What is Bacon?

Everything you WANT to know about BACON!

Bacon is technically, by today’s definition, pork that has been salt-cured, usually using a salt brine. Brine is simply a liquid, like water, made with a high concentration of salt (usually sodium chloride) and often used specifically to cure meats or to flavor them before cooking.

Typical bacon as we know it today mostly comes from a pig’s stomach area, pork belly, due to the high fat content. There is also a common “back bacon” that comes from cuts of meat from the back of the pig. And as we know, it is used in a ton of ways from just eating it right out of the pan to flavoring any dish to give it a great salty pork flavor.

Today, due mostly to the bad press bacon has gotten over the years as being a very unhealthy food due to its high levels of sodium and corporate store brand’s way of processing their bacon, all forms of “healthy” bacon have popped up like turkey or venison bacon.

Although they are labeled “bacon” and go through the same processes of bacon, true or real bacon in normal conversation means pork bacon. And that’s exactly what you’ll get unless your specific on the type of bacon your trying to get.

Contents

Everything you WANT to know about BACON!

Some other different types of bacon include;

beef
lamb
chicken
goat
turkey

Bacon is typically made in either of two ways, either wet curing or dry curing.

Wet curing is when your choice of meat is either soaked or injected with brine. Other ingredients can also be added like brown sugar or molasses to flavor the meat further.

Dry curing consists of simply packing the cut of meat in salt and letting the salt naturally remove the moisture in the meat through osmosis. The salt helps kill any bacteria and with the moisture removed, the meat is able to be kept without refrigeration for a longer period of time.

History

It’s believed that bacon got started in China around 1500 B.C. when the Chinese were creating an earlier form of bacon by salting pork bellies. Since they were also the first to domesticate pigs, this makes sense that they would be considered the original inventor’s of bacon.

From there it’s believed (I keep saying “believed” because it’s very difficult to find actual documentation) that the Greeks and Romans learned how to salt pork after invading parts of the middle east where it was a common form of preserving pork.

Both empires helped spread the use of salting pig meant and therefore the first forms of bacon.

The actual word “bacon” comes from the Germanic root “-bak,” meaning the back of the pig, although most bacon today is from the belly of the pig. “Bakko” became the French “bacco,” which the English then started using sometime around the 12th century, which in turn became “bacoun.”

Up until the sixteenth century the Middle English term or “word” “bacoun” meant any cured or salted meat, regardless of the animal. It was used to describe the process, not the actual product.

Bring Home the Bacon!

You’ve probably heard it a million time, but do you know where the phrase comes from? Surprisingly it had nothing at all to do with the concept of money. Rather, it was used by the church in the twelfth century as a way of rewarding a good couple. The idea was if for a year and a day the couple didn’t fight and the man was willing to swear to that fact before God, then the church would award the man with a “flitch” of bacon, or by today’s standards, a side of bacon.

To be able to receive a side of bacon from the church at this time meant that you were indeed a good husband and man and could “bring home the bacon.”

Cuts

Streaky Bacon or Side Bacon are the types most people in the United States will be familiar with. This is they type of bacon that is cut into strips that have an alternating layers of meat, the muscle of the hog, and fat, the white part of the strip – the “streaks”. The streaks or fat are what gives you all that flavorful lard after cooking. Click here to see some ways you can use you bacon grease!

This is the most common type and what is normally purchased in big supermarkets and comes from the belly of a pig, or “pork belly”.

The Italian “Pancetta” bacon is a kind of smoked or unsmoked cut of side bacon rather than the fattier belly cut. After curing it has a very strong flavor and is often used in Carbonara and Matriciana pasta dishes to add flavor, and even on pizzas. It’s also used like bacon to add flavor to meats like chicken by wrapping the meat and cooking, similar to using bacon to wrap chicken to add flavor.

Guanciale is another Italian bacon and is different in that it is always dry cured and seasoned, and the cut comes from the jowl or jaw of the sow rather than the pork belly. It’s often the most expensive cut and has a very intense delicious flavor.

