Bacon Review 12/28 - Farmer's Hickory Brand Applewood Smoked Sliced Bacon
>> 15 January 2011
By virtue of reading this, you aren't one to think of bacon as "gross". But this bacon was gross. Upon removing the shiny gold packaging, my fingers were coated with a layer of slime. Not natural bacon fattiness, or pleasantly preserved moisture, but a slime—possibly produced by the combination of sodium derivatives. I washed my hands and pressed on.
The cut of Farmer's wasn't anything special—but due to the aforementioned sliminess, the texture was a definite drawback. Possibly the only good thing out of this bacon, it released a great fragrance while cooking. Applewood is one of my favorite flavors, and the reason I bought Farmer's bacon (aside from the shiny gold package). However, the smoke flavor stopped there. I didn't get much out of the actual taste of the bacon.
Pork and salt were pretty balanced in Farmer's. The fat was way overpowering though—it felt like it was essentially soaked in grease. I attribute this to the same curing process that produced the nasty bacon slime.
While initially blinded by the gold packaging, upon closer inspection I realized Farmer's was packaged in San Jose, California. Thus the preservatives and resulting taste, justifiable by the great shipping distance. With a quick googling of Farmer's I found Mohawk Packaging Co., a subsidiary of John Morrell & Co.. The corporate family tree goes further as I discovered John was a family member of Smithfield Foods, a global food giant, and in fact the world's largest pork company (if you want to read about factory farming and companies that torture pigs, check out the Wikipedia article. As an aspiring locavore, at this point I was feeling more gross than after I had consumed the actual bacon.
Overall Farmer's Applewood Smoked Bacon was greasy, and the applewood flavor wasn't really there. I could taste a good balance of salt and pork, but only behind layers of sodium preservatives. Alas. All the more of a case for local food, I suppose.
Farmer's Applewood Smoked Sliced Bacon:
[Overall] ~
[Pork] ~~~
[Salt] ~~
[Fat] ~
[Smoke] ~~
28 comments:
We have been purchasing this bacon at
COSTCO in Santa Rosa, Ca. and Mesa, Az
for many years. Not sure how many years??.
We always enjoy it over all other brands of Bacon. Anyone who is afraid to get a little
grease on there hands can wear some type of gloves.
We never take the time to make a judgement of all types of flavors while cooking or eating the bacon. We like to leave that to wine type judges who can identify all kinds of flavors in the wine.
I have also been purchasing my Farmers bacon at Costco and have been happy with it. I did once cut a package open and found it to be slimmy and shimmery but I was at fault? It was past it's date and that was that. Every single package has bees o.k.. Besides, if I wasn't the faulty one, Costco would take it back no questions asked.
I will do my homework in the trickle down to factory farming. I do get some higher quality bacon at other places but its so damn expensive. Thanks for the review.Factory farming has no place in the world. I wish I could be vegan but bacon, it's like crack. Factory farms are just like WALMART. Their CEO's, COO's and all the other pigs make up the top end of the 1%. In the USA! Yet many of their store employees with families can't afford to even shop at WALMART with their Walmart discount.This is the Tea Party thinning of the herd.
I think the post has other motives other than review of product. This is one of the best I've had. Nothing like stated here. Maybe this person left it in the car for a few days before it was cooked. If it was going to be like this then they would never sell anymore than one per person.
I have been buying this bacon from Mount Laurel. NJ Costco. My family love it. It is buy far one of the least fatty bacon I have ever bought. The flavor is awesome and I like the thick cut. I would not exactly recommend it to Vegans. But if you like bacon, then this is the one to try. I hope Costco will continue to carry this brand.
This bacon is amazing. The idiot that posted this review either has ulterior motives or has no clue what good bacon tastes like. I have served this bacon for years and everybody raves about how good it is. This "slime" nonsense is a nonexistent issue. This bacon, like all bacon, has a fatty coating. It if was warm and you've never dealt with bacon before I would imagine you might find it slimy, but then again, you should not be reviewing bacon.
IDK who pissed in this person's Cheerios, but, it's apparent someone has do it. Our local Albertsons just changed to Albertson's Market and they completely changed products throughout the store, including the bacon sold in the meat/deli department.
Before the change, if someone overheard you ask for the bacon, they would strike up a conversation with you about the quality of it. Their new brand, which is Farmland, is terrible.
Well, the above mentioned is what led me to search for the old brand that everyone enjoyed so much. I contacted Albertson Market online and told them the same thing--they said they'd look into it. But, there's been no reply either. We stopped shopping there because the prices went WAY up and the quality WAY DOWN, of course, this is just my opinion. Anyways, I continued to ask online what brand they were selling, again no replies, I asked staff behind the counter. They kinda acted like they were told not to tell... IMO.
Well, they ran some Oscar Meyer brand bacon on sell pretty cheap, so I stopped in there to get a package of it to try. While passing the meat counter, I inquired about the bacon again. The person told me that the new stuff was selling anything like the old stuff; so, I decided to ask if they knew the name of the old brand. And, after some thought, remembered that it was Farmer's brand bacon.
The stuff we were getting was close to 3/8" thick, had a wonderful favor, and most importantly, it didn't cook down to hardly nothing and leave a bunch of grease.
Anyways, this review was one of the first things I came across and couldn't believe the review.
