Bacon from Grateful Palate

Well, to Peter, Boron and others who offered their experiences-advice about ordering artisanal bacon, I just wanted to say *thank you*.

My husband, Bob, loved his gift of 4 different bacons from various smokehouses....let's see, there was North Country Cob Smoked, Neuske's Pepper Bacon, Dan Phillip's secret special brine (or whatever it's called), and the Cinnamon Bacon that I think is also by Dan Phillips. I was going to add some Nodine's Applewood Smoked bacon, which I can buy locally here, but the shop I went to didn't sell it vacuum packed (only loose from the butcher case), so I decided to get that at a later date (we only need so much bacon at once).

So far, we've tried the North Country Cob Smoked bacon. Wow, is that smoky stuff! Very lean, too. You have to cook it pretty slow, because it's so lean that it's in danger of getting burnt before enough fat renders to cook it crisp. I would like to try cooking it in the microwave.

We compared it to some supermarket bacon that Bob had bought just before Christmas (Hormel -- a big 4-pound Costco pack), and the Cob Smoked bacon just blows the Hormel out of the water. In a side-by-side test, the Hormel bacon had almost no flavor next to the Cob smoked. Our young children slightly preferred the Hormel because of that milder flavor and thinner, crispier texture, but they liked the good stuff, too.

Bob is looking forward to trying the other varieties in his gift pack. We're going to get some of the Nodine's locally, and some bacon from the local Amish market and compare them to some of the gift bacon. :-) Fun stuff.

Oink!

Chris