Bacon cooked-ness?

stickyfiddle

FX_Munkee said:

Is the lack of access to decent bacon getting to you?
It is, isn't it?

Mmmmm bacon....

Actually, there's a Waitrose in the mall under our building. They have a "pork room" with frosted glass sliding door. Behind that door there are more different types of bacon than you get at home. British, African, American, it's all there. Oscar Mayer streaky is actually pretty good stuff. You have to find one that isn't crazy-fatty but the flavour is there. 

I do crave proper butcher's back bacon and sausages though. Sausages here are rubbish.

VimFuego

Phil_aka_Pip said:

Jalapeno said:

Microwaved bacon can also lead to the scummy whiteness, yuck .....

I think the scummy white yuckness is a result of the processing, or the way the piggies are treated before being taken on their last fateful journey. if I pay good money in some shops for quality bacon I observe less scummy white yuckness. I've recently been told of a high class butcher in the next village who's bacon never exhibits scummy white yuckness - but you need a mortgage to get any.

we get bacon from local sources here, no injected water, out door reared, old breeds etc. And it's same price or cheaper than the garbage in the supermarkets.

Phil_aka_Pip

VimFuego said:

Phil_aka_Pip said:

Jalapeno said:

Microwaved bacon can also lead to the scummy whiteness, yuck .....

I think the scummy white yuckness is a result of the processing, or the way the piggies are treated before being taken on their last fateful journey. if I pay good money in some shops for quality bacon I observe less scummy white yuckness. I've recently been told of a high class butcher in the next village who's bacon never exhibits scummy white yuckness - but you need a mortgage to get any.

we get bacon from local sources here, no injected water, out door reared, old breeds etc. And it's same price or cheaper than the garbage in the supermarkets.

I should come and live near your butcher then

Jalapeno

VimFuego said:

Phil_aka_Pip said:

Jalapeno said:

Microwaved bacon can also lead to the scummy whiteness, yuck .....

I think the scummy white yuckness is a result of the processing, or the way the piggies are treated before being taken on their last fateful journey. if I pay good money in some shops for quality bacon I observe less scummy white yuckness. I've recently been told of a high class butcher in the next village who's bacon never exhibits scummy white yuckness - but you need a mortgage to get any.

we get bacon from local sources here, no injected water, out door reared, old breeds etc. And it's same price or cheaper than the garbage in the supermarkets.

Dry cured bacon doesn't have "The Scum", brine cured bacon is the culprit (popular with big processors because it's faster).

bingefeller

Crispy for me...bordering on burnt.  

Cirrus

Crispy fat for me, but not burned. My Girlfriend somehow manages to burn the meat and leave the fat all rubbery and horrible, so if there's bacon involved I need to take over.

Bacon and french toast. Those are my domain.

guitarfishbay

Bacon is ok.  Smells awesome, tastes good especially when done with crispy fat...

But sausage and egg sandwiches are where it is at.  Proper sausages, from a decent butchers though - not the kind that are mostly water and overly finely blended meat like from supermarkets.

guitarfishbay

strumjoughlamps said:

...and any edge fat trimmed off

guitarfishbay

CabbageCat said:

I like it pink and floppy because it seems like you get more of it. Well-done bacon gets all teeny weeny.

Good bacon barely changes size for me.  The stuff I get from my local butchers hardly changes in size, if at all.

For some reason I'm fine with buying chicken at the supermarkets but bacon and sausages have to come from the butchers.  The quality difference is massive - even the super market top range stuff isn't on level with what you get from a good butchers.  It is the sausages that bug me most though - they're always blended to almost a paste on the inside.

Phil_aka_Pip

proper sausages have big chewy lumps of meat inside. and herbs & spices

english_bob

stickyfiddle said:

They have a "pork room" with frosted glass sliding door.

Out the back behind a curtain?

Do you have to pay for your filthy pigmeat separately in the room or can you take it through the regular checkout?

Man, things aren't like they were when I was a kid in Kuwait in the 80s. A friend of ours got arrested for attending an illicit pork 'n beer party.

Crispy for me BTW.

Jalapeno

Again - bacon shrinkage doesn't happen with dry-cured bacon ..... </cracked record>

jd0272

Oven for me, not too crisp, just nicely done. Hungry now.

Lixarto

Jalapeno said:

Again - bacon shrinkage doesn't happen with dry-cured bacon ..... </cracked record>

Yes.
I'll recommend Geo Bolam's in Sedgefield to any NE residents

fretmeister

Phil_aka_Pip said:

I like to press the fatty bit (if there is one) against the frying pan base with a suitable implement while cooking, so that the fat crisps up without the meat getting crunchy.

Yes.

That's the way I do it too.

WezV

and no one has mentioend smoked or unsmoked yet???   smoked is obviously the correct anser.

 

What about rind on or off?   I hate it with the rind on

 

 

For me its streaky bacon cooked with no extra fat, put it in the pan whislt its cold and let the fat render out as it comes up to temperature.  A good non-stick pan helps.   Cooked to the point of being crispy works for me although I do prefer back bacon cooked a bit less

mike_l

WezV said:

and no one has mentioend smoked or unsmoked yet???   smoked is obviously the correct anser.

 

What about rind on or off?   I hate it with the rind on

 

Correct on the first, wrong on the second

Jalapeno

Prefer smoked, but will eat either when available

Cooked rind is like mini-crackling and therefore awesome.

stickyfiddle

english_bob said:

stickyfiddle said:

They have a "pork room" with frosted glass sliding door.

Out the back behind a curtain?

Do you have to pay for your filthy pigmeat separately in the room or can you take it through the regular checkout?

Man, things aren't like they were when I was a kid in Kuwait in the 80s. A friend of ours got arrested for attending an illicit pork 'n beer party.

Crispy for me BTW.

Nah, you can take it to the regular tills - all the checkout girls are Filipino. You can't get it in most supermarkets.

Tbh I miss decent wine shops more. If Waitrose got a wine section I'd be very happy.

WezV

Jalapeno said:

Prefer smoked, but will eat either when available

Cooked rind is like mini-crackling and therefore awesome.

I agree, love crackling.   hate chewy rind though and would much prefer bacon to have no rind than any risk of chewy rind