Bacon: Win/Lose?

[Dasquian Belargic]

You decide.

[Liam Jinn]

Win. I don't care what Charley says.

[Rossos Atrapes]

Mmmmm Failicious.

[Emelie Shadowstar]

I had to go with fail. :(

I like bacon at one point in time during the day and at one time only and that's breakfast...and it has to be cooked just right (just enough crispy) or I'm not too fond of it. And it tends to be that "Well...I can't think of anything else to go with this" item.

Oh...not to mention any "lean" bacon I have tried just refuses to cook or taste right...so BOO to that too.


But then again...I also hate mint cookies/ice cream so maybe my taste buds are just broken. lmao.

[Droo]

Since when has bacon ever been bad? It's perfectly fine and I don't care what these internet trend Nazis have to say!

[Dasquian Belargic]

Begun, this bacon war has..

[Morgan Evanar]

Its got nothing to do with trends, it's terribly overrated.

[Emelie Shadowstar]

Can we argue if it's properly Cheesecake or Cheesepie next? :p

[Dasquian Belargic]

Can we argue if it's properly Cheesecake or Cheesepie next? :p

Cheese... pie?

[Emelie Shadowstar]

Cheese... pie?

YES. :D

[Dasquian Belargic]

I don't even know what that is.
















FYI it's jam not jelly.

[Emelie Shadowstar]

I don't even know what that is.


...tis the proper name for Cheesecake, it is. I mean...just LOOK AT IT.

Of course it could have the most godawful name ever and it'd still be mana from the gods.


...wait, I'm supposed to be talking about bacon. Damn.

[Droo]

Its got nothing to do with trends, it's terribly overrated.

See, this is what I call a trend. It's the bacon backlash! The problem is this: you claim it's overrated but by whom exactly? Who rates these things? There are those that do like it and those that don't, except all of a sudden it's bacon fail this and bacon fail that. Bacon is a key ingedient in the traditional Full English and I won't have its reputation besmirched by the likes of you heathens!

[Rossos Atrapes]

Droo! Champion of the Bacon Loyalist Faction!

[Morgan Evanar]

Bacon gets stuck in many things it should not be over here and people claim that it's good but they're all wrong.

[Dasquian Belargic]

Bacon as a condiment :o

[Droo]

Bacon wrapped in bacon. Now there's an idea!

[Rossos Atrapes]

I don't think I need to bring up the Bacon Explosion again, do I?

[Droo]

Applying bacon to every meal should be made easier. They could call it Shake N' Bacon!
:idea

[Dasquian Belargic]

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[Droo]

AHAHAHA! Ross Noble! :D

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Bacon is delicious, but I find it's best if eaten as a novelty. I admit to a colossal weakness for a bacon cheeseburger (rare) with both ranch and bbq sauce slathered on it :yum

[Charley]

Bacon is smoked & cured pork belly, so it's got it's own specific thing. It's supposed to be its own item, and not some sort of hanger-on in some dishes like people tend to do. That's the problem. As I said before, if you're having a country breakfast, then yeah, it's sort of in it's element. You have a bit of egg, have your hash browns, and a bit of smoked applewood & peppery bacon. That's rustic, and it's good because it's simple food done well.

The problem is that what makes bacon appropriate in that sort of thing is lost entirely if you're just throwing it into say a sandwich or a salad. Even worse is using it to dress up a nicer dish. If you're making a filet mignon, why wouldn't you accompany that with pancetta? If you're wanting a cured meat to render fat into a dish, what about guanciale? You're getting better quality that route, so by adding bacon to something to try and improve it, you're using the wrong thing entirely.

Back to the less quality food ideas, I find that anything that suggests adding bacon is trying to fall back on it and cover up a mediocre dish. Take a bacon cheeseburger. You're putting bacon onto low rent American cheese and pretty mediocre ground beef patties that aren't generally cooked well. Why not instead put attention into getting a quality beef patty that keeps a lot of flavor within, without being squashed to hell. How about using cheese that's actually got character. By piling bacon on, you're trying to overcompensate for a dish that, deep down, you know could be better if you took the effort.

EDIT: As far as ranch goes, that's even worse. I cannot for the life of me think of any single appropriate use for ranch dressing. It's not even fit for a salad.

[Cat X]

You are hereby banned from making polls until you learn to include the NARF! option. Honestly.....incompetent Admins. Is NARF! that hard?????

[Liam Jinn]

Bacon is smoked & cured pork belly, so it's got it's own specific thing. It's supposed to be its own item, and not some sort of hanger-on in some dishes like people tend to do. That's the problem. As I said before, if you're having a country breakfast, then yeah, it's sort of in it's element. You have a bit of egg, have your hash browns, and a bit of smoked applewood & peppery bacon. That's rustic, and it's good because it's simple food done well.

