The Hunt For Red December

And by Red I mean bacon, specifically the new Oscar Mayer Super Thick Cut Applewood Smoked Bacon we posted about earlier today. It is coming to a supermarket near you and hopefully near us as well in December 2009. Bacon Jason and I have checked 2 Ralph's an Albertson's and a Von's so far and have yet to find it on the shelves. We will be commenting on our search as we continue to hit supermarkets here in SoCal. The suggested retail is $4.50, we will post the price we find it for as well.

Has anyone seen this in the wild yet? Where? How much?

Selling out never tasted so good...

We were recently contacted by Oscar Mayer's PR people and asked if we would like to try some free bacon. We thought to ourselves, a large corporation offering up a free sample, isn't that selling out, what about our "independent integrity"? We wrestled with this for all of about 8.3 seconds (only reason it took that long was we were speechless for 5) and realized "independent integrity"? We don't even know what that is, pretty sure its made up. We would love to try some free bacon please!
So we received a "bacon care package" from the folks at Oscar Mayer including product samples of the new Super Thick Cut Applewood Smoked Bacon, some coupons so we can share some with the readers, a skillet, and a hot pad to cook up the bacon. We also got some recipes we will be trying and sharing and a grocery gift card for supplies.

It was like "Bacon Christmas", or Festivus if that's your thing. Pretty sure neither of us had been this excited since unwrapping an Atari 2600 way back in the day. Bacon Jason will be posting his thoughts soon and my review follows here in this post. If you get all the way through that at the end I will tell you how you can win a coupon for a free package of the new Oscar Mayer Super Thick Cut Applewood Smoked Bacon to try for yourself.

The first thing I noticed when I picked up the bacon was it is THICK, they are not kidding with the word Super here. We love our STP Ratio© here at LoB. The label on this new bacon comes says it has 9 strips in a package that is a whopping 9: 1 STP Ratio©!!!!!! I counted and my package had ten, so it is an approximation but even at 10:1 this stuff is thick!

I decided to be fair I should do a side by side comparison, I chose Oscar Mayer's 12oz package of Center Cut Bacon. Now I am not sure but I think figuring an STP Ratio© with a 12oz package of bacon requires some algebraic formula that only physicists or possibly a super computer could figure out. I took a couple of pictures with a quarter on top so you can get a good idea of the difference between these two bacons.
OK so I am no photographer, and heck it was my iPhone, but you get the idea.

Time to open these up and give em a sniff. The new bacon reeked (in the good way) of smokiness, the center cut, not so much, well, after the applewood smoked, you could say not at all. I asked my daughter to give them an impartial sniff, she didn't like either, but remember she is a vegetarian (whoo hoo I get all the bacon!).

So I have the bacon out and am getting it onto the tray, and I have to be honest it is reminiscent of some of the gourmet bacon's we have tried, the pieces have a "slice of pork belly" shape to them. This is looking up for a widely available super market bacon. The Center cut are all very uniform and have the squared off shape.




This is a full pound, 10 slices. It will be interesting to see what sort of shrinkage we get. As you might know, good gourmet bacon does not shrink much when cooked.








This is the center cut that is 20 slices in 12oz. Twice the slices in 3/4ths of the weight....carry the 9....solve for x.... hell I am no physicist.





Well I would love to show you pictures after it was cooked, but the house was full of the smell of bacon and my child wasn't going to eat any, I got distracted. The center cut had some shrinkage as expected, it was thin, it was "OK" bacon, I am a thick man myself.

The Super Thick Cut Applewood Smoked Bacon takes a while to cook, if you are in a hurry this is not the bacon you want. But trust me its worth the wait, it was thick, it was meaty, very little shrinkage. The folks at Oscar Mayer did thier homework and have put out the best bacon I have ever had from them. The package says "Bacon Lovers", and if that is you, I think you will enjoy this bacon, thats not to say all you "Bacon Likers", "Flirts with Bacon but doesn't go all the way" or "Bacon Friends With Benefits" folks are left out, this is the good stuff. If you only do bacon once a week for Sunday breakfast (all I can say is huh?!?), then this is the stuff you want. Sure you can get the prescription bacon mail order from the specialty places online, and it is great stuff. But this is over the counter, at your local supermarket bacon. If you are shopping the Von's, Ralph's uber chain type store, you know your options can be limited. I can tell you things just got simple, get this and you can't go wrong.

Now how do we get this bacon as an option at Carl's Jr? That would rock my world!

We had a chance to talk with John Li, an executive chef at Kraft that has been coming up with recipes for this new bacon (best job ever b.t.w.) and we will have more on that once we can get our hands on some more of this bacon at our local market (more on that later today). There are some great things you can do with a quality meat and this bacon qualifies.

