Do you know what today is? BACONFEST DAY.
And you know what that means. Well, Hugh Jackman, at least, knows what that means:
Don’t mind me, I’ll be watching this in a loop all. day. long.
Baconfest
Baconfest 2014, Taste Test
And the nominees are:
For the 3rd year in a row, there was a “trick” bacon in the mix. This year it was venison bacon. It’s a blind taste test, but from appearance alone, you could tell something was not quite right…
..and not everybody was fooled.
I’m always glad when the “trick” bacon scores low. Honestly, it wasn’t bad. We all agreed that it would be good on a sandwich. As a true competitor in the bacon taste test? Just, no.
Additionally, the texture of the Berkshire pork bacon really creeped people out, garnering comments of “texture was off”, “What animal is this?”, and “i DONT NO WAT IS WRONG WITH IT”.
Anyway, on to the results!
Nathan:
| Brand | Rating (1-10) | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Black Earth Meats Berkshire House Cured | 7 | Great flavor – lots of crunch but oddly soft too, texture was off |
| Jordanal Farms Hickory Smoked, Cured | 9 | Giant pieces – looked like a lot of fat but didn’t taste fatty; thicker cut; what I would classify as eggs and bacon bacon. Clearly whole meat cut. |
| Pernat’s Premium Meats (Venison Bacon) | 2 | Very lean and does not have the CRUNCH; clearly not whole cut meat; tastes like jerky |
| D&G Sausage Shoppe – D&G Homestyle Bacon | 8 | Solid. Good, every day bacon (grocery store type) – nothing bad / nothing good, but the flavor couldn’t put it in the next level |
Amanda:
| Brand | Rating (1-10) | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Black Earth Meats Berkshire House Cured | 6 | Looked the worst. Smokey, salty. Didn’t like the first bite, but 2 & 3rd bites were better |
| Jordanal Farms Hickory Smoked, Cured | 5 | Looked the best. Not much flavor. A little thick & leathery. Boring. |
| Pernat’s Premium Meats (Venison Bacon) | -1 (0) | EEw. I know what this is. Deer != bacon. |
| D&G Sausage Shoppe – D&G Homestyle Bacon | 9 | NOM NOM NOM NOM! Perfectly balanced, not overly salty. Slightly smokey. perfect thickness. Looked good too. This is my jam. |
Sara:
| Brand | Rating (1-10) | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Black Earth Meats Berkshire House Cured | 4 | Airy, greasy, tasteless. What animal is this? |
| Jordanal Farms Hickory Smoked, Cured | 7 | Hammy flavor, nice, wide appearance, a little chewy. |
| Pernat’s Premium Meats (Venison Bacon) | 8 | Looks like jerky, tastes like sausage, maybe I like this. |
| D&G Sausage Shoppe – D&G Homestyle Bacon | 8 | Very traditional and crispy. Might be Hormel, but I still like it. (salty) |
Shane:
| Brand | Rating (1-10) | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Black Earth Meats Berkshire House Cured | 7 | Nice texture, crisp, crumbly, nice fat. Appearance was a little off. Looked thin and off-colored. |
| Jordanal Farms Hickory Smoked, Cured | 8 | Best appearance, wide flat pieces, chewier, more flavor. More what I expect bacon to taste like. |
| Pernat’s Premium Meats (Venison Bacon) | 4 | Strange looking, more like thin ham. Too uniform, would be good on a sandwich, but not to eat for breakfast. |
| D&G Sausage Shoppe – D&G Homestyle Bacon | 5 | Decent appearance, 2nd best looking, very crunchy. Too crunchy. And too salty, only all right. |
Evie:
| Brand | Rating (1-10) | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Black Earth Meats Berkshire House Cured | 2 | i DONT NO WAT IS WRONG WITH IT |
| Jordanal Farms Hickory Smoked, Cured | 9 | GOOD BUT i DiDiNT LikE iT AS MUCH AS 10 |
| Pernat’s Premium Meats (Venison Bacon) | 2 | iT TAST LikE SALOME |
| D&G Sausage Shoppe – D&G Homestyle Bacon | 10 | iT WAS GOOD Lik LAST YER |
Ollie:
Ollie gave everything a smiley face. His only comment was on bacon #2: “Can we make this greasier?”
