Last Two Bacons of the Month - Aug/Sept 2008

Our last two bacon selections each offered something unique:

Swiss Sugar Cottage Bacon - August 2008


Apparently, "Cottage Bacon" is bacon made from the pig's shoulder, so the shape is very different from bacon made from pork belly. Not surprisingly, the Swiss Cottage Bacon was considerably leaner than any of our other bacons, but this particular variety did not have a lot of flavor, so it ended up being much more similar to a ham or back bacon ("Canadian-style" bacon). In fact, I'm pretty sure this is the first time I've ever added salt to bacon.


Edwards Cinnamon Apple Smoked Bacon - September 2008


You read the title correctly, our last bacon was cinnamon apple flavored. There was definitely a cinnamon aroma to the uncooked bacon, but the cinnamon flavor was quite subtle in the cooked product. Nevertheless, this was an outstanding variety of bacon, and made really good BLT's, especially with the heirloom tomatoes we received in our CSA box. This is an example of bacon that's best eaten as whole strips (rather than being chopped up as an ingredient in a larger recipe).


To compare, here's a picture of the uncooked bacons (Cottage Bacon on the top and Cinnamon Bacon on the bottom):




Before we get to the final bacon ranking, I just want to say that it's been really fun trying a different type of bacon every month. Thank you very much to all of the people who contributed to this gift. It's going to be difficult going back to Oscar Meyer and Farmer John's.


Final Bacon Ranking:
1. J. Samuel Whiting Hickory Bacon (Apr 2008)
2. North Country Cob Smoked Bacon (Oct 2007)
2. (tie) Edwards Cinnamon Apple Smoked Bacon (Sept 2008)
4. Vande Rose Farms Applewood Smoked Bacon (Dec 2007)
5. (tie) Hudson Valley Smokehouse Smoked Country Style Bacon (Feb 2008)
5. (tie) Burgers' Pepper Bacon (Mar 2008)
5. (tie) New Braunfels Smokehouse Comal County Smoked Bacon (June 2008)
8. Swiss Sugar Cottage Bacon (Aug 2008)
9. Jim Oliver's Hickory Smoked Bacon (Jan 2008)
10. Tripp Country Bacon (Nov 2007)
11. Loveless Cafe Country Smoked Bacon (May 2008)
12. Scott's Country Bacon (July 2008)

Scott's Country Bacon - July 2008

I have to apologize for taking so long to write about the July bacon. The last month or so have been quite busy with trips to Toronto (conference), Ithaca (Scott and Sonya's wedding), and Tucson (Michelle and Jesse's wedding). In the middle, I also attended a 4-day workshop that included a couple 12 hour days. All that being said, I probably would have posted sooner had we been more excited about the Scott's Country Bacon.



This was another example of overly salty bacon. Unfortunately, Michelle also detected a relatively prominent metallic taste. I didn't notice it at first, but after she pointed it out, it started to dominate the flavor. Needless to say, this quickly became a bit unpleasant.

We've also received the August bacon, but the packaging was broken, so they are sending us another package with the September selection. Stay tuned.

Bacon ranking:
1. J. Samuel Whiting Hickory Bacon (Apr 2008)
2. North Country Cob Smoked Bacon (Oct 2007)
3. Vande Rose Farms Applewood Smoked Bacon (Dec 2007)
4. (tie) Hudson Valley Smokehouse Smoked Country Style Bacon (Feb 2008)
4. (tie) Burgers' Pepper Bacon (Mar 2008)
4. (tie) New Braunfels Smokehouse Comal County Smoked Bacon (June 2008)
7. Jim Oliver's Hickory Smoked Bacon (Jan 2008)
8. Tripp Country Bacon (Nov 2007)
9. Loveless Cafe Country Smoked Bacon (May 2008)
10. Scott's Country Bacon (July 2008)

Bacon of the Month - May/June 2008

The May bacon was scheduled to arrive the week we left for the wedding, so we asked them to delay the delivery. As a result, we received two packages in relatively close succession. Unfortunately neither one was really much to write home about.



Loveless Cafe Country Smoked Bacon - May 2008
When I opened the shipping box (not the package itself), there was already a strong smoky smell. Indeed, the cooked product was both smoky and salty...incredibly smoky and salty. Quite a disappointment after the strong April showing.



New Braunfels Smokehouse Comal County Smoked Bacon - June 2008

The best thing I can say about the New Braunfels bacon is that it wasn't at all objectionable. Other than that, however, there wasn't much to make it stand out. Solid, but certainly not exceptional.

