Top 10 Kinds of Bacon in My Refrigerator This Morning

By Jonathan Gold Tue., Jan. 4 2011 at 8:30 AM

guanciale

10. Guanciale. Made by some guy in Colorado, or so says Rosario, the cured-meat impresario at Roma Deli in Pasadena. A nice, gamy pig cheek, anyway, suspiciously like the ones I used to get from Salumi Biellese on 8th Avenue in Manhattan.

Salume Biellese

9. Bacon. Nueske's, from the deli case at Gelson's. Sweet, smoky, not overly salty - the great American breakfast bacon.

8. Smoked pancetta. Guidi Marcello brings it in from someplace in the far north of Italy. Essentially, this is a slightly porkier slab bacon with an exceptionally gentle cure. It's been my favorite addition to simmered sauerkraut.

7. Smoked jowl, straight from Burger's Smokehouse, in California, MO. It wasn't until the last 20 years or so that the word "bacon'' necessarily referred to belly bacon in the South, and this dense, thinly sliced jowl bacon is exactly what you want to chop and toss into a pot of hoppin' john.

6. Pepper bacon, considered an abomination by certain aficionados, can actually be a marvelous thing if cooked over a low enough flame (pepper tends to burn if unattended). Slightly floppy pepper bacon, hot biscuits, a mug of black Monkey & Son Krakatoa roast - what could be better? The pepper bacon in my fridge at the moment happens to be from Broadbent in Cadiz, KY, and I couldn't be happier about it.

Tags:

bacon, Jonathan Gold

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Sunraven79

In nursing school I learned that the #1 vitamin deficiency in alcoholics is Thiamine deficiency. And, that the best source for thiamine is pork meat, especially bacon. So alcoholics of the world rejoice!

Greg

How do you store your bacon? Do you need to let it breathe or do you seal it in something? Oh and how much is that Nueske's at Gelsons? Love that stuff.

Biffles

I've bought boczek (pronounced "buh-chek") at J & T on Wilshire in Santa Monica, and it was as good -- at least so far as I can remember -- at Kurowycky in the East Village, NYC before they closed....

harlequinknight

Jonathan, do you really have that much bacon in your fridge? How long does bacon keep before it goes bad?

Diana D

Do you really think calling someone who is being sorta jerky to you a "penis" and hinting he put one in his mouth is really professional? I understand your anger and feelings, but you are a pulitzer-prize winning actor, not a junior high school kid.

Also, I think he could twist what you said around on you to say you personally have knowledge on where to go to engage in homosexual oral encounters. Not that I find anything wrong with that, but it may not be what you want to be thought of as your intention.

I just, well, sort of expected BETTER of you. That shock of finding out a person I kind of looked up to could sink to such a juvenile, crude level leads to a BIG letdown.

Josh

Actually, I believe the commenter called JG a putz (penis) first...

Diana D

WRITER...sorry, I meant WRITER. I've never seen you act, and one couldn't win a Pulitzer acting. THis is what happend when I don't re-read my posts.

Sara

Jonathan Gold is disgusting. How fat is he now?

Thanks to the author for expanding my pork product horizons! Also for telling off that troll so eloquently.

RMTE5280

The guy in Colorado Il Mondo Vecchio Salumi just like their name they are "Old World" and the real deal!

TheGhostOfGriffinMill

For a guy who can't bother with an apostrophe in his name, JR sure likes to pick nits. By the way, if we all know that Canadian bacon refers to a smoked-ham type product (since we are, after all, in the US and used to State-side idiom), there's nothing to correct in the first place, no? Just wondering...

Jobus_Rum

Can't reg an apostrophe with Disqus. But you knew that, because you know everything. Isn't that right, making references to screenwriting failure guy?

TheGhostOfGriffinMill

Wow. Someone didn't land a pilot this year. ORDER UP!

J Gold

Are you munching on a butter tart? Is that Tim Horton's in your cup? Is there a moose in the driveway? Then we're not in Canada at the moment, are we?

I know all about peameal bacon, although there is currently none in the Museum of Cured Meats I sometimes call my refrigerator - and I'll take Schreiner's smoked pork loin over peameal bacon any day of the week. But if you know where to find it around here, let me know. My go-to source went out of business.

Jobus_Rum

God damn you are a pretentious asshole, ain't no name you won't drop to whore for the yawning chasm that is your ego. Fact is, you keep referring to cured meats as smoky like a fool that is trying to baffle people with bullshit.

I bet you have a lot of facebook "friends" that you've never even met.

As they say in Yiddish, you're a putz.

J gold

Is it now considered pretentious to mention the name of a product in an article about said product? Sorry: I hadn't been informed of the rule change.

But if you're in the market for putz, neither smoked nor cured but served in a bowl of pho, I can certainly tell you where to go. You'll enjoy the mouthfeel.

Jobus_Rum

Wow, you really are an insufferable asshole. You're like a character from the Onion.

"Area man becomes tedious douche, loses job and starts blog"

Through my tears of laughter there is the slightest hint of pity, Jony.

Jobus_Rum

Canadian Bacon is an American term, probably invented by McDonald's. Canadians call it back bacon or peameal bacon. Oh yeah, it's cured not smoked. If you're going to do an article about bacon you should know the difference.