When Bacon Doesn’t Work Out – A Bacon Project FAIL!

I’ve been doing “The Bacon Project” for some time now. I am not sure if I am just doing good work, or if I’ve been lucky, but so far I’ve had only top-quality bacon to report on. I’ve enjoyed it! And I suppose only time will tell whether it’s luck or good choices that has led me to some really great bacon. The difference between Vermont Smoke And Cure bacon and Niman Ranch bacon is miniscule compared to, say, the “Great Value” bacon from Walmart. And my general assumption is that the various brands and styles of bacon that I am purchasing will be in the same relative quality. Well, every hypothesis needs to be tested from time to time. Enter: “Aux Delices des Bois” and their brand “Artisanal Uncured Bacon”.

Giving them a bit of the benefit of the doubt, I waited several days before writing this post just to see if I ended up with food poisoning, which might indicate that the bacon had been damaged in transit. But nope: my health is tip top. And this remains the worst bacon I can possibly imagine within the class of bacon I have set out to test in the Bacon Project. Needless to say, looking at the above label, I was quite excited to give a try to this package of bacon! It looks fantastic, the presentation is top notch, and the meat, though quite high in fat, seems to be the right colors! Alas, it was not to be.

The cooking:

My wife wandered in to the kitchen, as she generally does, while I was cooking the bacon. We were both hungry, and we were very much looking forward to another Bacon Project test run. “It smells like popcorn…” She mentioned idly, scrunching up her nose in curiosity. This was a novel smell for bacon. I agree, the smell strongly resembled that smell you get while microwave-cooking a bag of Orville Redenbacher popcorn. It was strange. But we’ve had great success with the top-tier bacon in the past, and didn’t think much of it other than to note the smell and move on.

The final product:

It was truly unsettling. Neither of us could finish our plate. And that’s not just because it didn’t match our exptectations. It was just not good bacon. I actually think I might prefer the “Great Value” bacon from Walmart to this stuff… I can’t really describe the flavor, because I didn’t eat enough to get a thorough description. Needless to say, I was not pleased. As I stated above: I’ve waited a few days, and no food poisoning. It still could have been a bad batch; which means it’s possible that this bacon is usually as good as the packaging suggests. But I won’t be trying any other batches of this bacon to find out.

Do not buy this stuff. It’s not worth your money, nor your disappointment.