WARNING Maple smoked bacon

[TomW]

My wife and I prefer thick-sliced bacon when we have bacon, and I have taken to convection-baking it in the oven due to the slices necessary to feed us & the Boyz (1st grader & pre-schooler).

The other day I picked up a pound-&-a-half of thick sliced bacon and casually noted it was "maple cured". Without really thinking about it, I knew the packer had simply added some chemical to the pork for flavoring.

I have to think something went wrong at the packing plant because the cooking bacon filled the house with an intense maple flavor, and the cooked bacon had waaaaay too much maple flavor.

Whatever maple-flavored chemical the packer used apparently coated my oven as it took four more oven-cooked meals before the house stopped smelling like maple.

That in itself is irritating, but I posted this warning because I ended up having to throw out the bacon grease because it was way too maple flavored for use in anything else.

Here in Alabama, we don't throw out bacon grease without a really good reason. This particular batch of bacon grease qualified.

Consider yourself warned.

Tom

 

[TexasTamale]

I totally agree....
I bought the maple flavor ONCE it was terrible!!! too much maple flavor....never again!

We loved the thick-sliced peppered.....YUM! I now am thinking about breakfast for dinner tonight

 

[TomW]

... I now am thinking about breakfast for dinner tonight

It will be a winner - I'm cooking regular bacon tonight for Kim which is why I posted the warning (she's not feeling well & bacon is one of her comfort foods).

Tom

 

[jennyema]

I love bacon dipped in maple syrup, though ...

I think having everything smell mapley in my house would be

 

[TexasTamale]

I love bacon dipped in maple syrup, though ...

Me too! (you got your chocolate in my peanut butter moment, and it was good!) Thats why I decided to try the maple flavored...

What a sweetheart you are Tom! breakfast is one of my DH best dishes....he does an excellent omelet. Hope your Wife is better soon.

 

[JohnL]

That's a real bummer Tom,
I bet maple smoked bacon would be a nice mild smokey flavor as compared to commercial so called maple cured bacon. Live and learn I guess. Round here, I prefer the hickory smoked slab bacon that we get from the butcher shop as compared to the stuff that they sell here in the grocery store. The commercial stuff just doesn't seam to cook up right. Too much moisture maybe?

 

[buckytom]

tom, i have sort of the opposite problem with maple cured bacon i've had recently. while there's been a pleasant maple aroma wafting from the kitchen, there never seems to be enough maple flavor in the meat.

i know what you mean about permeating smells, tho. i won't make duck in the house anymore for the same reason.

i'd love a good maple-y chunk o' cured pig belly. and any leftovers would go straight into baked beans.


jenny, i hope when i die someday, it's with a mouthful of bacon dripping with maple syrup.

 

[Robo410]

my fave commercial bacon is Thorn Apple Valley Slab bacon. very smokey, very meaty.

 

[Loprraine]

" it's with a mouthful of bacon dripping with maple syrup."

I'm with you on that one. When I was growing up, at sugaring off time, everything was cooked in maple syrup!

I have found with some maple cured bacon, it has taken me days to get rid of the smell. And it's not even a good maple smell, it's just overpowering.

 

[Paymaster]

One time cooking Maple Sausage and Bacon in the house was enough that we only serve these when camping and then cooked outside,not in the camper.