Bacon-O-Meter

Number of strips: 3
Comments: I woke up yesterday with a cold and came home from work early. Didn't have much of an appetite but figured I should eat something. So for dinner, I cooked up some spaghetti and tossed it with butter, black pepper, parmigiano reggiano and two pieces of Applegate Farms Organic Sunday Bacon which I had broiled in the toaster over and then crumbled up.

I can't say I'm the biggest fan of this bacon. It lacks that definite wood smoked flavor, despite touting "applewood smoked" on the package. The bacon was left over from Sunday's pick-n-climb food preperations. At the pick and climb, I had a bacon-wrapped oyster which the CLC made, as well as some swiss-bacon dip, which I brought to the party. I figure there's a full strip between the two.

Total count from April 26, 2006: 66.75*
*this number is off by like at least 15, because I forgot to update a couple times. I also sometimes forget I'm eating bacon when it's on a burger.

Bacon-O-Meter 10/2/06

I don't know how it happened, but I haven't posted a bacon-o-meter update in nearly 3 months. Granted, I have been taking a bit of a bacon break and not cooking it at home.

Number of strips: 2 loose strips, plus many on burgers, in potato salads, mixed green salads, cream puffs, etc... so I will give an educated guess of 6 strips
Comments: I think the only time I have loose strips of bacon in recent months was at the Great Jones. DMR ordered bacon cheese burgers twice in a span of 5 or 6 days and graciously gave me one of the strips. What a nice husband! There have definitely been additional bacon cheese burgers - like one from Bonnies with Canadian bacon and one from Stone Park, where they forgot the bacon and brought it in a seperate dish. For Jim Flood's birthday, Sarah Sarah Sweet Little Rock and Roller made her delicious potato salad which is rife with chunks of bacon and I ate a ton of that. On Saturday, MM made cream puffs with bacon. At first I tought he had used bacon drippings as the fat in the batter, but no, upon taking a bite, I learned there was a piece of bacon resting on the inside! And finally last night at Union Hall, I was a salad scavenger, eating some of Skippy's leftover salad, where there were lots of bacon bits hiding under the greens!
Total count from April 26, 2006: 63.75

Bacon-O-Meter 7/10/06

Number of strips: 5.5
Type/brand: Two pieces of Canadian bacon, 3 strips of uh, American bacon.
Consistency: Good for both
Comments: The two pieces of Canadian bacon came on my Eggs Benedict at Moutarde yesterday. It's tough to fuck up Canadian bacon, but my eggs were definitely not cooked to my liking. They were poached of course, and I anticipate a runny yolk. I don't anticipate runny whites. Runny whites are nasty and remind me of phlegm or snot. There was just too much runniness on the plate. Dan ordered a side of bacon to go along with his delicious crispy on the edges banana pancakes. It was a generous portion and I would up eating most of it!
Total count from April 26, 2006: 57.75

Bacon-O-Meter

Number of strips: Oh my god I ate the whole thing (12 or so strips)
Type/brand: Applegate Farms Organic Uncured Sunday Bacon
Consistency: The strips were cooked by me and I think I make awesome bacon.
Comments: I bought of a package of this hardwood somked bacon a couple weeks ago and wound up freezing it. Yesterday, I defrosted it and cooked it all up and figured throughout the weekend and beyond, I'd make good use of it. I hadn't had bacon in practically 2 weeks. Oh wait, that is the biggest lie, because at some point last week I had an egg white and bacon sandwich, which had 3 strips of bacon. I'm over 50 pieces now and the idea of that is kind of weirding me out I may have to take a bacon sabbatical. Anyway, I had some for lunch yesterday and then another piece of so as a late evening snack. And this morning I reheated the remaining pieces for a homemade egg mcmuffin, sans the cheese.
Total count from April 26, 2006: 52.25

Bacon-O-Meter

Number of strips: 7.5
Type/brand: smoked applewood (5), Farmer John's maple-flavored (2.5)
Consistency: perfect/perfect, well the Farm John's strips may have been a tad overcooked (by me) but I perfer that to being undercooked.
Comments: The smoked applewood bacon was part of my room service breakfast a the Sunset Tower Hotel in West Hollywood. It was some of the best bacon I've ever tasted and an incredible bargain to boot ($4 for 6 thick cut slices). That's right, there were 6 slices to the order and by slice 4 I was getting delirious. I felt really bad leaving that single piece of bacon, but I just could not do it. I could barely make a dent in the granola and fruit I ordered with it.

The Farmer John's bacon was part of our World Cup brunch at Julie and Chris' place in Los Feliz. I love dipping breakfast meats in maple syrup, so I enjoyed this a lot. The slices were wider than your average bacon and looked more like a rasher. Scrambled eggs, tater tots and coffee accompanied.