I don't know if this our longest post ever, but its got to be close, I am sure we lost a few of the friends after the first paragraph, ooh pictures...soo many words.. huh what? drool McRib! Zzzzz. And if that's the case they will miss this part. Oscar Mayer gave us some coupons for FREE Super Thick Cut Bacon that we get to share with you. That's right FREE BACON! Bacon Jason and I have a couple of ideas on how to give out the coupons, maybe something on the facebox page, maybe a twatter contest, but I think we can do something simple right now. Email us at lordsofbacon (at) gmail (dot) com with the subject FREE BACON by lets say 7:06 pm PST this coming Monday 12/21/09. Once is enough, and I will select someone at random from those emails and they win. We do not want to collect your addresses for nefarious purposes, and I am going to delete the mails after the contest, so don't worry about getting spam from us, but someone will get BACON.. get it? spam.. pork product.. bacon.. meat of the gods?? I thought it was funny. OK Go!

I guess 140 just isnt enough sometimes?

So we occasionally twat, or twit, or tweet, whatever it is, usually just a link back to a post here. The other day Carl's Jr begins following us. We love ourselves some western bacon cheeseburger action, especially if it has been "pimped". We were excited, CJ's has an interest in bacon, righteous.

The Six Dollar Burger collectors series is pretty good for something you can get without ever leaving your car. I think it has stepped up the burger game, just look at the chains playing catch up with their Angus deluxe offerings. One could say that because of Carl's Jr's foray into a premium burger option, fast food burger options have improved almost across the board.

With that in mind I twatted (sp?) a message out to Carl's Jr asking when they were going to do the same for fast food bacon? Lets admit it, fast food bacon generally sucks. McDonald's is proud of their slop charging 99¢ for a bacon upgrade. Taco Bell will add bacon to any item for 50¢, but its bits not strips. Wendy's I fear is leading the way (in marketing at least) with their new "better bacon". The market is ripe for a bacon improvement, much in the same way CJ's stormed the market of bland burgers with their premium option.

Now admittedly, I am not sure what sort of response I was expecting, and I realize its probably just an intern earning credit. But somehow the response still caught me off guard.

"@lordsofbacon You can add #bacon to any @CarlsJr burger! It's already on a bunch of them, but u can never have too much #bacon."

Really?!?

Really? I can get bacon on a burger at Carl's Jr?

I eat there once a week at least, this is great news, all this time I have been suffering with bacon less burgers. </sarcasm>

I guess the whole I love your burgers, you changed the industry love I have for them and the desire for them or heck any fast food chain to show Wendy's how it should be done when it comes to improving the bacon options for us all vibe is simply not something conveyed in 140 characters or less.

Thanks OakMonster!!

The other day we mentioned our spur of the moment bacon upgrade. Well OakMonster commented with a site that has somehow slipped past our bacon radar.

The Sticky Pig

You gotta check it out. Candied bacon goodness! Eight different candied bacon goodnesses to be precise. I can't wait to try them all. Anyone want to buy us a year's worth? I promise we will think about sharing. :)

Mmman I am gonna miss paying bills online...

Technology is a wonderful thing, my paycheck gets direct deposited into my account, my bills get paid online, I can swipe my debit card for purchases, heck I have to go out of my way to a minus machine if I want to even see cash. I rarely write checks, but that may all have to change. Those crazy kids at J&D's have cooked up another of their magical bacon voodoo goodies.

Mmmvelopes!!!!!!

Bacon flavored envelopes! How can I pay bills online knowing that there is a bacon flavored alternative available?? Bill paying time is now bacon time. I once decided to organize my sock drawer rather than the drudgery of paying bills, and all i have are a dozen pairs of the same white socks. But now I can't wait to pay bills. Problem is they are only once a month, maybe I can get some pen pals, or at a minimum some more bills.

Mo Bacon

Don't you love it when you set out on a definite journey for a specific item and then you reach your destination only to find that the desired item is nowhere to be found... But, an even better version of the original is found! The wailing and gnashing of teeth turns into sighs of relief and tears of joy! The exhausted exasperation turns to energized excitement!
Well this story will have none of that.
I had no idea why I walked into the local Cost Plus and began meandering around - maybe because it was a fateful evening. Maybe because destiny was guiding my every movement. Maybe it was just because it was cold outside.
Anywho, regardless of what cosmic forces were at work, I found it. The one thing that I did not yet realize that I was looking for.
We'd had and enjoyed Mo's Chocolate Bacon Bar before, but this- this was an unexpected twist, an unanticipated diversion, a whole new taste for us to fondly burp up over and over making it last longer than the DMV lines in Orange County - yes, I know that is a bold statement...
Mo's Dark Bacon Bars had arrived!!!
The same smokey, meaty, salty smoked Applewood Bacon they used in the original milk chocolate bar, but this time -oh- this time they blended it with a sweet and slightly bitter, 62% cacao, dark chocolate.
So yes, it is new AND it is an improvement over what shall now be known as 'the other' chocolate Bacon bar.
I don't even smoke, but after trying Mo's Dark Bacon Bar, I had the urge to light up ;)
Try one, you'll see

- Posted using BlogPress from Bacon Jason's iPhone

Quick Bacon Upgrade....