The problem is that what makes bacon appropriate in that sort of thing is lost entirely if you're just throwing it into say a sandwich or a salad. Even worse is using it to dress up a nicer dish. If you're making a filet mignon, why wouldn't you accompany that with pancetta? If you're wanting a cured meat to render fat into a dish, what about guanciale? You're getting better quality that route, so by adding bacon to something to try and improve it, you're using the wrong thing entirely.

Back to the less quality food ideas, I find that anything that suggests adding bacon is trying to fall back on it and cover up a mediocre dish. Take a bacon cheeseburger. You're putting bacon onto low rent American cheese and pretty mediocre ground beef patties that aren't generally cooked well. Why not instead put attention into getting a quality beef patty that keeps a lot of flavor within, without being squashed to hell. How about using cheese that's actually got character. By piling bacon on, you're trying to overcompensate for a dish that, deep down, you know could be better if you took the effort.

EDIT: As far as ranch goes, that's even worse. I cannot for the life of me think of any single appropriate use for ranch dressing. It's not even fit for a salad.

Sure, or maybe you just like the way bacon tastes.

[Ryan Pode]

Turkey bacon is an essential part of my roommates breakfast. He has two slices along with two eggs six days a week.

[Sanis Prent]

Liking how it tastes isn't really at issue. Bacon does taste good. It's one of those things that's presented in simplicity. What's at issue is the epidemic lack of culinary decorum in just piling it into some food item because "Hey! I like bacon!"

It would be like me piling a bunch of shaved parmesan cheese onto some Chicken Madras curry. Do I like shaved parmesan cheese? Damn right I do. Do I like Chicken Madras? You bet! Would combining these two things be a travesty of taste and decency? Yes it would!

[Lykaios]

Bacon winz!

Do I think it should be added to anything and everything to make it taste better? No, but I sure will eat it if it tastes good.

[Peter McCoy]

Mmmm, bacon.

On a similar meat-themed note, Droo, I'm gutted there's been no sign of a DVD-release of Ross Nobles show we went to at the Empire! :(

Meat on the face for the win!

And bacon on the butty for the win, too! :)

[Captain Untouchable]

I find it interesting that everyone who seems to violently against bacon seems to be from the western side of the Atlantic. Use it too much, perhaps your culture does, hmm? ;)

That said, I do agree with some of what you say, alhough to a less passionate degree. Bacon is nice on its own, with a fried breakfast, or in a nice, simple sandwich. I did also have some nice turkey at Christmas which had (really good quality, apple wood smoked) bacon draped over the top while it was roasted.

Over-use of bacon is bad, but that's not the poor bacon's fault. Blame the cooks that use it too much, not the poor pieces of sliced pig carcass. :(

[Cambrio Montegue]

Ew, salty meat.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Since when has bacon ever been bad? It's perfectly fine and I don't care what these internet trend Nazis have to say!

Agreed! :shakefist Down with the facists that might say bacon is fail! :mad

[Liam Jinn]

Charley, you just lost 5 points of whatever coolness you had buddy. I kinda had this bacon = gravy according to you post going on, but there's something on TV that's funny. But anyways, shut up :p

I like mustard btw, tell me how horrible that is :p

[Darven]

We don't use bacon as you know it over here as much - pretty much only in dishes that come from the US. We have smoked bacon instead, and that's so much more flavorful. Tends to be expensive so you don't use it all the time, but he then i also use it to complement dishes I cook. Asparagus wrapped in smoked bacon, for example...

[Charley]

I like mustard btw, tell me how horrible that is :p

If anything, mustard is under-used in my opinion.


We don't use bacon as you know it over here as much - pretty much only in dishes that come from the US. We have smoked bacon instead, and that's so much more flavorful. Tends to be expensive so you don't use it all the time, but he then i also use it to complement dishes I cook. Asparagus wrapped in smoked bacon, for example...

I'm confused, is there a bacon that isn't smoked? By definition, I thought it had to be smoked to be bacon?

[Xavier Synik]

Canadian Bacon...

Pretty sure it's not smoked

[Droo]

I'm confused, is there a bacon that isn't smoked? By definition, I thought it had to be smoked to be bacon?

Eh? You've never heard of unsmoked bacon? That's more common here than the smoked stuff.

[Nya Halcyon]

Well I wouldn't consider the stuff you have for breakfast smoked bacon. The smoked bacon we have comes in big hard pieces that need to be cut thinly and do not need cooking at all. It's usually deeply dark red, almost brown and has a bit of white fat and a hard rind at the side where the skin got left on.

That stuff you have in the US is usually floppy slices of almost raw meat that might have undergone some short smoking flavor and needs to be cooked in some way before it can be eaten.

