I have just discovered how Americans have their bacon the way they do.
I hate the way Americans have their bacon – crisp and brittle. Thin strips that crumble and snap and taste like a bacon crisp (sorry, potato chip). But up until this morning I had no idea how they managed to make it like that. I’ve cooked alot of bacon in my time, have never got close to producing the same texture, no matter what cut I’ve used.
The answer, which you won’t be surprised to hear, is fat. I bought some Oscar Mayer Hearty Thick Cut Bacon. The “hearty” means fatty. Unbelievably fatty. It’s streaky bacon and about two-thirds of it is fat. I fried this without oil and butter, and you would not *believe* the amount of fat that came out of it. Anyway, that’s the thing – cooking this very fatty bacon in a ton of fat is what causes it to crisp up and become brittle. So now you know.
Incidentally, fat is the answer to another food riddle, namely: how do Chinese takeaways get their chicken so squidgy? If you cook strips of chicken normally, they become quite firm but in Chinese food it is soft and almost rubbery. The answer: cook it in a ton of oil.
I wonder where I can buy better cuts of bacon…
Paul Levins
October 22, 2007 at 5:23 pmGo to Trader Joe’s. Good stuff generally. Or buy a pig and a new meat slicer and…..
The secret of American bacon at United Blogs of UK
October 22, 2007 at 7:57 pm[…] Оригинал ÑÐ¾Ð¾Ð±Ñ‰ÐµÐ½Ð¸Ñ Ð¾Ñ‚ Kieren тут… […]
Geoff Sisson
October 23, 2007 at 6:05 amTry the “Black Forest” bacon at Whole Foods
Sean Fleming
October 23, 2007 at 10:17 amThere’s bound to be somewhere stocking UK food brands, there usually is – my bro lives near Cincinnati and there’s a place not far from him called Jungle Jims. Heinz Baked Beans, Mars Bars, you name it. And with all the Brits in LA waiting to become millionaire screenwriters/actors, etc , there ought to be no end of choice. And if not, there could be a gap in the market… you could become a latter-day Alf Roberts!
Geoff Sisson
October 23, 2007 at 5:49 pmFurther to Sean’s comment, this seems to be a fairly comprehensive resource. By coincidence, I was at the “shoppe” at the Ye Olde Kings Head in Santa Monica yesterday, and I think I saw they British bacon on offer.
Jimmy Dean
October 23, 2007 at 8:37 pmWell-Hell, …there’s got to be a ton of Pork-Fat around ICANN. Just thinking about how the U.S. Congress has provided all that “Pork-Barrel-Funding” for ICANN, DARPA, & NSA projects, makes my mouth water.
Ummmm-Um Why you should find-ya a nice juicy strip in there somewhere for ya Son.
Take a look into Vint’s fridge,
there ought to be some of the leftover Bacon he brought home.
Folks say theres alot of Canadian Bacon in ICANN to.
But watch out for that Canuckistanian bacon,
it might just give you some trouble.
And don’t listen to any of that jibberish about cholesterol either,
thats just more of that Republic-of-Berkeley leftist
propoganda.
Find a nice American Girl, a real Porker, so she can server you up some hot slabs of her Bacon, *and* you can get a green-card.
Just feel-em around the wrist like Ray Charles,
get ya’ll a nice tender one that a way.
You in the U-S of A Boy, live life high on the Hogg
(and at ICANN’s expense)!
Tell-em Jimmy Dean sent ya
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Canuckistanian
Kieren
October 25, 2007 at 4:21 amAh you see, this is why I love the Internet – a fellow Brit on the ground sniffing out foodstuffs. Thanks Geoff.
I don’t want to get too far into the “ain’t Britain great” thing though. I spend a big chunk of my time in UK supermarkets trying to find food from other countries.
I wonder what the best bacon in the world is. Probably Hungarian or something.
Kieren
Richard A
November 4, 2007 at 8:58 pmJesus, you really are living in LA. Get in touch man.
Try Whole Foods or Trader Joes for bacon – or a farmer’s market, they’re the in thing. But generally, US bacon is pants because Americans like pork more than bacon so the good stuff is used for pork products and ham rather than good old bacon.,
Rachel
November 9, 2007 at 12:22 amWow so subtle! Amazingly cutting commentary here! Knob.