Food, Food Artisans

A Dozen Great Bacons to Make Your Day!

Zingerman’s 4th Annual Camp Bacon is coming soon and to help get everyone prepared, we’re sharing tasty bacon ideas and suggestions!

  • Nueske’s Applewood Smoked Bacon – The Deli’s house bacon for over thirty years now and a Wisconsin classic for decades. Smoked for 24 hours over real applewood logs, it’s popular with pretty much everyone who tries it. The late and legendary food writer R.W. Apple adeptly called it “the Rolls Royce of bacon!” Deep, rich, beautiful bacony flavor; a bit sweet, lovingly smokey, long finish that lingers nicely. Bob Nueske will be joining us for the Camp Bacon Main Event this year!
  • Nueske’s Wild Cherrywood BaconEqually delicious, a bit sweeter still, and always excellent. Smoked over wild cherrywood logs from trees that grow in the woods around the Nueske’s hometown of Wittenberg. For much more on the Nueske story, see Zingerman’s Guide to Better Bacon.
  • Benton’s BaconThe biggest, boldest, most bombastic of our bacons. On the eastern end of Tennessee, Alan Benton is curing and smoking bacon pretty much as his grandparents (and probably their grandparents) did deep in the hills of Virginia. Long, dry cure with salt and sugar, and then over 48 hours of smoking over hickory wood. When you want BIG bacon flavor, Benton’s would be the way to go!
  • Broadbent’s BaconOne of the Bluegrass state’s best bacons. Ronny and Beth Drennan still do the Broadbent family’s hundred year-old recipe down in Trigg County in Western Kentucky. Dry cured the old- fashioned way, then smoked over hickory. Very meaty, tangy, salty. A big hit amongst professional chefs.
  • Arkansas Peppered BaconAnother long-time favorite here at Zingerman’s. Made near the foot of Mt. Petit Jean in central Arkansas. Delicious, smoky, moist, and rich with big mouth feel. The heat rises slowly and it has a long finish. Love it. Great for adding to other dishes as an ingredient—a small chunk of it added to a bean soup will work wonders.
  • Balinese Long Pepper BaconSame great bacon but this time spiced with long pepper, a cousin of the black pepper we all know around here. Native to India, long pepper was very popular in Roman times and also in American colonial cooking. I love it. It’s got a softer, more sensual spiciness to it.
  • La Quercia Tamworth BaconThe Tamworth hog makes for terrifically full flavored bacon. For more on this special, hard to find hog and the meat that’s made from it, see the interview on page 6 with Herb Eckhouse (see Zingerman’s Guide to Better Bacon). Powerfully porky, it’s subtly sweet, with big, earthy notes and a particularly long finish. Herb Eckhouse will joining us for the Camp Bacon Main Event this year!
  • Edwards BaconSam Edwards is the third generation in the family to be commercially curing ham and bacon. He’s a great guy and it’s great bacon—dry cured in salt in the traditional Virginia style, then smoked over hickory. Really delicious full flavor, nicely balanced, hits all parts of the bacon universe in one beautiful bite. My bacon of choice for a classic bacon and eggs breakfast. Sam Edwards will be joining us for the Camp Bacon Main Event this year!

bacon-guys-so-happy

See you at camp!