Total count from April 26, 2006: 34.25

Bacon-O-Meter

Number of strips: 5
Type/brand: unknown(1)/Friendly's(2)/niman ranch(2)
Consistency: All but the bacon from Friendly's were too well done for my personal taste.
Comments: Unknown bacon came from Cafe This Way in Bar Harbor, ME on May 27. The Friendly's bacon (May 29) came on my cheddar, mushroom, bacon burger and I couldn't really discern it from the rest off the food. Niman Ranch was today from the City Bakery.

Total count from April 26, 2006: 26.75

Bacon-O-Meter

Number of strips: 3.25
Type/brand: Peter Luger brand/unknown
Consistency: thick and char-rific, could have used 10 more seconds to further cook the fat in the center/cold but toothsome
Location: Peter Luger Steakhouse / Tom's Restaurant, Brooklyn, NYC
Comments: I decided that the bacon I ate at Peter Luger over the weekend counts as 3 strips. It's arbitrary yes, but you had your chance to speak. The .25 strips came this morning at Tom's. I ate a little piece of Dr. Abby's bacon. I had the beef salami and eggs.

Total count from April 26, 2006: 21.75

Bacon-O-Meter 5/18/06

Number of strips: 2
Type/brand: Niman Ranch
Consistency: overcooked
Location: from the City Bakery
Comments: I knew I shouldn't have gotten these cause they looked like they had been sitting in the chafing dish whatchamacallit forever, but my bacon eyes totally got the better of me. Not tender at all.

Total count from April 26, 2006: 18.5

Bacon-O-Meter

Number of strips: 2
Type/brand: Niman Ranch
Consistency: FATTY, what's going on guys?
Location: from the City Bakery
Comments: Again they were kind of fatty and skimpy on the meat. But it was a delicious accompaniment to my oatmeal with maple syrup.

Total count from April 26, 2006: 16.5

Bacon-O-Meter

Number of strips: 2
Type/brand: Niman Ranch
Consistency: Thought they were tender enough, but maybe a bit too fatty.
Location: from the City Bakery
Comments: I totally forgot that I ate these 2 strips with my yogurt and fruit this morning.

Total count from April 26, 2006: 14.5

Bacon-O-Meter

Number of strips: 3
Type/brand: Niman Ranch Applewood Smoked Center Cuts
Consistency: Not to toot my own horn, but they were cooked perfectly. Nicely browned throughout, a little crispy on the absolute edges and totally chewy throughout.
Location: the living room.
Comments: I cooked up the remainder of the Niman Ranch slab I had. There were 6 strips left, so Dan and I each had 3.

Total count from April 26, 2006: 12.5

Bacon-O-Meter

Number of strips: 5.5
Type/brand: Niman Ranch Applewood Smoked Center Cuts were the first 4, not sure about the other 1.5
Consistency: all-around great!
Location: our house / Mike and Jim's backyard
Comments: For breakfast I broiled up some bacon in the toaster oven. This is my preferred method of makin' bacon. You do have to keep a close eye on the bacon because once it reaches a certain point, it has a tendency to overcook or burn really quickly. It happened to me once and I wasn't too happy with my crispy bacon but the party goers I made it for still gobbled it all up. The other strip and a half were eaten in Mike's backyard. There was an entire tupperware container full of cooked bacon for use on the burgers. I really love cold bacon! I put one strip on my burger and then later on had another half strip because I kept looking over at the tupperware and had no self-control. Also, Mike's lady Sara(h) made a delicious potato salad with had bacon in it! But because it was pieces and chunks, it doesn't count.

Total count from April 26, 2006: 9.5

Bacon-O-Meter

Number of strips: 2
Type/brand: Niman Ranch
Consistency: Perfect
Location: The City Bakery, NYC
Comments: I had no intention of eating bacon today. But then I dropped in on the City Bakery this morning (damn you for being on my way to work!) to get some yogurt and fruit. As I was standing in line to pay, I noticed the glistening strips of porcine goodness. They looked like model bacon and I couldn't resist and you know what, I'm happy I didn't resist, because my bacon-dar was totally spot on. Although the size of the bacon seemed a little smaller than what I'm accustomed to there, the were cooked absolutely perfect. The fat wasn't overly chewy and the meat portion toothsome.

Total count from April 26, 2006: 4

Bacon-O-Meter

Number of strips: 2
Type/brand: Niman Ranch
Consistency: A little bit more well done than I like, but bacon was still chewy.
Location: The City Bakery, NYC

Total count from April 26, 2006: 2