Just got back from our local butchers where we bought some real bacon with no added anything. 210 grams for £2.00 and no shrinkage when you cook it. An added bonus is that it is a lot thicker than the see through bacon in the video. Support your local butcher, they can be cheaper than supermarkets and the taste and quality is much higher.
Impossible to find bacon in a supermarket that isn't transparently thin... even the extra special crap is wafer thin. 100% agree with your butcher comment, it's the only place to get good thick bacon in the UK.
@@Charlie_Crown Wholeheartedly disagree. Even the stuff labelled "Thick" is average. Maybe it's thick by UK standard, but when comparing it to bacon you get in America it's piss poor.
i cooked a large piece of beef in a large covered tin...i had to squeeze it in ........by the time it cooked it was half the size and my son in law told me it was because of water
There was an outcry over one particular bacon supplier, Dutch I think, back in the 1970s. Shrinkage was at least twice than the amount in this review. The product was withdrawn, but adding water survives! It is *so* tempting for the producers!
In our town of 145,000 people ( south Wales ) UK, we have the grand total of one butcher, who has not even got a proper shop. ( market stall ) and as a pensioner, I certainly can't afford to shop there. It's mostly down to the scandalous rent and rates that poor business people have to pay. These days, those people are better off on benefits, and their shops stand empty. Surely someone is going to wake up and smell the coffee one day?
25,000 in our town but the butcher closed up shop. He loved his shop. I do smell the coffee, and a lot more besides but I can't share it here, only on my threads.
Top tip for supermarket bacon Gareth ... remove all the bacon from the packaging, throw it in the bin and slowly fry the packaging in a little oil ... much tastier ... 😁
Try making your own dry cured bacon, takes 3-4 days and all you need is an air tight container a piece of pork loin and some sea salt or kosher salt, the nitrites are added to keep the bacon pink, if you dont use it your bacon wont look pink but will taste exactly the same, they call this bacon "green" bacon and has a greyish look to it when cooked but will taste better than any supermarket bacon out there.
Suggest half way through boiling, pick up all the bacon with your tongs and let the water drain into pan, then drop a piece of tissue into pan to dry it up. Add a drop of oil into pan and the bacon will fry up nicely.
Fair play to Aldi for introducing nitrites free bacon 🥓 obviously i am aware that processed meats like bacon and ham and hotdogs contain nitrites as a preservative despite the shrinkage during cooking which tends to happen to most bacon during cooking but on the whole it looks a good colour and appetising bacon and reasonable price too 😊
Proper bacon was when it didn’t shrink, didn’t give you a raging thirst a hour after eating it, you could tell the butcher how thick you wanted it sliced and no plastic packaging in sight.
I remember when the butcher had a cigarette hanging from his lips 🚬, 🦮 you could take your dog in with and also have a cigarette 🤔🚬. But your bacon was as thick or thin as you wanted. Chemicals weren’t heard of and your meat came wrapped in paper. You were also were referred to as “ sir “ or “ madam”. 🫶🥓🥓🫶
@@TheTrulyMentalShow So would I today. But back in 50’s and early 60’s? Life was way different then. You didn’t buy your bus ticket from the driver but from a female ticket seller, commonly known as a ‘ chippy ‘. If wanted to heat your house or have hot water? You put coal on the fire, no radiators back then, so every house had a coal cellar. Kids could leave school at 14, as I did. I remember being able to openly carry a large sheath knife openly. You could buy, or make your catapult or bow and arrow, you could have a high power air rifle. All whilst being basically a child. But the thing is there was no widespread violence like we have today. Milk and groceries, along with newspapers were delivered to your door. Shops closed on Sunday and for half a day on Wednesday, known as half day closing. That was to ensure that shop workers got time off to relax. Even in deprived areas in major cities you didn’t see vandalism and graffiti like you d today We’re times tougher back then? Sure they occasionally were. Coal strikes and power strikes were quite regular which wasn’t good. So yes they could be hard times and your butcher, fishmonger or greengrocer may have had the odd ciggy. But they were also great times.
I recently started buying "cooking bacon" from morrisons. Its £1 for 500 grams of off cuts, the 1st pack i bought was full of little mini rashers, but the last 2 packs have had whopping steaks bigger than a gammon slice😁 well worth the money😎
@va_str I saw some guy making budget meals on youtube, and he used it. When I search bacon on morrisons, it doesn't come up in the search. You have to type the full "cooking bacon" to find it.
Shouldn't worry too much over nitrites anyway; there is more nitrates/nitrites in green leafy vegetables. I think celery powder is the natural/organic means by which you would cure meat and be able to call it organic.
@@TAM-tf7ulnitrites aren't a problem. nitrites become a problem at high temperatures when they form nitrosamines with proteins which are potent carcinogens. i'll take the water. i haven't found the stuff to be too bad. this is a matter of bang for buck.
8 месяцев назад+3
Thanks for the post mate.👍 I go to the local butcher for my bacon because of supermarket shrinkage problems with their see through bacon.
