Give Us This Month Our Monthly Bacon

Hello, and welcome to 101 Achievements’ Bacon of the Month Club! Each month, we’re going to be frying up a new kind of bacon and reporting the results to you.

Now, for 11 months of this year, we’ll be using bacon that is specially made by Crested Duck Charcuterie, for members of its Bacon Club. In fact, our original plan when we made up this achievement was to use Crested Duck for all twelve months. But, the club is becoming so popular that we weren’t able to get in on January’s supply.

So, before we get into our main event next month, I thought it’d be nice to get, as the old song goes, “Tempted by the Bacon of Another.” (That’s the one, right?) Either way, that’s what brought me to Marty’s Market in the Strip District to purchase some of their smoked bacon.

Gorgeous, isn’t it? Go ahead, bask in its pink light for a moment.

Now. The way we’ll be judging the bacon is very simple. We’ll be pan-frying two strips over a low-to-medium flame…

…like so. One pair of pieces, we’ll cook lightly so the bacon retains some floppiness. Basically, to this level of doneness.

The remaining pair of strips will be cooked longer, in my attempt to simulate the experience of someone who likes crispy bacon. (In, I might add, a stunning feat of empathy and self-sacrifice; no big deal.)

Once the bacon is ready, we’ll each try a piece of the floppy and the burnt crispy bacon, diner-breakfast-style. This is still my favorite baconary position. In fact…enhance!

Now that I’ve lived out my NCIS fantasy…how’d this bacon score? We’re going to judge our bacons on a simple 1-10 scale, rating its pre-cooking fattiness, its flavor, its saltiness, and how well it holds up to the merciless grilling that I know some people like — i.e., is it still identifiably bacon afterward?

Marty’s Market Smoked Bacon
Fattiness: 7. This was a fatty bacon, but not so much that the cooking became unwieldy. No complaints from me.
Flavor: 8. It was smoky and savory — it’s your prototypical Good Bacon.
Saltiness: 7. The curing did come through very strongly. The saltiness threatened to overwhelm the other flavors, but pulled back from the ledge just in time.
Cooking Survival: 8. This held up pretty well to a longer frying. Its fattiness helped in that regard. It became crunchy but didn’t lose its tenderness entirely, and you could still taste the meat (as opposed to it tasting like “burnt”). I could see cooking this bacon longer to include in a Cobb salad or to make a bacon vinaigrette or something…but if it’s for breakfast or on a burger? Don’t go more than a couple minutes on each side.

The verdict? Marty’s Market has great meats, and that includes their bacon. I’d recommend making it a stop any time you visit the Strip. Tune back in next month, when we begin our 11-month tasting tour of offerings by Crested Duck!