On Saturday night, at BlogHer Food, Gayle Keck of Been There Ate That and I started talking about bacon.
Fact is, and I’m not giving anything away here, since Gayle already talked about this on her blog, cheap bacon just isn’t as good as expensive bacon. She warned me about this, but since I hadn’t yet cooked up the bacon I’d bought for the Hunger Challenge, I hadn’t gained the personal experience necessary to make the call.
I cooked up the bacon earlier this week, reserving the bacon grease in case I needed it for recipes I was developing for my belated Hunger Challenge posts. And I can confirm Gayle’s evaluation: Cheap bacon adds flavor, sure, but it adds super-saltiness, and not much else. Not much of a treat, really.
But here’s the thing, and what I really wonder…I know my palate’s been spoiled by the Prather Ranch folks at the farmer’s market, and their sustainably-raised piggy goodness. But if the cheap bacon is all you know, does it seem all that different?
Fundamentally, it still provides flavor. Maybe it’s not the flavor I would choose if I was working outside the constraints of a $28 shopping list, but according to Gayle, the San Francisco Food Bank almost never distributes bacon to their clients—it just never comes across the transom.
I had a wicked craving for mashed potatoes tonight, and after I’d cooked up a pot of them, realized I had some of the cooked bacon in the refrigerator. Though this particular treat wasn’t part of my Hunger Challenge menu plan, I decided it was worth using it as a test. I took one of the strips of bacon, chopped it up, and used it to top my potatoes. In that context, where it was just an accessory to the food, it actually wasn’t bad. I’d probably undersalted the potatoes, which meant it all balanced out.
I’m very unlikely to make a habit out of buying $1.99 packages of bacon that come from big corporate providers, but it was a good reminder that my instincts were right: When the purpose is not to eat the bacon as a slice on the side of a couple of eggs, but rather as an accent to something else, it’s still a solid flavoring agent that can certainly take the sting out of a diet limited, otherwise, by budget and whatever’s available at the food bank.
A separate note from tonight’s news…a Salvation Army food bank in Concord, CA, ran out of food today. Times are tough everywhere: the tanking economy means people who used to have enough to eat are now turning to food banks, and fewer people have their usual allowance of donation money to give. If you’ve got an extra $5 or $10 you can spare, or even some non-expired non-perishable food sitting around the house that you could stand to give away, I bet your local food bank would take it, and gladly.
on Oct 1st, 2009 at 5:49 am
This is a great post. I agree, good bacon is much better than the cheap kind. I love your shout-out to the food bank – we need to support them around the country as much as possible.
on Oct 1st, 2009 at 5:56 am
I love love love bacon. We don’t really have a local farmer that I have found yet that raises piggies, so I buy the stuff from Whole Foods occationally. It’s so much tastier than cheap bacon, and that’s good because you can use less of it.
I too save the bacon grease for using in soups and stews and of course for frying eggs in.
on Oct 1st, 2009 at 8:24 am
There is huge variation in the quality of “cheap” bacon. I found — almost by accident — that the market style bacon at Sam’s Club (sadly, it’s been long enough since I’ve been to Sam’s Club that I’ve forgotten the brand) had excellent flavor, and it also taught me that I actually prefer extra-thick, market style bacon to the standard packaged stuff. And it’s under $3/lb.
Since the closest Sam’s Club is still almost an hour away in DC traffic, we do most of our grocery shopping at whatever supermarket is most convenient, and we’ve gotten into the habit of buying whatever bacon happens to be on sale that week. None of it is as good as the Niman Ranch stuff I’ve bought on occasion (and I’ve never had Prather Ranch bacon so I can’t compare), but there have been some surprising disappointments (my least favorite of all of them was Oscar Mayer).
My buy-what’s-on-sale approach has taught me three things, though: 1) that the store brand stuff at Safeway — 3 pounds for $7.99, or $2.67/lb — is surprisingly good; 2) thicker is better; and 3) everybody else overcooks their bacon. I buy the extra thick stuff, and I cook it just to the point it’s starting to get crispy. If it’s thin and you overcook it, all the flavor you get is salt and burnt nitrates. Even cheap bacon retains some decent flavor if it’s thick enough to withstand being cooked without just turning to ash.
on Oct 4th, 2009 at 9:51 pm
I don’t want to get into this bacon debate other that to say that expensive bacon is better, however any bacon in a storm. Oh, and you know when they say to bake chocolate chip cookies in your house to make it smell homey? I prefer cooking bacon.
on Oct 14th, 2009 at 2:27 am
Bacon FTW. I’ve bought the 3-lb pack at Safeway before, and it is quite decent.
We’ve been buying the butcher-counter bacon for awhile, though, and while it is some variety of corporate, it is available in peppered. yum. ;p
Great call about the food banks. Sad.
on Oct 15th, 2009 at 3:15 am
You know sweetie, I have been meaning to tell you how radical and amazing it is that you are not only bringing attention to where your food comes from and how we get it but that everyone eats. Has to eat. Yes, its a pleasure but it is a luxury for many americans to eat three meals a day.
It reminds me to stop lamenting my fat ass and to be grateful that I have the means to provide food for my family. As always, I appreciate your humble perspectives.
xxx