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tnugent's avatar

What's the difference between uncured bacon and applewood smoked bacon?

Asked by tnugent (8points) November 20th, 2006
Someone asked me this while I was standing in front of the meat section at Trader Joe's last night. She ended up calling someone on her phone...to no avail. Specifically, her question was, "Which one is real bacon?" Specifically, my answer was, "...I have no idea."
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2 Answers

benjiwitz's avatar
i think one includes the blood and guts and the other doesn't.
hossman's avatar
Americans would think of the smoked bacon as "real" bacon. Uncured bacon is more like what we call "Canadian" bacon (but it isn't Canadian). Also, most of what is sold as "smoked" bacon has very little smoking involved. Usually, it's cured by injecting it with nitrates, then briefly passed through a smoking chamber so they can call it "smoked" even though the smoke flavor comes from the nitrates, not the smoke. If you want real "smoked" bacon, you need to either find a gourment supplier or buy uncured bacon (also known as pork belly) and cure or smoke it yourself. I believe if you go to the Food Channel's website and the "Good Eats" show they have some recipes for curing and smoking bacon. I've always wanted to do it (I've got a smoker) but have never gotten around to it.

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