Back Bacon

This type is often found in Ireland and the United Kingdom. Although still pork, the cut is from the loin in the middle of the back of the pig. It has less fat content than it’s streaky bacon cousin and is often touted as a “healthier choice” on packaging. And although it may contain less fat, it is still made the same way so it has the equivalent of the “normal” bacon as far as sodium is concerned.

Canadian Bacon

If you’re talking bacon and you’re actually in Canada, then what you are talking about is side bacon. It’s no surprise that Canadians often flavor their cured pork with maple syrup. It gives it a nice sweet flavor that goes great with breakfast foods.

Turkey bacon

Turkey bacon is the world’s answer to regular pork bacon being labeled as an unhealthy food. And while it may be somewhat better for you due to the decreased amount of fat, as much as 90%, it is still as high in the Sodium used in the curing process.

But for those “health conscious” people, do what makes you feel good. And if you’re doing it for other reasons like religion, I guess it’s the next best thing to the real food. Although it’s my belief nothing can take the place of great bacon.

Obviously the turkey isn’t made the same way as a pig, so the “strips” you get in a package in the store are made that way through being processed. The entire turkey is used to make turkey bacon, and it can be cured, uncured, smoked, unsmoked or a scrabble of different methods.

Bacon bits

No article on bacon would be complete without mentioning those tasty little bacon bits that make any boring salad a pleasure to eat.

Bacon bits are actually made from little bits of real bacon. And just like any other bacon sold in stores, they come in all of the varieties that “regular” bacon comes in, cured, turkey, vegan, etc…

But remember, they are made the same, so they will still have the same health benefits or drawbacks depending on your stance with bacon.

How to Microwave Bacon

The No Mess Guide to Cooking Bacon in a Microwave

Do you love to eat bacon for breakfast, but you don’t want to deal with dirty pans or bacon presses or burn marks from oil spatters? If you have a microwave in your kitchen, there’s no need to worry anymore, because you can cook bacon in the microwave. Here’s what to do.

What You’ll Need:

Uncooked bacon
Microwave-safe container
Microwave
Paper towels

Procedure:

Purchase some bacon. It comes in different varieties and flavors, from healthy types, to those that are fit for gourmet use. Choose one that suits your taste, budget, as well as the nutritional value. One tip: When picking out a type of bacon, choose those that have more pink meat than fat.
Get a microwave-safe plate or container, preferably one made from Pyrex or glass. One good option is to get a flat tray that has ridges which help keep the bacon pieces away from the grease it produces.
Line your microwave-safe dish with several sheets of paper towel. These will work as a sponge, effectively soaking the grease and preventing the fat from running and making an oily mess.
Lay down the bacon strips over the paper towels. Just put enough on the dish, with each piece lying flat on the paper towel surface. Don’t think that you can hurry this, and avoid piling the strips on top of one another. If you do this, you won’t cook them properly and evenly.
Put a few more layers of paper towels over the bacon. This will prevent grease from spattering inside your oven.
Microwave the bacon, putting it on the “cook” setting. Cooking time depends on how many bacon you placed in the oven. One good rule many follow is to allot one minute for every piece of bacon. So if you’re cooking five strips, you’ll let them cook for five minutes. If the bacon is fattier, though, it takes longer to cook, so add a minute to the cooking time.
Don’t open the microwave to check on the bacon. This will affect the crispiness. Just listen to the sizzling instead. When you hear the sizzle slowing at the end of the cooking time, it means the bacon is nearly done.
Take the bacon out of the microwave, removing the soggy, greased paper towels, over and under them. You can throw these out already. Transfer the bacon to another dish, then serve. You now have crispy and yummy microwave bacon without the mess of pan fried, and no bacon grease to deal with. Although I see that as a negative!

When microwaved, bacon tastes just as delicious and as crispy. Just follow these tips and enjoy a delicious bacon-filled breakfast!