Bacon ranking:
1. J. Samuel Whiting Hickory Bacon (Apr 2008)
2. North Country Cob Smoked Bacon (Oct 2007)
3. Vande Rose Farms Applewood Smoked Bacon (Dec 2007)
4. (tie) Hudson Valley Smokehouse Smoked Country Style Bacon (Feb 2008)
4. (tie) Burgers' Pepper Bacon (Mar 2008)
4. (tie) New Braunfels Smokehouse Comal County Smoked Bacon (June 2008)
7. Jim Oliver's Hickory Smoked Bacon (Jan 2008)
8. Tripp Country Bacon (Nov 2007)
9. Loveless Cafe Country Smoked Bacon (May 2008)

Au Pied de Cochon

As I said in our previous post, the only thing we planned in advance for our trip to Montreal was dinner at Au Pied de Cochon. It has received a fair bit of press (even in the US) for its meat-oriented dishes and its audacity to put foie gras on poutine. Looking over the menu (and numerous reports on food blogs), we were definitely excited and the restaurant did not disappoint. As you can tell from our previous post, Michelle decided to take pictures of almost everything we ate, so there will be more food porn below.

We started with "Foie Gras Cromesquis" and "Pickled Bison Tongue". The cromesquis (sorry, no pictures) were basically deep-fried croquettes with molten foie gras inside. Think shanghai soup dumpling, only deep-fried and enhanced by foie gras. Pretty outrageous start to the meal. The pickled bison tongue was very good, but we realized that it wasn't the dish we ordered, which was actually "Tarragon Bison Tongue". Luckily, we still got to try the tarragon bison tongue, which was even better:



Next, we shared the "Plogue a Champlain":



We had read about this dish on food blogs, and I have to admit I was a bit worried that it would be "too much": buckwheat pancakes, potatoes, bacon, and foie gras. But wait there's more! The whole thing was covered in a thick maple glaze. My worries were completely misplaced. This was definitely the best dish of the meal. You know when you have pancakes and bacon? Whether it happens accidentally or intentionally, the best part is the bacon-syrup combination. So take really good bacon, a maple glaze (i.e, real maple not "Log Cabin"), and then add foie gras, and how can you possibly go wrong?

Entree: "Stuffed Pied de Cochon with Foie Gras":



So they take the bone out of the leg of a pig, stuff it with more pig. Then they deep fry the whole thing and top it with mushrooms and fiddleheads and a seared chunk of foie gras. The whole thing is served on garlic-cheese mashed potatoes. And it really was as big as it looks in the picture. This is definitely an entree for two people, and we still only ate about 2/3 of it (and you all know that we're not shy about putting the food away). Maybe part of that was to save room for dessert, "Pudding Chomeur" (basically a biscuit-cake on top of maple soup:



The service was great, but we noticed an interesting quirk about their staffing. The server who took our order did only that, and deliver the bill. There seemed to be about three people of this position in the restaurant. Meanwhile, there were two guys that ran all the food to the tables (these guys were working really hard), and two or three people to refill water, bring bread, etc. I'd be interested to know how they split the tips here.

So that was definitely a pretty spectacular meal, and the prices were quite reasonable. Next time, we'll have to try one of their enormous seafood platters...

J. Samuel Whiting Hickory Bacon - Apr 2008

J. Samuel Whiting's packaging leaves quite a bit to be desired, but their bacon was actually very impressive. According to the Bacon of the Month insert, they placed first at the 2005 Pennsylvania Meat Processor's Association competition. I have no idea how prestigious this competition is, but I can assure you the award is well-deserved. Thick-sliced and quite lean, the cooked product had great texture and flavor that's definitely well-suited to be eaten in whole slices. The BLT's were fantastic, and the bacon was a great complement to the cinnamon french toast we made for breakfast this morning.

This bacon was clearly the best of the recent offerings. I'm going to give it first place (for now), but it's pretty unfortunate that we can't do a head-to-head comparison with the previous frontrunner.