[Nya Halcyon]

That should have read "some short smoking process to give it flavor"

[Khendon Sevon]

Uhh...

Bacon differs according to which section of the country your in.

My roommate from Virginia has a completely different idea of what bacon is from moi.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Bacon on burgers.

Bacon and eggs.

Bacon bits.

All meat pizza with BACON and CANADIAN BACON!

I don't know. I LOVE bacon.

I'm taking notes on the bacon haters, writing the names down...

[Dasquian Belargic]

Mmmm full english



(not my picture)

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Ok that does not look cooked. :x

I like my bacon crispy and full of melt in your mouth goodness.

[Dasquian Belargic]

Melt in your mouth goodness? How can it melt in your mouth when it's crispy?

[Lykaios]

mmmm...that just looks nummy and now I'm beginning to get hungry

[Dasquian Belargic]

I have made a discovery on the internet: http://ridiculousfoodsociety.blogspot.com/2008/11/british-style-back-bacon-american.html


The first obvious difference between American and British bacons is the cut of pork used to make them. The American bacon seen below is made from pork bellies, a very fatty cut of pig.

British bacon is made of center cut boneless pork loin. It kind of looks like very thinly cut pork chops with a little tail of darker meat. It is noticeably leaner then American streaky style bacon.

Eeew, fatty.

[Nya Halcyon]

Crispy yet melt-in-your-mouth? That's gotta be some special american type of bacon. I swear some of the stuff they sell over there can come in all kinds of weird mutation. Rubber-like is the most common one. Usually the lean stuff. Yuck!

[Xavier Synik]

That breakfast looks yummmy... all except for that black blob which I'm guessing is blood pudding.

and yes the bacon does need to be cooked a little more.

[Emelie Shadowstar]

I have made a discovery on the internet:


Huh...

Maybe this explains my dislike of bacon. The stuff you guys have sounds way better. :(

[Dasquian Belargic]

http://www.foodsubs.com/MeatcureBacon.html

BACON!

...fatback is such an unappealing name for food.

[Lykaios]

Looks good to me, then again I'll anything and everything if it tastes right :D

[Emelie Shadowstar]

Lyk...

You don't like peanut butter.

You don't get to talk about what tastes good or not. :p

[Lykaios]

Peanuts are not meant to be butter and spread on bread, that's just a crime against nature *shivers*

[Lilaena De'Ville]

I like the fatty part crispy enough to melt in my mouth. :rolleyes

Heathens.

[Dasquian Belargic]

But look at your "bacon" - there's barely any meat on it, it's 90% fatty fat fat!

[Tell Cho]

But look at your "bacon" - there's barely any meat on it, it's 90% fatty fat fat!

All the better to cook the other elements of the meal! :D

[Dasquian Belargic]

You could just buy some fat on its own if that's what you want.

And then buy some REAL bacon to go with it!

[Cat X]

I dont like bacon because I like my arteries to be like my women

Soft.

[Tell Cho]

You could just buy some fat on its own if that's what you want.

And then buy some REAL bacon to go with it!

But... but... but... bacon! You get the fat, and the meat at once! And then you don't have to cook the other bacon pieces, or use all that fat, which is more expensive and harder to find anyway!

[Dasquian Belargic]

The kind of bacon we have has fat on it too. It's just that fat isn't the main ingredient. There is also a lot of meat too :mneh

[Tell Cho]

The kind of bacon we have has fat on it too. It's just that fat isn't the main ingredient. There is also a lot of meat too :mneh

Exactly! American bacon has no "main ingredient". It is fat/meat. Often more fat, but that's precisely so we can cook the potatoes and the eggs, and then pour the leftover fat on the frenchbread, and then put it in the oven to toast and then the cheese melts quickly and you have a bacon egg and cheese breakfast submarine that was efficiently made! :yum

[Charley]

But look at your "bacon" - there's barely any meat on it, it's 90% fatty fat fat!

There's nothing wrong with fatty-cut pork belly. The good cut is pancetta, and that is actually used as a rendering agent to cook down into lots of italian dishes. Pancetta in it's element is the opposite of bacon. It's not really for serving up as a solo part of a dish. You render that down with some fresh spring asparagus or you chop it and let it disperse into minced garlic before combining into spaghetti alla carbonara.

It's another reason why people try and stretch bacon into this role and fail. It's not even the most appropriate cut for the task. Pancetta does the job a lot better, and guanciale, salt pork, etc are better still.

There's nothing wrong with rendering fat. It's a good way to tie your ingedients together.

Also, you jerks better change my custom title back toot sweet. I'll make bacon out of your hides and put them into inappropriate things.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Its never happening, with that attitude, mister.