Bacon Press – Do You Really Need One?

Contents

So what is a “Bacon Press” anyways?
- Cast Iron

So what is a “Bacon Press” anyways?

The idea behind a bacon press is to use the weight of something to keep the strips of bacon flat while they are frying up in your pan. If you’ve noticed, when you just throw bacon into a pan and cook it, it has a tendency to curl up, or otherwise become not straight. It also cooks better on some areas, and not so much on others. In other words, it cooks unevenly.

Now for your home made breakfast, this isn’t a big deal. But if you’re a restaurant, or maybe a small B&B and want your breakfasts to look “professional”, you will probably want your bacon to stay a little flatter while it’s cooking. Or you may just want your kids to have a perfectly made BLT with the strips of bacon evenly spaced across the lettuce and fill up the entire space on the bread rather than having to play around and break up the bacon and add it to your sandwich like a mosaic.

So enter the bacon press.

What a bacon press really is, is just a regular press you’d use for hamburgers or any other food you want to press in order for it to cook faster or hold a specific shape.

So yes, you can use your bacon press as a hamburger press, or what ever other food you don’t want contorting in to some abstract art on your plate.

So why have one of these for just bacon?

Simple, so you’re not adding other flavors to your press, or you just love bacon as much as we do.

Cast Iron

Most presses are made of cast iron. The reason is simple, cast iron lasts forever, it’s very heavy, and it’s very easy and cheap to produce. And again, it will last forever if you treat it right and take care of it. It’s literally something you should be able to pass on for generations to come.

Taking proper care of your bacon press isn’t difficult at all. Just make sure you start with a solid well built one and all should be easy after that.

I’m surprised at how many bacon presses there are to choose from. And I’ve listed my favorites below with some pros and cons. But these presses are extremely inexpensive. So seriously, get two if you want.

Now understand when you’re buying a bacon press from Amazon or Walmart or whaerever, you will usually have the option to buy a seasoned” or non-seasoned press.

I suggest you buy a seasoned press since that should mean the company making your new press has oiled and “cooked” it already.

But…whether I buy a seasoned or un-seasoned press, I always season it myself as well. Now why would I do that?

Well, I have found that even though companies “say” they seasoned the press, “their” seasoning process is often pretty lame. Like a speck of oil and some heat. That’s all. And that’s not at all the best way to season your new press.

So, here’s what I personally do…

But a seasoned press. Then rinse it off under warm water to get any factory packaging debree off of it.

NEVER SCRUB YOUR BACON PRESS!!!!!

Nor use soap. Your press is like a cutting board, it should never be washed with soap.

Once my brand new press is dry, I grab some left over bacon grease and rub it generously all over the metal parts of the press. Now you can use lard, coconut oil or flaxseed oil if you don’t have any bacon grease on hand. But why use something that isn’t the exact thing we want, bacon flavors!

Once my press is well greased, I place mine on my outdoor grill with the cover down and “cook it” for around 45 minutes.

WARNING: If you do the grill technique, make sure you do NOT have a plastic handle! Yes, I have seen presses with plastic handles. Why they would do that I have no idea!

Once you have it cooked, turn off the heat and wait for it to completely cool off.

If you don’t have a grill, then you can do the same thing with basically the same results in your oven. Just cook it at 350 degrees for about an hour. Then the same, just turn off the oven and let it cool off completely.

Now I’m a bacon fanatic, so that means my bacon press has a nice little home of it’s own. I simply took one of the Danish Cookie tins and placed a few paper towels on the bottom of it. Then I took one paper towel and added a little regular cooking oil on it and placed it in the can with the others. Then when I am done with my press, I just lay it face down on the oiled paper towel. This way it is always oiled and never rusts or has any other problems. Just place the lid on it and store.

If you use you press at least once a week, then the tin isn’t even needed. It’s just a good idea to use it if you store the press for weeks at a time.

