The world of bacon is huge. An American breakfast staple, bacon is lower from pork stomach and most frequently cured and smoked earlier than packaging. However how thick it is lower, what it is cured in, seasoned with, and smoked with can utterly change its texture and taste profile. So, what’s greatest? Cured or uncured? Hickory smoked or applewood smoked? 

To seek out the very best all-around bacon for cooking, snacking, or serving alongside pancakes, we taste-tested 10 manufacturers you are prone to discover at your native grocery store. We ready the bacon utilizing one in every of our go-to strategies: baking it on a foil-lined sheet pan at 400°F (205°C), which evenly distributes warmth, makes cleanup simpler, and lets the bacon fry in its personal fats. We then sampled them in random order, tabulated the outcomes, and topped an general winner and a runner-up.

The Standards

Your bacon desire is as private as your espresso order. Our editorial director, Daniel, likes some chew. “I do not like shattering items of bacon. I would like the lean half fairly crisp, and I would like the fats half effectively rendered, however nonetheless with some flex and chew. I do not need a piece of bacon glass,” he says. Laila, our affiliate culinary editor, agrees. “I significantly do not just like the tremendous crispy, tremendous crunchy bits.” Though I, equally, need quite a lot of textures inside the identical piece of bacon, I find it irresistible when there are extra-brittle bits. 

As for taste, our testers needed extra than simply pork, salt, and fats of their bacon—they needed some smokiness, simply not a lot that it could overpower the pork’s general taste. As Daniel stated: “When consuming my bacon with eggs, do I would like it to style like a brilliant intense campfire? Possibly not.”

General Winner: The Finest Versatile Bacon

Smithfield Thick-Lower Bacon, Naturally Hickory Smoked

This bacon checked each field for our editors. It delivered on the promise of a “thick lower,” which helped it retain a definite meaty chew after baking and prevented the strips from turning into too brittle or shattering into “bacon glass.” Daniel stated there was a “good distribution of lean and fats,” which gave the pork a young chew. 

Our tasters discovered the flavour profile to be the whole lot they have been in search of. The steadiness of salt and smokiness—which Laila described as “smoky with out tasting synthetic”—made for a quintessential piece of bacon versatile sufficient to eat for breakfast, add to a sandwich, or toss right into a salad. “This tastes like bacon I’d need and count on on a bodega bacon egg and cheese,” stated our affiliate director of visuals, Amanda.

Runner-Up: The Finest Smoky Bacon

North Nation Smokehouse Natural Applewood Smoked Uncured Bacon

This bacon had a bolder, smokier taste profile than our winner, with notes that bordered on complicated and tobacco-like. Although it had an assertive smokiness, it was balanced by a pleasing sweetness. Laila, who loved its “savory and deeply meaty” taste and slight chew, put it greatest: “That is bacon turned all the way in which up.” Amanda was additionally a fan, noting, “I really like the smokiness. I’d eat it by itself, and I just like the contact of sweetness. It has an excellent bacon texture: crispy all through with additional crisp edges and a chew within the heart.”

The smoke’s depth and sweetness, nonetheless, polarized some tasters, costing it the highest spot. “I am torn,” Daniel stated. “This has a sweetness I do not love, however the smoke taste is sort of good. There’s positively extra of a smokehouse vibe on this one.” In the event you’re in search of a extra intensely smoky bacon, that is the model to buy.

The Contenders

• 365 by Complete Meals Uncured Applewood Smoked
• Applegate Pure Hickory Smoked Uncured Bacon
• Boar’s Head Naturally Smoked Bacon
• Jimmy Dean Premium Hickory Smoked Bacon
• Oscar Mayer Naturally Hardwood Smoked Bacon
• Nature’s Promise Hickory Smoked Uncured Bacon (Cease & Store)
• North Nation Smokehouse Natural Bacon
• Smithfield Naturally Hickory Smoked Thick Lower Bacon
• True Story Meals Applewood Smoked Kurobata Bacon
• Wellshire Farms Uncured Bacon

Key Takeaways and Conclusion

Texture was the make-or-break consider our exams. Usually, our tasters most popular thick-cut bacon. Commonplace-cut grocery store bacon usually rendered an excessive amount of fats too rapidly within the oven, leading to brittle, shattering strips that lacked the substance and meatiness our editors most popular. Our winner, Smithfield, was labeled “thick lower.” Whereas it wasn’t thick sufficient to be thought of thick-cut for Daniel, who would have most popular a fair heftier slice, that little bit of additional width supplied the mandatory flex and chew that helped it win out. 

Whereas nitrates and nitrites in bacon are a trigger for concern for shoppers as a result of they have been linked to potential most cancers threat, they did not decide our rankings. We loved bacon cured with sodium nitrite and people labeled “uncured”—a time period usually used for merchandise cured with celery powder, which accommodates naturally occurring nitrates that may convert to nitrites throughout processing and digestion.

As former Critical Eats editor Elazar defined in his information to cured pork merchandise, nitrites are the important thing curing agent: They inhibit Clostridium botulinum, velocity up the curing course of, give bacon its pinkish-red coloration, and contribute a attribute “hammy” taste.

Though some merchandise are labeled “no nitrates or nitrites added,” that phrasing refers solely to artificial sources. The naturally derived nitrites in these merchandise are chemically equivalent and performance the identical manner throughout curing. “When folks see ‘uncured’ and ‘no nitrates/nitrites added’ on a label, they consider the meat is more healthy,” says Amy Keating, RD, in an article from Shopper Stories. “However that is not the case.” 

Our general winner was a historically cured bacon containing sodium nitrite, whereas the runner‑up was an natural “uncured” bacon made with celery powder (which additionally, as simply defined, contained nitrites). Finally, taste and slice thickness mattered in our style take a look at, not the curing agent.

Completely different manufacturers included flavoring brokers akin to fruit extracts, white pepper, brown sugar, and maple syrup to reinforce the bacon’s taste. Whereas sweetness was welcome, as seen in our runner-up, the steadiness of each salt and smokiness was key. Our favourite bacons tasted primarily of pork and smoke, somewhat than brown sugar, maple syrup, or seasonings like herbs or spices.

Our Testing Methodology

All style exams are carried out with manufacturers utterly hidden and with out dialogue. Tasters style samples in random order. For instance, taster A could style pattern one first, whereas taster B will style pattern six first. That is to stop palate fatigue from unfairly giving anybody pattern a bonus. Tasters are requested to fill out tasting sheets, rating the samples in keeping with numerous standards. All knowledge is tabulated, and outcomes are calculated with no editorial enter to supply essentially the most neutral illustration of precise outcomes attainable.