[Dasquian Belargic]

Well ladies and gents, it looks like a resounding victory for bacon in this poll.

A whopping 21 votes for delicious against a meagre 5 for fail.

Good job, baconeers.

[Charlotte Tur'enne]

*eyes the "36" for fail*

Urhm..... :lol

[Dasquian Belargic]

I think this is what they call ... war.

[Charley]

That's just how much I hate it is all :)

[Charlotte Tur'enne]

:uhoh

But ...but with the revelation that the "bacon" I have been subjected to here in the states is ...inferior...I...I have no idea where to lend my traitorous little votes!

*eyes poll*

Well then... :p guess it's kinda moot now, huh?

[Dasquian Belargic]

Bacon shall remain triumphant

[Charley]

Bacon shall remain triumphant

hahaha geez

EDIT: Bacon has OVER 9000 votes haha

[Dasquian Belargic]

War Is Peace
Freedom Is Slavery
Bacon Is Delicious

[Wyl Staedtler]

:verymad LIES! LIES AND SLANDER! I WON'T BE SILENCED! :shakefist

[Rossos Atrapes]

THE VOTES ARE IN (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBtpyeLxVkI)

Thank you morg. I do believe you posted this in the video thread, right?

[Lilaena De'Ville]

...and that, folks, is just how many accounts Jenny actually has. ;)

[Dasquian Belargic]

All of you are my accounts >D

[Arya Ravenwing]

We are Spartacus...!

[Dasquian Belargic]

9002... yes, the bacon legion increases steadily in number.

[Lykaios]

"...and dying in yer beds, many years from now, would you be willin' to trade ALL the days, from this day to that, for one slice, just one slice, to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they'll never take... OUR BACON!!!"

[Morgan Evanar]

THE VOTES ARE IN (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBtpyeLxVkI)

Thank you morg. I do believe you posted this in the video thread, right?I did. Even though it is being abused. Just like bacon.

[Banner Laverick]

http://bacolicio.us/

[Lilaena De'Ville]

http://bacolicio.us/http://sw-fans.net/forum

Mmmm bacony :yum

[Dasquian Belargic]

http://bacolicio.us/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegetarianism

Hahahaha that is fantastic

[Razielle Alastor]

Bacon is of course WIN. :D

[Dasquian Belargic]

Whoever voted fail... your vote has magically transformed into delicious.

The power of the bacon compells you.

[General Rakev]

Anti-Bacon partisans will never surrender.

[Dasquian Belargic]

The voice is but a whisper amongst the defeaning cries of DELICIOUS.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

I'm nominating Jenny to be our official Bacon Baroness

[Razielle Alastor]

my sister can be quoted for the original 'people like bacon' campaign..

true story, that.. :lol

[Dasquian Belargic]

Bacon... Baroness?

Do I get some kind of ceremonial hat?

[Razielle Alastor]

I'll bet it will smell great...the bacon helm of might..

[Lykaios]

Bacon... Baroness?

Do I get some kind of ceremonial hat?
We could put that (http://farm1.static.flickr.com/3/4000372_695f019081_m.jpg) in a beret for ya :D
(http://farm1.static.flickr.com/3/4000372_695f019081_m.jpg)

[Lilaena De'Ville]

http://www.geekologie.com/2009/02/07/bacon-chart-2.jpg

The Bacon Chart

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Bacon... Baroness?

Do I get some kind of ceremonial hat?
We could put that (http://farm1.static.flickr.com/3/4000372_695f019081_m.jpg) in a beret for ya :D
(http://farm1.static.flickr.com/3/4000372_695f019081_m.jpg)

Bwahahaaa! Oh yessss :D

[Mandy with an I]

http://www.baconhat.com/ ?

No no, this one is better - http://www.hatsofmeat.com/

[Xavier Synik]

Okay I like meat... but meat should not be worn as a hat... ON a hat, okay... but not as a hat.

[Dasquian Belargic]

Did someone vote again on this?

Brave bacon supporter... there is no need.

This bacon war is over.

[Charley]

Hey Jenny how are your parasites doing today? :)

[stevenvdb]

Shenanigans!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I went back to being a vegan about 3 years ago*, but still am tempted...for about 4 seconds; then i grow nauseous at the thought of the stuff. :P



*Health-kick thing I started when I found out Sheila, my love, was preggers. Want to be around for my little girl, maybe her children if she decides/happens to have any. :) Not as strict to it as some, but have certainly nurtured and developed my love for the fruits and veggies. Plus being in California, it isn't that difficult to stick to.

[Dasquian Belargic]

Hey Jenny how are your parasites doing today? :)

I'm all better thanks for asking :D

[Zai]

I'm a vegan. :)

[General Dan]

Ah cool, good to see we have a few vegans here.