So how do you use it?

Like I said, the idea behind any press is weight. This goes for any food. If you’re using a press, you either want to control its shape, like with bacon, or you want to make it cook quicker, like with a hamburger.

And yes, you can use a press for any type of food you want. There are no undercover “Press Police” around that’ll fine you for using a bacon press for your hamburgers too, lol!

So to use your press, simply cook as you always would, just right when you place the bacon in your pan, place (lay on top of) the press on top if it. You don’t need to push down or hold the press. The weight of it will do the job. That’s the point of the press, its weight.

If you just placed a flat piece of something on your bacon and it didn’t really weigh much, it may make your bacon a little straighter, but it won’t give you the same results as a press will.

Cooking the perfect bacon

Here are a few tips for cooking great bacon…first, take your bacon out of the refrigerator at least 20 minutes before you will cook it. This is the same if you want to cook a great steak, and it helps with the way the fat cooks within the meats. And yes, it really does make a difference.

Then grab a pan that has enough room to hold all of the bacon you want to cook without needing to crowd your strips or overlap them. You should be using a heavy pan, cast iron skillets are great for this and heat evenly and at a good rate of speed.

Place your pan on the stove and then add your warmed bacon to your pan. Both things should be around the same temperature.

Now add the bacon press on top of the strips and light/turn on your stove. Don’t make the temperature too hot, use a medium flame or a medium temperature. Personally I love natural gas for my cooking.

Once your strips are finished cooking, take them out and for best results, place on a wire rack to let them cool off and allow any fat to run off of them.

Let cool a little and then devour! You now have beautiful bacon ready to decorate any sandwich or plate whether a greasy spoon diner or a 5 star hotel.

Tip: If you want to make bacon bits, it’s a lot easier to use flattened bacon than the normal cooked bacon you get from just throwing it in a pan.

Other ways to use your press

A door stop? Nah, just kidding. But…you can use it like I said before for any meat you want. Maybe you want to drain a little of the grease out of a hamburger before you take it out of the pan, take your bacon press and place it on your burger and push down for about 30 seconds, you just made a healthier option burger. Or use it to make tortillas. Bacon presses (or any for that matter) come in round, square and even pig shapes. So perfect for tortillas.

Or use it to make pininis. Or any grilled sandwich you want. Great for grilled cheese sandwiches!!! Just add a few bacon strips and YUM!

How to clean it?

Never use soap or anything that could scratch the surface of your press. First off, soap takes away the “seasoning” that all presses should have done to them. So don’t do it. Also, there should be no real reason to need to give it a serious clean. Just run it under hot water and use a normal kitchen sponge to clean it off. if it feels like it still has a little grease on it, good! If you’re super paranoid about germs or whatever, just pre-heat your pan next time with the press in the pan by itself. I promise, anything on it will die.

And you never want to scratch the press, even if it’s tiny little scratches, because each scratch will allow food to stick to it. And taking a press off of your food and half your food sticking to the press is really annoying. So keep it nice and smooth.

Which Press to buy?

I’m surprised how many presses there really are available just on Amazon alone (which is where I bought mine). I have a few different presses, the pig one I bought just because I thought it was cool. But otherwise, the others I bought to use, and even abuse.

So which one is the best press?

To be honest, practically any press should do fine. I mean, they are a hunk of flattened metal. And that’s about it.

But just in case you’re dying to have only the very best, or you just want my opinion or recommendation, here are a few presses that I know if you purchase, they will last you and most likely 5 generations of your family. And they are really inexpensive, like usually under $20 for the really top shelf ones. Okay, so here are a few recommendations…

The first one is actually the one I least recommend. Simply, it isn’t as heavy as I’d like, but it is really cute looking which is why I bought one. But I use it more for decoration than I do to cook with. Yes, it’s usable, but the other ones I will show you are more built for being used like everyday. It’s the picture on the top of the post. But if you want your own, go here to buy one on Amazon.

