Baconfest 2012, In Pictures
Baconfest
Baconfest 2012, Taste Test
We had 4 new competitors throw their hats into the ring this year:
- Willow Lake Farms (Custom Quality Meats)
- Pecatonica Valley (Madison Farmer’s Market)
- Oscar Mayer Pre-cooked (any old grocery store)
- Jim’s Double Smoked (Jim’s Market, Madison)
The focus was really on local (well, local to Madison anyway!) bacons, or at least ones you can’t just walk into the supermarket and buy. Indie bacons, if you will. Of particular note was the Willow Lake Farms’ bacon, because this is Amanda’s family’s personal bacon. For realz. They not only own the butcher shop (Custom Quality Meats), they actually raise the animals that eventually become their product. It doesn’t get any more “local” than that!
The sharp eyed among you will note that the exception, of course, being the Oscar Mayer pre-cooked “control” bacon. This was supposed to be a surprise, which necessitated that this year’s test be a blind taste test, but I saw the box in the cooler the night before. So only my brother actually knew which one was the Oscar Mayer. I knew that it was in there, but I actually forgot about it until I had recorded all of my observations. Suddenly I broke out in a cold sweat. What if I actually ranked it as the best? Oh, the disgrace!
Without further ado, here are the rankings:
Nathan:
| Brand | Rating (1-10) | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Willow Lake Farms | 7 | Very lean, mild flavor |
| Pecatonica Valley | 8 | Salty, stronger flavor, just enough fat |
| Oscar Mayer Pre-cooked | 4 | Super thin – not a meaty taste, salty |
| Jim’s Double Smoked | 7 1/2 | Thickest cut of the day, well seasoned, good amount of fat |
Amanda:
| Brand | Rating (1-10) | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Willow Lake Farms | 8 | Very mild flavor, perfect breakfast bacon – not smokey & not too sweet |
| Pecatonica Valley | 6 | pretty sweet, a little salty |
| Oscar Mayer Pre-cooked | 5 | looks thin, not much flavor, slightly smokey at the end |
| Jim’s Double Smoked | 5 | very meaty flavor – almost too much like ham, not smokey enough |
Sara:
| Brand | Rating (1-10) | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Willow Lake Farms | 7 | plain, not too flavorful, versatile, not too salty 🙂 |
| Pecatonica Valley | 7 1/2 | similar to blue circle with a slightly smoky taste |
| Oscar Mayer Pre-cooked | 5 | a little stale and chewy, but still bacon |
| Jim’s Double Smoked | 6 | thick, a little chewy, saltier than others, thick strip of fat is kind of unappetizing |
Shane:
| Brand | Rating (1-10) | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Willow Lake Farms | 6 | salty, little fatty, thicker, almost tough |
| Pecatonica Valley | 7 | perfect texture, salty, almost oilier somehow, but not fatty, similar taste to blue, but better texture |
| Oscar Mayer Pre-cooked | 5 | almost brittle, not as salty, average |
| Jim’s Double Smoked | 5 | chewy, more piggy |
Overall Results:
| Brand | Average Rating |
|---|---|
| Willow Lake Farms | 7 |
| Pecatonica Valley | 7.125 |
| Oscar Mayer Pre-cooked | 4.75 |
| Jim’s Double Smoked | 5.875 |
Overall, I felt like all the bacon was relatively similar, and therefore hard to rank. Two interesting things from the results:
- Oscar Mayer lost by a decent margin. Thank god, all is right with the world! I really forgot to pay attention to that during the test, and I really was worried I would accidentally like it. However, without knowing which bacon was which, everybody ranked it the lowest.
- Amanda’s family’s bacon did not win. However, it did miss out by only .125 measly points! That is one small margin of victory. Amanda didn’t seem upset about this, but I think she was relieved that she at least ranked it the highest. She attributed it to the fact that she always had this bacon growing up, so when she tasted it she immediately thought, “That’s what bacon is supposed to taste like!”