Bacon ranking:
1. J. Samuel Whiting Hickory Bacon (Apr 2008)
2. North Country Cob Smoked Bacon (Oct 2007)
3. Vande Rose Farms Applewood Smoked Bacon (Dec 2007)
4. (tie) Hudson Valley Smokehouse Smoked Country Style Bacon (Feb 2008)
4. (tie) Burgers' Pepper Bacon (Mar 2008)
6. Jim Oliver's Hickory Smoked Bacon (Jan 2008)
7. Tripp Country Bacon (Nov 2007)

Burgers' Pepper Bacon - Mar 2008

Last month, I complained about having difficulty differentiating all the varieties of bacon we've received. This month, we received a "pepper" bacon, so I was hopeful that it would stand out from the crowd. Unfortunately, we weren't able to detect much pepper flavor in the cooked bacon. Nevertheless, the bacon was nicely balanced, and made some very nice BLTA's. Burgers' Pepper Bacon also made a nice addition to a pasta dish with brussel sprouts and pine nuts.

Bacon ranking:
1. North Country Cob Smoked Bacon (Oct 2007)
2. Vande Rose Farms Applewood Smoked Bacon (Dec 2007)
3. (tie) Hudson Valley Smokehouse Smoked Country Style Bacon (Feb 2008)
3. (tie) Burgers' Pepper Bacon (Mar 2008)
5. Jim Oliver's Hickory Smoked Bacon (Jan 2008)
6. Tripp Country Bacon (Nov 2007)

Hudson Valley Smokehouse Smoked Country Style Bacon - Feb 2008

I apologize for this extremely late post (so late that the March bacon has already arrived). This is in part due to a bit of a problem with my hard drive this week (i.e., it completely failed and had to be replaced). TIP: Backup your hard drives frequently!

Anyway, I'm beginning to regret my decision to rate the bacons as it's starting to get hard to distinguish all of the selections. (Michelle suggested we save a slice or two of each one to test them all side-by-side. Unfortunately, I completely ignored her suggestions, although in my defense, this would not have been a fair or scientific comparison since freezer-burn appears to happen relatively quickly in our freezer.) In any case, the Hudson Valley bacon was remarkably similar to Jim Oliver's Hickory Smoked Bacon. Amazingly, it came in even longer and thicker slices than Jim Oliver's, but fortunately, the salt was much more well-balanced. Otherwise, it did not really offer anything distinctive in the way of flavor.

Bacon ranking:
1. North Country Cob Smoked Bacon (Oct 2007)
2. Vande Rose Farms Applewood Smoked Bacon (Dec 2007)
3. Hudson Valley Smokehouse Smoked Country Style Bacon (Feb 2008)
4. Jim Oliver's Hickory Smoked Bacon (Jan 2008)
5. Tripp Country Bacon (Nov 2007)

Jim Oliver's Hickory Smoked Bacon - Jan 2008

The Fung/Yeh household has been without any bacon for about 2 weeks now, so I've been impatiently waiting the latest bacon installment for a while. A few times, we've made something for dinner that was good, but could have been great with some added bacon. Considering I get bacon in the mail once a month, I've resisted buying any other bacon on my own, but that policy may just have to change.

In any case, the January installment arrived just in time for us to make BLTs for dinner last night. Jim Oliver (whose father's name was apparently Cheatum) definitely likes to cut long thick slices of bacon. The slices were longer than the width of our grill pan, and there were only about 12 slices to a pound. This resulted in large chewy slices of bacon. Although the texture was great, we both found it to be a bit too salty when eaten alone (and even a bit on the BLTs), so this variety should definitely be mixed with other ingredients. Also, I couldn't really taste any smoke (let alone hickory).

Bacon ranking:
1. North Country Cob Smoked Bacon (Oct 2007)
2. Vande Rose Farms Applewood Smoked Bacon (Dec 2007)
3. Jim Oliver's Hickory Smoked Bacon (Jan 2008)
4. Tripp Country Bacon (Nov 2007)

Vande Rose Farms Applewood Smoked Bacon (Dec 2007)

After a disappointing showing in November, the Bacon of the Month club redeemed itself with the latest selection, which apparently comes from a special breed of pig ("Duroc hogs").

We didn't have any tomatoes or lettuce, so we went with grilled cheese and bacon sandwiches the first night. (A couple nights later, we also made some BLTA's.)



The Vande Rose Farms was clearly more similar to the North Country Cob Smoked Bacon than the Tripp Country Bacon: thick slices producing great texture, and not too salty. However, I wasn't able to pick up too many distinctive flavors.

As everyone knows, value is always an important consideration for me (in this case, I'm also looking out for my friends who pitched in to buy this subscription), so I was a bit disappointed that this month, we only received 12 oz of bacon (compared to a full pound each of the previous two months). Furthermore, this bacon also shrunk considerably upon cooking (although not as much as the Tripp Country Bacon), so we didn't get much final product.

Overall, the Vande Rose Farms was impressive, but it still fell short of the North Country, which had a more interesting flavor, in addition to simply giving us more.

