It's been said many times: bacon makes everything taste better. I didn't always eat this much bacon. But now when I have my breakfast without it, I feel gypped.
Besides enjoying it for breakfast it works wonders for sauteed veggies, adds depth of flavor to meatloafs, burgers, chilis and can even be incorporated into sweets. Always, ALWAYS save the grease! It is definitely one of my secret ingredients for cooking.
The brands we buy when we are unable to make our own are Coleman, Beelers, and Applegate Farms. You can find Beelers, Applegate Farms and Maverick at Natural Grocers. Coleman and Applegate Farms can be found at most Kroger locations. Whole Foods carries some of these and their own version of uncured bacon. The bacon you want is the bacon that has as little processing as possible, no or minimal sugar, preferably organic and uncured. The truth is, there is no such thing as "uncured" bacon. If it wasn't cured, it wouldn't be bacon. That's all marketing. "Uncured" on a label of bacon simply means it was cured with natural sources of nitrates and nitrites. Usually these companies use celery juice powder to cure the meat instead of sodium nitrate (1 -2 grams may be lethal.) I am partial to the Coleman bacon because it is very thin and gets crispier faster but they come in all ranges of thickness.
Ideally you want to make your own bacon, which is not easy and takes some experimentation to get it just how you want it. Right now we have some brining in our fridge that will get smoked today and sliced tomorrow. After you get the basic recipe down you can start to play with the flavoring. Then, once you've become a pro, you can experiment and even add some liquor to your brining process. Enjoy!