I have been buying this bacon for months and love it! I don't know how the buyer had such a terrible experience. Its the best bacon I have ever eaten. Costco doesn't carry it in all of their locations so i purchase at the Hazlet NJ store for family and friends. Recently tho, I've been told that the item has been deleted. I've submitted my complaint but i guess it's like fighting City Hall. Please bring back Applewood Bacon!!!
Amen!!!!! I concur! My local Costco no longer carries this brand of bacon. It is DELICIOUS AND FLAVORFUL! I was so disheartened to learn that the item had been deleted. This idiot complaining about the "texture" of the bacon is unbelievable! Lol! O_O It's bacon, for Christ's sake! Unbelievable.
Amen!!!!! I concur! My local Costco no longer carries this brand of bacon. It is DELICIOUS AND FLAVORFUL! I was so disheartened to learn that the item had been deleted. This idiot complaining about the "texture" of the bacon is unbelievable! Lol! O_O It's bacon, for Christ's sake! Unbelievable.
Yesssss! That's right. It was deleted from my local Costco, too. I was very disappointed about this decision. The slices are very thick, and the taste is flavorful.
Does anyone have any idea where I could buy it online? And not from Costco's website, either. It's not possible to buy it from Costco online.
This bacon is way, way way too salty in my opinion. I will switch to sugar cured bacon. Sodium nitrate is poison to our bodies. Don't get me wrong I LOVE BACON!! But the amount of salt and sodium nitrate makes it impossible to season anything else you serve alongside it :(
This bacon is way, way way too salty in my opinion. I will switch to sugar cured bacon. Sodium nitrate is poison to our bodies. Don't get me wrong I LOVE BACON!! But the amount of salt and sodium nitrate makes it impossible to season anything else you serve alongside it :(
Costco in Hoover, AL still carries it, but the bacon has changed recently. It is now even thicker and has 70 calories per slice. I don't find it nearly as good and much less salty. Maybe you'll like it Julie Lobato, but I am disappointed in the product recently. Like many others, this has been our go-to brand of bacon for quite some time and every time I try another "premium" brand I am disappointed.
Since we are unable to get the OLD Farmer's Applewood bacon at Costco, I will not be buying bacon. The Maple they have substituted it awful...too salty and leaves a metalic taste afterward. Bad idea to discontinue!!!
I live in AZ and I but it Albertsons'. in the butcher shop section. the best bacon in the USA
I am so pissed Costco has done away with this. I cannot find it anywhere in Virginia now
This bacon is sometimes center cut and sometimes it is not. This bacon is always injected with slime that comes out of the bacon as it cooks ruining any chance to use the grease for anything else. For those that love this bacon buy anything else and you will be happier.
Our local Costco (Laguna Niguel, CA) no longer carries this bacon, yet my wife was able to find it in Tustin (15 miles away). I looked at a couple of Costco's near me. No luck. So I ventured up to Tustin. Couldn't find it. On the way home, I realized there are two Costco's in Tustin and my Wife had gone to the other one. I'll visit the other one tomorrow.
This was our favorite non-niche bacon. And it appears it is on it's way out.
What a shame.
Have always happily purchased it at Costco. But recently its coming with a nasty rind or skin on one side. Ewww. Whats up guys?
At its best, this is my favorite commodity bacon - it can't be beat in quality for price. There are some drawbacks. I do find a lot of variation across packages. As one person above mentioned, sometimes it's center-cut, sometimes not. I have the best luck when selecting packages where there is decent marbling in the meaty parts of the bacon. And yes, like every other commodity bacon, it does seem to be plumped up with brine that comes out when you cook it.
And never, ever buy the uncured version - just terrible.
I TRULLY don't understand why the Powers that Be tend to stop making things that I like....It's just trully perplexing to me. I love this bacon...LOVE IT! I cook it in the toaster over to ge the BEST flavor out of it. Yes, it's very fatty..almost too fatty, but the salty flavor is just the BEST...the Costco in Clovis Ca, abruptly stopped carrying this bacon and I literally dropped to my knees in the store, people around me thought I was having a heart attack (and I'm 47y.o. and in good health lol). I don't know what I'm going to do. Maybe do some more research to find the origination of this product and buy direct from them? Or I guess I will try the other 3 Costcos in Fresno. SMMFH.
I’d like to complain to producers about this purchase. Six of the 19 slices in my package were nothing but slabs of fat. No meat at all. I was embarrassed to serve it. (It was dinner for breakfast night...) Any ideas about who to contact with info and photos?
used to love this bacon, but it has really gone downhill the last few months. I had major slime in my last Costco package, really gross. And its much more fatty tasting than before. dont taste the cure hardly at all. Sad, because I dont think I can find a similar kind with any quality. Bad on you, Smithfield!
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LIKE THE OTHER GUY SAID. I ONLY WANT THE THICK CUT APPLEWOOD SMOKED BACON. IWAS GOING TO ORDER IT ONLINE THROUGH COSTCO BUT THEY SAID I MIGHT NOT GET IT! WHAT'S UP?
This is by far, my favorite bacon. I am disheartened that Costco is no longer carrying it. Cookie sheet, 400°, 20 - 25 minutes. I flip them after the first 20. Perfect, lovely flavorful bacon. Costco, if you're listening, I don't buying every week, but probably 40 double packages a year. Bring it back, please.
Yes I love this bacon as well. But I do wire rack at 350 degrees for 45 min. Bacon renders the fat better and it melts in your mouth. Costco don’ carr them anymore!!!!
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