I should also point out that we had a second kind of bacon from Willow Lake Farms for breakfast (a round “sandwich bacon”) that was most excellent, but not part of the taste test.
Just like last year, we let Evie fill out a ballet, even though we didn’t count it in the rankings. Evie opted for a graphical depiction of her emotions, rather than a 1 – 10 ranking. And just like last year, Evie was again dead on: her favorite was the grand champion (Pecatonica Valley), and her least favorite was the grand loser (Oscar Meyer Pre-cooked). You’ll notice that all of the bacons received a smiley face except that one, which received a frowny face with tears:
I can assure you, I’ve never been prouder as a dad. She obviously has a finely tuned pallet. Maybe she has a future as some kind of sommelier for bacon?
Baconfest 2012
Ladies and gentlemen, it’s that time of the year again. I present the 2nd Annual Halbach Baconfest:
This year’s Baconfest was conceptually very similar to last year’s. Bacon themed menu all day, bacon taste test, and, of course, there were shirts.
Nathan and Amanda hosted this year, so even though it was at our house, they did all the food preparation. I can’t even begin to tell you how awesome it is to have someone else do all the food preparation. Also, they did as much as they could ahead of time, which really saved us from having to cook non-stop all day, like we did last year. Good thing too, since we had a ballet recital to attend in the morning, and the afternoon was just too beautiful weather-wise to spend it indoors.
I thought the food overall was much better than last year (and not only because I didn’t have to make it). Last year everything was perfectly good, but a lot of stuff was sort of unremarkable. This year, there were a few things that weren’t particularly bacon-y, but they were still unique or interesting. Additionally, there were several things that really stood out this year, which was much improved over last year.
Halbach BaconFest 2012 Menu
Breakfast
Bacon-Fig Scones
and
Sandwich-Bacon with Scrambled Eggs
Lunch
Bacon-Stuffed Crust Pizza, Two Ways
Barbecue-chicken bacon and Bacon with sautéed Onion
Bacon Taste Testing
Four distinct bacons for the discriminating bacon consumer
Dinner
Spinach Salad with Warm Bacon Dressing
and
Bacon-Stuffed Dough, Three Ways
Bacon-potato gnocchi pan seared in a bacon-butter sage sauce
Bacon wontons seared and steamed served with ginger-garlic dipping sauce
Bacon-pea pesto stuffed shells baked with bacon marinara sauce
Dessert
Sweet Bacon Cheesecake with Candied Bacon Topping
I want to specifically comment on the bacon cheesecake. My gut reaction was, “Say whaaa?” The combination of bacon and cheesecake did not sound appealing at all. And yet, it was so good! But strange. I don’t think I could really explain it to you without trying it. You absolutely can taste the bacon; it’s not one of those things where there’s some token bacon just to make it a “bacon” recipe. But the bacon combines with the sweetness to make something that’s delicious and totally unique. Without question the best bacon dessert recipe I have ever had (granted, that’s a low bar, because almost every bacon dessert I have ever had has been disgusting).
The Kevin Bacon movie this year was going to be Apollo 13, but by the end of the day we opted for board games instead. Sorry, Mr. Bacon, you were there in spirit. (Side note, are there any bacon related board games? Because if not, I think we have a money maker on our hands.)
I’m already looking forward to next year; I’ve already begun work on the logo.
Best. Tradition. Ever.
Halbach Baconfest in Pictures
Halbach Baconfest Part II – Taste Test
For the big bacon taste test, we had 5 competitors:
- Nueske’s – Applewood smoked, pepper coated
- Dreymiller and Kray – Hickory smoked
- Prairie Grove Farms – Applewood smoked, uncured
- Trader Joe’s – Apple smoked, uncured
- Moore Family Farm – Smoked and cured
I should add that the Moore Family Farm is not available in stores. We are part of a buying group that buys meat and eggs from a farm downstate. We’ve been out to visit the farm a few times, so I’ve probably actually met the pigs that went into that bacon!