Lodge Cast Iron Bacon & Grill Press: This is without a doubt the one press I know you should get. And here’s why…first, it is completely metal. All of it, including the handle. It’s also heavy and is built to last forever. It measures 6-3/4 by 4-1/2 inches which is plenty large enough to cover all of your bacon. And you can pre-heat this so that when you lay it on your bacon, it is cooking from both sides at the same time, a real time saver. And in case you’re not familiar with Lodge, the company has been around for over 100 years. So they are a pretty safe bet.

The only downside to this particular model is that you need to assemble it yourself, meaning put on the handle. But a screwdriver and a few screws and you’re done. Very simple really.

Another press I want to let you know about, although I do not own this one, is the Carol Wright Clear Glass bacon press. Yes, see through glass. So you can see how it is cooking. Pretty cool idea and all, I just don’t know if there is enough weight to it. I’m sure there is, but I prefer the cast iron ones.

And lastly, I want to mention the round bacon press options. These are round so they obviously fit your round pan and are a great idea. Although I don’t own one, I have a buddy that does and I used it at his place. And yes, it works great and I was impressed. I’ll probably grab one sooner or later. I think they are worth it for sure if you’re doing a lot of pan frying.

If you want a round press, then the one I saw that I liked was the Norpro 8.75-Inch Cast Iron Bacon Press. My only reservation is that it has a wooden handle, wich is fine really. I just sometimes use it in the oven as well and am always a bit afraid of having something wood in my ovens. But a good, solid choice.

And that’s about it as far as bacon presses go. I think I have covered their use, how to use them and which ones are worth owning. If you have any questions or comments, I’m always willing to chat with a fellow baconer! So just leave a comment below.

How Long Does Bacon Last?

Contents

How long does cooked bacon last?
- How long does bacon last in the fridge?
  - How long does bacon grease last?
  - Does Bacon Go Bad?

How long does cooked bacon last?

It all depends on how it is stored, what kind of bacon it is and if it is cooked or raw. But if it’s still in the original package, then one to two weeks past its expiration date is usually the maximum time you’d want to eat it.

Freezing cooked pork bacon or even bacon grease greatly enhances its shelf life, or the amount of time you can use it without the bacon or grease going bad or rancid.

If you decide to freeze your cooked bacon, it can last up to six months with no problems. If you hold onto it for a while longer, you’ll need to smell it to see if it has gone bad.

How long does bacon last in the fridge?

In the refrigerator, cooked bacon usually lasts for about a week.

If you’re going to place raw bacon in the freezer and it is still in its original vacuum packed package, then it should last for at least 6 months, and up to a year. This is the longest time period you can store bacon in any form.

If you’re storing your opened bacon in the fridge, then expect it to last for around only about one to two weeks. And when storing in the refrigerator, be sure to place it in an air tight container, otherwise it will dry out within a few days.

Uncovered bacon or grease can also be contaminated by other foods and pick up their flavors. So it’s important to store your bacon properly in air tight containers or wrap regardless if you’re freezing or refrigerating it.

How long does bacon grease last?

Bacon grease will last a little longer than actual bacon in any of the preserving ways. In fact, my grandmother used to have bacon grease on the stove that was jut always there. She used it to cook with almost everyday. But I never saw her refrigerate it. I wouldn’t recommend this, but it is a testament to how long bacon grease can last.

Does Bacon Go Bad?

Absolutely! Bacon still has it’s natural juices, unlike something like jerky, and even though it has been cured, it can still go bad and if eaten can make you sick. So be careful!

How to tell if Bacon is bad, rotten or spoiled?
The best way is simply to smell it. If it smells bad, then it probably is. And you will know if your bacon is off, meat has a very distinctive smell when it starts to go bad.

You can also look at the bacon and see what color it is. Once you start to see gray, then it means your bacon is going bad. Once you get to that point, it’s best to just dispose of it properly.