Bacon has been around for a long time; Mark A. Johnson’s American Bacon: The History of a Food Phenomenon traces it to ancient China around 1500 BC. Having been a fixture on the world’s tables for so long, bacon has evolved into countless styles and varieties, but for our taste tests we prioritized some common denominators.
After researching over 30 brands, we narrowed our testing pool using the following criteria:
Nationwide availability: We focused on bacon that can be purchased across the US, either at a supermarket or online. We tested best sellers from brands like Oscar Mayer, Jimmy Dean, and Applegate along with options from house brands of major grocery chains, such as Whole Foods, Costco, Sam’s Club, Trader Joe’s, and Aldi. We also considered specialty brands that are available on the brand’s website or via services like Amazon and FreshDirect.
Pork only: Though the scope of bacon can include turkey, beef, lamb, duck, and plant-based varieties, we focused on the most popular type — pork — for consistency.
Standard or classic cut: This most common cut of bacon is from the middle of the belly, including the fatty ends, and is usually about 0.0625-inch thick. We did not include other cuts, such as center cut (leaner bacon from the middle of the belly, trimmed of fatty ends) or thick cut.
Full fat, full salt, or unflavored: Though we didn’t discriminate on types of wood smoke, we did not include bacon with added flavors like maple, chili, bourbon or brown sugar. In the interest of an even playing field, we also did not include low-sodium or low-fat versions.
We evaluated 22 brands of bacon during a label-concealed tasting over the course of two days. We cooked the bacon on foil-lined sheet pans in an oven set at 425 °F, striving for a texture between crispy and chewy. We also photographed slices of raw bacon and cooked bacon from each brand, side by side, to determine shrinkage and to see how the fat rendered.
While tasting each strip, we evaluated them by:
Appearance: We considered the color, shape, fat-to-meat ratio, and how the fat rendered.
Texture: We noted if the bacon was crisp, chewy, limp, or stiff, zeroing in on those that struck balance to the bite.
Flavor: We eliminated bacon that was too sweet, oversalted, or oversmoked. We also looked for a proper amount of pork flavor.
Taking all of these factors into consideration, six finalists earned a respectable place in our pig heaven.