Wow, that bacon sarnie looks good. Well cooked and plenty of it. I can hear my fridge calling me, so I've a large bun in hand and the pan is on. Keep the videos coming, 👍
I had a brief read up about nitrites recently and my take from it was that unless you are eating bacon, sausage and other processed meats all day every day it’s not worth worrying about
as a butcher and charcutterie of 30 years plus now, i concur . my old boss lived till his nineties, and had a scotch pie roll every morning. did have a tripple heart bypass tho. haha
It used to be regulated but since covid and all the price hikes companies are getting away with daylight robbery.!! Anyway they can they are shrinking products and charging more to claw back all the money lost during covid, using it as a convenient excuse for more and more price hikes. We are fed up of being ripped off in order to live. Sorry for the rant lol. ❤
Nitrates and nitrites very very important in setting up a new fish tank or pond, please don't forget this valuable information. Im not so sure it matters in a dead pig unless you are keeping one below water, if so, make sure you let the tank/pond cycle for at least six weeks 😁😂
Nitrites and nitrates can potentially cause cancer when cooked on high heat, also can cause hypertension and mess with the chemical processes in the body, also can reduce oxygen to vital organs, but who doesn't like a bacon sandwich? 🤣
Thanks for the video Gareth! What caught my eye, as soon as I learned it was no Nitrites, and reduced salt - as the very short use by date. Salt and Nitrites are the preservative used to cure bacon for a generation (my Dad used to cure his own), and that bacon, once dried also, was good for months, and required no refrigeration. It was simply hung in the pantry. He would slice a few cuts, then soak it for an hour in water before Mam would cook it. Delicious!
There are two types of bacon, the first is essentially brined in a salt solution. This is the bacon that pumps out the white fluid that that then sticks to the pan and goes black ..... it's the cheap and nasty option. The second type is dry cured, this is left to cure naturally and is the best option but more expensive.
Not strictly true, there are plenty of supermarket dry cured bacon options that pump out the white fluid and puddles of water....The best option is always a good back bacon from the butchers
'Traditional Wiltshire cure' used brine to cure whole pork sides. But once the pork was cured it was allowed to hang to loose moisture and would never have given out the white sludge that we see today.
The black stuff is most likely burned-on salt after the water has been boiled off. Worst thing about cheap bacon = injected with gallons of salt water to bulk up the weight. 2 minutes in the pan and it's swimming in wet, white muck. Dry-cured every time for me. The Tesco Finest one is pricey, but spot on.
Thank god you spared us you getting it out mate 😂😂😆😆 Another class review from the best in the business. You have some following up here in Scotland mate 👍
This is now my favourite channel. My wife and I are working our way through all the videos. We have watched hundreds.Absolutely love them and Gareth you are so funny. The one with the lobster I was crying with laughter. Keep up the great work
No nitrites, but more water pumped in it so when it cooks you loose 80% of the bacon. Our bacon from the local butchers goes in and comes out the same size, like it used to years ago.
What manufacturers do with bacon is inject a solution (water, salt, Nitrate) into the bacon so it cures very quickly. Alternatively, purchase a loin of pork. Add 25 grams of salt rub in 90% on meat side 10% on fat side. Put into plastic bag (It tastes slightly different omitting the nitrate). Leave in fridge (the crisper is a good place) for seven days. Remove wrap in a cheese cloth or t- towel for 2 days. Allows the skin to create a pedicure (the skin toughens). Slice, eat. It's better than that rubbish and no difference in price. But no water.
Hi Gareth, I buy ALDI specially selected dry cure smoked back bacon that’s £2.49, great bacon, no water in the pan when cooking, little to no shrinkage, they do in un smoked too. Tastes & looks fab, pay a bit more for good bacon because all cheap bacon seems to be full of added water & taste of nothing!
great vid.. on the black bits - this is commonly known as "ive burnt it" :). I note that it says no added nitrates, which is kind of misleading as means nitrates still exist and not necessarily healthier
If nitrates still exist it has to be naturally forming in the pork meat,as there are no nitrates listed in the ingredients.Yes that was burnt,and for me well over cooked,bacon that thin would be cooked in 2 minutes.
The average pack of bacon here in Canada 10 years ago was 500 grams, it is now 375 grams. The average pack of cheese slices was 500 grams and now 425, probably soon to be 400. That's the way it is going everywhere.
The tastied bacon I remember having was the "Tendersweet" rashers that Sainsbury's did in the early 80's. Nothing else tasted like it. And then it was gone. And they also sold "Breakfast Slices" in the 90s which were some kind of chopped and shaped FrankenRasher and made a lovely bacon sandwich.
Thanks for the video. Have you done a shrinkage test on the Naked bacons you've reviewed before? It might be interesting to know the £/gram after shrinkage for comparison.
I get the regular Aldi smoked bacon - Don't like unsmoked. Always grill it as well and like it quite crispy and love it on a flouty bap with best butter and HP Fruity sauce.
I must admit it looks nice but for it to lose half its weight after cooking is unreal, I always use local butchers for bacon whenever possible, good job we have you doing these reviews mate!