Bacon ranking:
1. North Country Cob Smoked Bacon (Oct 2007)
2. Vande Rose Farms Applewood Smoked Bacon (Dec 2007)
3. Tripp Country Bacon (Nov 2007)

Thanksgiving Feast

They say that you should buy 1-1.5 pounds of turkey for each person you plan to serve. This year, we were serving three people: the two of us, and my brother Donald. Add that up, with a bit of a fudge factor, and you can easily explain why we made a 19 lb turkey.

When we went to buy the turkey Tuesday night, there wasn't much of a selection. It was either a 12 pounder or a couple that were 19 lbs or larger. However, we had a coupon for $6 off a turkey between 14 and 24 pounds, so we didn't really have much choice: use the coupon.

A few years ago, I joined the brining movement. Even my 12 quart stock pot wasn't tall enough for the turkey to be completely submerged, but this turkey may be my best effort yet (if I do say so myself).

When you make 19 pounds of bird, you have no choice but to make plenty of side dishes. Roasted brussel sprouts (this year with carrots and Tripp Country Bacon) and sausage-sage stuffing have become classics in our household:


We also made a second stuffing with cornbread, more Tripp Country bacon, and smoked oysters. And the sweet potatoes had a ginger-lime glaze (very good).


Of course, we also had cranberry sauce, gravy, and mashed potatoes. Michelle made a lime-ginger sorbet, pumpkin cheesecake tartlets, and pecan butter tart bars (definitely ask her for this recipe).




And the best part about having a large turkey? More bones for making soup.

Tripp Country Bacon (November 2007)

Our November Bacon came just in time for Thanksgiving. As you can see, the packaging was rather unassuming, but the Grateful Palate described it as having "a spicy sweetness that makes it unique among the country-style bacons [they] carry".

As with our October bacon, we cooked it on the cast iron grill pan, and made some BLTs. It's not obvious from the picture, but this particular bacon was extremely fatty. The first time, I tried to render as much fat as possible, but after a few minutes resting on paper towels, the bacon became crispier than I'd like:


A night later, we took it off the grill a little earlier, so the texture was much better.

The BLTs were good (how could they not?), but overall, the Tripp Country Bacon did not particularly stand out (especially relative to the previous offering). Unfortunately, I probably could not distinguish it from Oscar Meyer or Farmer John's.

Bacon ranking:
1. North Country Cob Smoked Bacon (Oct 2007)
2. Tripp Country Bacon (November 2007)

Oct 2007 - North Country Cob Smoked Bacon

Tonight, we fired up some bacon on the cast iron grill pan. We each ate a slice straight off the grill, then made some BLTs. As a side dish, we also made a macaroni and cheese with broccoli. We realized that the bread we bought had relatively small slices, and we thought 3 slices of bacon in the BLT might be overdoing it a bit, so we crumbled a slice over the mac and cheese.

Before:


After:


And plated:


Comments:
1. The slices were relatively thick, so the final product had a good combination of crispiness and chewiness.
2. Even on its own, we weren't able to taste much maple flavor (despite the purported maple-curing), but there was a nice smokiness.
3. BLTs were great.
4. The addition of bacon to the mac and cheese proves what we all already knew: everything is better with bacon.
5. The bacon was noticeably less salty than regular store-bought bacon, so I think it's much better-suited to be eaten in this format (rather than cooking it into another dish).
6. I recommend Trader Joe's "Real Mayonnaise".
7. Yes, we each ate 4 slices of bacon.

We still have bread, cheese, and bacon. Whatever shall we do?
Tomorrow night: grilled cheese and bacon.

The Bacon Has Landed

Like most people who like good food, I enjoy bacon. So when I finished my Ph.D., my lab got me a "Bacon of the Month" subscription, which they started after we settled in. The first shipment arrived yesterday.

We didn't know what to expect, but the Grateful Palate is clearly running a solid operation. The bacon arrived in an insulated package with two gel ice packs:


This month's selection is maple-cured "North Country Cob Smoked Bacon":


There was an information card describing the bacon, along with a wine selection, and a recipe (North Country Cob Smoked Bacon Navy Bean Soup). According to the card, they slow cure the meat in maple syrup for days. I'm not sure I understand what it means to cure something in maple syrup, but I have a feeling I'll approve of it. There was also a second card with "The Most Popular Bacon Disguises of Halloween 2007" (that we could probably do without).


Stay tuned for a highly scientific analysis of this variety of bacon.