So here is the list of our rankings, with the grand prize winners at the end. The winner may surprise you!
Shane:
| Brand | Type | Rating (1-10) | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nueske’s | Applewood smoked, pepper coated | 6 | Dark edges due to pepper, not as salty, less flavor than I expected, little bit of pepper after-burn |
| Dreymiller and Kray | Hickory smoked | 7 | wider strips, good texture, a little fattier, nice to have non-applewood, very salty |
| Prairie Grove Farms | Applewood smoked, uncured | 8 | salty, nice appearance, very good flavor |
| Trader Joe’s | Apple smoked, uncured | 8 | straightest, flattest bacon, sort of factory looking, salty, good flavor, lean |
| Moore Family Farm | Smoked and cured | 4 | fattier, sort of chewy, not very seasoned or salty, most authentically pork tasting, maybe good for soup |
Nathan:
| Brand | Type | Rating (1-10) | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nueske’s | Applewood smoked, pepper coated | 7 | The after taste is where all the flavor is, most smokey flavor |
| Dreymiller and Kray | Hickory smoked | 8 | Hickory: tasted a little more flavorful because of the fat |
| Prairie Grove Farms | Applewood smoked, uncured | 8 | Seasoned well can’t taste the smokiness or apple wood. |
| Trader Joe’s | Apple smoked, uncured | 7 | Lean, flat, good flavor – hint of apple wood but not too strong |
| Moore Family Farm | Smoked and cured | 5 | Thicker cut, more fat, so not as crisp, but not as flavorful |
Sara:
| Brand | Type | Rating (1-10) | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nueske’s | Applewood smoked, pepper coated | 7 | light and peppery, good to try, but wouldn’t choose on a regular basis |
| Dreymiller and Kray | Hickory smoked | 6 | a little saltier, would be a good topping for pizza |
| Prairie Grove Farms | Applewood smoked, uncured | 8 | very salty but flavor is great – also pretty flat (think BLTs) |
| Trader Joe’s | Apple smoked, uncured | 10 | good pig flavor, nice flat slice |
| Moore Family Farm | Smoked and cured | 4 | stringy and chewy, flaovr is “piggy” but texture unappealing |
Results:
| Brand | Average Rating |
|---|---|
| Trader Joe’s | 8 1/3 |
| Prairie Grove Farms | 8 |
| Dreymiller and Kray | 7 |
| Nueske’s | 6 2/3 |
| Moore Family Farm | 4 1/3 |
I was downright stunned that the Trader Joe’s one won. First off, it was the least exotic of the bunch. Second off, it was one of the cheapest (I can’t remember if it was cheaper than Moore Family Farm or not). Third off, it was probably the least impressive looking. After these results are in, I have discovered that this particular kind of bacon from Trader Joe’s has a big following. So really, this was a fantastic result, because this is the one kind of bacon that we might reasonably buy on a regular basis.
The other interesting thing was that the Prairie Grove brand came in second. This was the one that was the “healthiest”. Of course it’s still bacon, but it was hormone free, antibiotic free, etc. So even though you still have to feel bad about it, I guess you don’t have to feel AS bad about it.
We let Evie fill an evaluation out as well, but we didn’t count her ratings into the final results. However, you’ll notice something interesting! Evie picked the same two we did.
| Brand | Type | Rating (1-10) | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nueske’s | Applewood smoked, pepper coated | 1 | Might want to have it again, but not sure |
| Dreymiller and Kray | Hickory smoked | 1 | I don’t want to have it again |
| Prairie Grove Farms | Applewood smoked, uncured | 10 | That one was good too |
| Trader Joe’s | Apple smoked, uncured | 10 | I liked it |
| Moore Family Farm | Smoked and cured | 1 | Maybe I might have it again |
So, while we dismissed her comments, she was actually just as good at taste testing as we were! (To be fair, she would rate something a 1 and say I don’t want to have it again, while simultaneously trying to wheedle an extra piece away from one of us).
Shane Halbach 