bacon in a pan do not mix, oven is the way to go. I almost forgot to snap a picture of the bacon before I cut it open so I ran into the bedroom where the camera was charging and just threw the bacon on the bed and snapped a picture real quick, and I noticed, my comforter on the bed is bacon colored, cool. I laid out the bacon on the cookie sheet, it doesn't seem especially thick for thick cut bacon, in fact there are about 16 slices in this 12 ounce package, a good "thick" cut should be about an ounce per slice. Anyway the oven is preheated and in goes the bacon and before I can figure out how to bleach or sew some sort of marbling into my bedspread, the bacon is done. There is some shrinkage, not a significant amount but more than one would get with a high quality bacon. I paper towel the batch of bacon and have a taste. Hmmm, you would think with this much build up there would be more to it than this. Its not bad tasting, but for hickory smoked, it has little to no hickory flavor. It is in most respects, rather bland. I think perhaps its because the savory bacon from the restaurant is still upon my palate, so I do a quick Mountain Dew gargle and rinse to remove any previous bacon flavors from mingling and try again. This time I do get a little more flavor, unfortunately its the flavor of grease, and not even a good salty bacon like grease, just an oily taste. As I sit here and finish the last piece I think to myself, shoulda tried the Boar's Head.

This bacon gets a nothing to write a blog about average taste of 2 strips.