Holiday season is upon us, and Bacon Jason and I just discovered a great treat. We were having our afternoon bacon snack and we got a great idea. What if you sprinkled little chocolate chips on top of a plate of bacon and gave it a couple go rounds in the microwave?

I'll tell you what, this is better than nachos!, you get hot gooey chocolatetized bacon.

Perfect sweet treat for the holidays, and really anyone that doesn't get the sweet/salty appeal of chocolate and bacon? It's good, quit wincing and give it a try.

Next round we snap some pictures

North Of The Border

I haven't been to Canada in over twenty years, so I am looking forward to the next few days in Vancouver, well Richmond either way the money looks funny and the people are nicer, so far same Canada I remember. I need some fries and gravy.

I think its a good omen as I was flipping the channels in my hotel to catch some of the football I missed by traveling, I saw not one but two ads for bacon. No, not what we think of as Canadian bacon, just good ol' bacon. Right there in the middle of football with the beer and pickup truck ads, is this a great country or what?

I went for a meal at a kind of pricey place called "Chop", because if you don't meet your per diem while traveling for work, you lose. I went for a big steak "the other red meat", and got a cesar salad to go with it. Now when I make a cesar salad, it gets a lot of bacon, because its the right thing to do, but I didn't expect what came out to the table. This salad was PACKED with big chunks of smokey bacon. This was no "bits", there was a ton of meat in this thing, I couldn't have done better my self. The lighting was low and the iphone has no flash, so you will just have to take my word for it. This was no game of find the bacon in the lettuce, there were several forkfuls that were more bacon than lettuce.

Hopefully I will have some time to soak up some of the local culture (read: bacon) and I can post about later in the week. So far off to an excellent start.

Monday Night in Bakersfield

I know that headline just jumps out at you and says "WOW, I wish I lived that jet set lifestyle". So I find my self in the lovely city of Bakersfield one Monday night, why? well for all the small things really. But what you really want to know is is there bacon goodness to be had? And I am here to tell you, yes there is... in spades.

So lets say you are having some pancakes or waffles for breakfast, some people, I like to call them insane, don't like if the maple syrup gets on their bacon. Its a sweet and salty blending of flavors that has been great for as long as they have been tapping trees for the stuff. Now imagine Maple flavored ice cream... I'll give you a second. Now smooth creamy all the sweetness of maple sugar candy..... and BAM!!! BACON!

That's right Maple Bacon ice cream, and this is no skimpy bits 'o bacon in order to qualify for a meme, this is chunks of the stuff, smokey and good, enveloped in a mapley ice cream blanket of love. Yes of love! This stuff is the bomb! I think anyone with an even modest taste for bacon should give this a try. Get past the "it's ice cream, that's weird" and enjoy this sweet treat.

Where you might ask? The Moo Creamery in Bakersfield, I now have a reason to wish that Bakersfield wasn't 2 hours away. This place is in a little industrial park and I can't tell you if its out of the way or not as its the first place I went in Bakersfield. It was easy to find. They have an assortment of homemade gourmet ice creams that I can only imagine are as awesome as the maple bacon, the other food looked good, but all I wanted was the ice cream. That's right I had ice cream for dinner and it didn't ruin my appetite.... for more bacon! I do wish I had tried the Guinness Float but I was the DD. The staff was super friendly and offered up samples and were very nice. If you find your self with an empty place in your stomach and within distance of this establishment... go! Tell em the Lords Of Bacon sent you.

Now we need to investigate the rumors of the Ventura Bacon Donut

International Bacon Day!

Shame on us! We could give a lot of excuses as to why we have been so remiss in this year's preparation for IBD. (This Saturday the 5th) But really, there is no excuse, its bacon's big day! We could blame work and home life and the fact that Darren is a quitter. But no! We are bad and should be punished (as long as said punishment is not a withholding of bacon, that's just cruel, whats the number for Amnesty International?).

That being said, I do intend to have a small celebration, 3 meals, all with bacon, and maybe some snacking bacon in between. I wonder if this kid will be celebrating?