Bacon. How do you like yours and where do you buy it ?

[WildRosie]

First of all, apologies to the MN vegetarian community who may not care for this thread.

I've never bought middle bacon (don't know why) but I usually buy unsmoked dry-cure back bacon from a local butcher. Occasionally from the supermarket. I used to go to a pork butcher at a monthly farmers' market but the quality slid after a while and never recovered. The beauty of the butcher is having some choice in which joint it comes from and how thickly or thinly sliced it is. I appreciate not everyone has the luxury of choice. I trim most of the rind off and render it down - great for fried eggs or mushrooms. The bacon itself I fry in a pan or cook in a slotted pan (skillet). I've never done oven-baked bacon - I think it's what hotel breakfast buffets do - but I shall try some day.

Bacon chops are great with sausages and hash browns. Grilled smoked streaky bacon makes the best sandwiches.

I like smoked bacon. Streaky bacon or back bacon depending on what I want it for. I like it crispy so usually avoid the thick cut. Having said that I have recently had some thick cut back bacon from Costco which was tasty.

I always cook it it the oven. Let it roast in its own fat. I then pour off the fat and keep it in a dish for cooking other yummy things. Sometimes I cook a whole pack or two then keep it in the fridge. You can re heat it in the microwave or frying pan.

Smoked, thin, crispy and streaky! It puts me off when it’s thick and still a light pink after cooking.

Thankyou Belinda. All the oven bacon methods I've seen involve using a baking tray with a wire rack on top so the rendered fat drips into the tray, rather than your roasting technique.

Soggy, flabby bacon is crap but so is overcooked! Somewhere in the middle.

Medallions, not smoked.

In the bin...best place for it.

I have it on good authority that the best bacon comes from Tamworth pigs. I wonder if they're honoured ?

I like smoked streaky bacon. I've recently started buying a nitrate-free one so I can tell myself it's actually a health food

Smoked streaky, I like it crispy and I buy it from whichever supermarket I'm shopping from.

Smoked dry cure back bacon, from Cranston’s
Fried, eaten in Sheldon’s oven bottom muffins, red sauce for him, brown for me.

@trappedsincesundaymorn

In the bin...best place for it.

Not a fan, then ?

Nitrate free bacon.

I am gutted I neither have the time nor finances for butcher shopping and just have to pick up bacon as part of my supermarket shop.
Even choosing whatever the premium selection is in whichever supermarket I am inevitably disappointed.
I want decent thick slices (what they call thick in a supermarket is a joke), plus a decent amount of fat that goes lovely and crispy.
I wonder if is exists!!!

We tend to have streaky, unsmoked bacon from the local butcher. I usually cook it on a baking tray in the oven until crispy. DH is more a fan than I am, but we tend to have at least once a week for Sunday breakfast

Dry cure, smoked, streaky. Cooked crispy but not burnt. Droooool!

Another fan of smoked streaky bacon cooked until it it’s just crispy. On fluffy American buttermilk pancakes with some honey or maple syrup. I could eat it now 🤤

Streaky, either smoked or not, fat must be crispy. I buy a brand free from sodium nitrite.

I don't like fat, so I get medallions. This also means I can cook them in the microwave, as I don't need to crisp it up.

Thin, unsmoked, grilled so it's crispy to the point of breaking. Buy it from the butcher in our covered market.

Not a fan, then ?

.

DD reckons she must have been swapped at birth as apparently my aversion to bacon ( the smell of it is enough to make me not want to eat it), means we cannot be related. She loves it, and cooks it for breakfast for herself when she visits. I may move house and not tell her.

Streaky, fried to crispy-ish. On white buttered bread with fried mushrooms and ketchup 😋

Can’t stand unsmoked bacon for some reason but I can’t think of many things which are better than a smoked bacon sandwhich, thick with real butter and thick white bread!

How long does it need in the oven?

I'm a vegetarian cooking for bacon lovers. No idea it always looks gross to me.

While not actual bacon, I just love Waitrose’s pancetta - dry cured, infused with pepper, coriander and juniper, far superior to other supermarkets’ pancetta.
I bake a whole pack in the oven once a week, until crispy, and store in the fridge, to have two rashers every morning with an egg and tomato, my low-carb breakfast. Delish!

I like thick cut smoked back bacon, fried in butter for a few minutes, cooked but not crispy 😍