Overall Results:
| Brand | Average Rating |
|---|---|
| Black Earth Meats Berkshire House Cured | 5.2 |
| Jordanal Farms Hickory Smoked, Cured | 7.6 |
| Pernat’s Premium Meats (Venison Bacon) | 3.2 |
| D&G Sausage Shoppe – D&G Homestyle Bacon | 8.0 |
Baconfest 2014, In Pictures
Baconfest 2014
Well, it’s that time of year again. The 4th Annual Baconfest.
This year we have the distinction of being the first baconfest to make someone puke. So, there’s that!
It was Nathan and Amanda’s year to host, so we mostly just sat back and relaxed. I would say, overall, we seemed to have a more appropriate amount of food this year. Despite that, I still felt about as full as it is possible to feel. It felt like every time we finished cleaning up from one meal, it was time to start making the next one.
First things first, we got started with a delicious bacon quiche. When all was said and done, I think the quiche was probably the best recipe of the day. It also involved a bacon-weave, which I’ve been *dying* to try for years.
Additionally, we had a bacon marmalade for our toast, which didn’t sound like the greatest thing in the world…
…but was actually surprisingly delicious!
The kids had ballet, which gave Nathan time to fry up all the bacon for the taste test.
You know, the taste test might not seem like much, but the kids get really excited about it. I’d say it’s their favorite part of baconfest, other than perhaps waking people up with the talking bacon. Maybe it’s just because they get to do like the adults do, and their opinion counts just as much as ours does. Or maybe just because they get to eat bacon.
After all that, we felt like we could use a little exercise. Get the blood pumping through those thick, clotted arteries. Luckily it was a beautiful day, and there happened to be an enormous bike race going on right by our house. So we took lunch on the road and had a picnic, another baconfest first!
Lunch consisted of a bacon dip (don’t want those veggies spoiling baconfest!) and a sort of “reverse BLT”, where the bacon and cheese were baked into the biscuit, and only the lettuce and tomato was inside the sandwich. In other words, perfect picnic food.
Various, bacon-filled raviolis were on the menu for dinner, but first we had to make the noodles!
I thought that was pretty fun. I’ve never made my own ravioli noodles before. The kids enjoyed it, and it was nice to have an activity in the afternoon. It took only long enough, and it was over just before the kids could get tired of it.
Finally, we ended the day with strawberry shortcake topped with bacon whipped cream. Bacon. Whipped. Cream.
As with the marmalade, this was surprisingly delicious. I mean really good, not just “baconfest” good.
When you’re trying to come up with a bunch of bacon food ideas, you always have a couple of misses. Recipes that seem good on paper, just don’t end up all that great. Especially with desserts. However, I don’t think there was a single bad recipe in the bunch this year.
Finally, we put the kids to bed and taught ourselves how to play the ridiculously complicated, but fun, Agricola. Unfortunately, Oliver was just recovering from an absolutely awful GI virus, and I think he wasn’t quite recovered enough for all that bacon. So he gave us one last hurrah, and we had to take a pause to clean everything up.
But, despite ending on a down note, the day overall was a big success. Kudos to Nathan and Amanda for another great baconfest! I’m already starting to plan for next year.
Be prepared for baconfest related posts for the rest of the week (including lots more pictures)!
Quote Monday shouldn’t listen to the children
Our first baconfest quote of 2014!
Oliver: “I think next time we should get some more bacon.”
In case you’re wondering, that was before he threw up.
Sara: “Sometimes when Florence and the Machine is on, I have to wait until the kids start clapping so I can get the rhythm.”
Me: “I don’t understand why that hat looks so good on you, and looks so dumb on me.”
Sara: “It’s not the hat. It’s everything else around the hat.”
In other words, almost 2 years later and I’m *still* trying to figure out what kind of hat I should wear!
Shane Halbach 