Very hungry now having watched this! Our weekly shop is Aldi, and we get the Oakhurst thick cut back bacon. You get 10 rashers for about £2 I think. I generally go through several packs to find a lean one, but it is really good bacon. Yes, it shrinks, but I generally grill it and you get a decent bacon and egg sandwich with 2 rashers.
I make my own bacon. Pork belly on a plate, coated with salt and pour off the osmotic liquid every day. Two weeks later I have the best bacon and it doesn't shrink.
Just to let you know I have now bought and eaten Aldi's nitrate free bacon. Delicious. It is so good to be able to enjoy a good bacon sandwich again. (I developed cancer from eating sodium nitrates so now avoid it in processed foods.)
Looks good, can't argue with that Price. Be careful eating those Crusts, I was told when I was a Nipper they will make your hair curl.........might suit you tho.😂
I got hauled into hospital last July, high BP. So anyway, I daily record what I eat,. So the key, in my opinion is, that a varied diet is the way to go, so I might have a fry up or bacon butty one'ce in a month, twice at most, so that isn't going to do me any harm. If you ate it daily or almost daily it's going to be a different story, same with most foods. Pork is my favourite meat, it's so fully flavoured, belly pork, but I eat a bit of everything else, fish, both breaded & smoked as well as sardines, , chicken, cheese, pie, steak, eggs, burgers, some days I go light & just have soup, but a variable diet is not going to cause much harm. Besides if your card is marked theres not a lot you can do about it, otherwise eat with common sense says I!
I used to buy a lot of bacon from my local Booths in Penrith but even when grilled the steam coming off made my kitchen into a Turkish bath. Kicked Booths into touch and use Steve Wilson’s at Corby Hill near Carlisle. I have to deduct a point for what appears to be criminal use of margarine on the toast.
I think that the naked has a little bit less water - the pork is 91% on my smoked streaky naked bacon pack, but I think most bacon has added water unless its fancy air cured etc
The UK meat label code belongs to Finnebrogue a manufacturer in NI who also make Naked Bacon. This is made to Aldi specifications so not so good as Naked which I liked. You get what you pay for at the end of the day
Ah my biggest pet hate is added water, they do one good thing by rejecting the nitrites and then follow it up by adding water. I would rather have a little less for the money and have real bacon. The shrinkage was amazing, more than half managed to disappear somewhere? But at least it seemed tasty enough so not a total loss.
Hi Gareth. That bacon didn't look that great to be honest but you seemed satisfied with it, so that's all good. As you were saying, you are missing 130g there. If that's the amount thats wasted, maybe better sticking to the nitrate one keep up the spot on work. Best wishes from Scotland.
At £1.89 and a cook loss of weight at 130g, it`s real cost is approximately £3.78 for 250g cooked. weight. So not good value at all for poor quality plastic wrapped bacon.
I rarely eat back bacon. Mostly it's smoked streaky cooked nice and crispy with lettuce and sliced tomato. Most bacon shrivels up to nothing nowadays tbh. It's still yummy tho.
Brilliant video, cannot beat a bacon sandwich. That's shocking the amount of weight of water was lost in the cooking. Still looked tasty though. Hope all is well, take care
Hi Gareth. I live quite close to you in Dalton, suggest you go to Browns farm shop and try some of his home cured bacon. It usually has a lot of fat on it and the rind ( don't see that nowadays) cut half the fat off and fry the bacon and the fat all in the same pan there's no water so it doesn't shrink, then fry an egg and the bread in the bacon fat, beautiful but you can only have one about every three months 😂😂
For me, a bacon sandwich needs tomato ketchup. Not a lot. Just enough to add that tomatoey flavour. I've bought fresh seeded bread today from Lidl, so that's what I'm having for supper.
Ketchup is the absolute WORST tomato sauce, the fact that it is popular proves that overwhelming majority of people have utterly crap taste in tomato sauces; the best tomato sauces are made by Mexicans, Greeks, Turks, Portuguese, and Southern Italians.
They add water to stuff so that they can sell more of the stuff, the water can be up to 20% of the weight of the meat. The water swells up the meat and a Kg of meat soon becomes 1.2 Kg or more with the added water. They do the same with frozen chicken breasts.
Checkout Morrisons Bacon. 2 packs of thick cut 6 rashes for £4.00. 12 rashers of decent bacon for four quid. Super tasty, very little water. I use air fryer 200c for 10 mins perfect result. Great Deal for good bacon.
Shrinkage in the bath is a good thing. It's protection! Shrinkage in the pan is a bad thing. You're getting less! That bacon was bordering on transparent. You could use it for lingerie. Mmm edible undies. But I'd prefer the bacon sarnie. Even if it's only 120g of a 250g pack. Cheers Gareth 👍🤤😀
They only use it to prevent botulism from cured meats and fish. I don’t use it if I make bacon or cold smoked salmon, but I would do if making anything curing for a long time that was intended for long term storage.
Added water. Back in the 1970s I knew a guy who sold water injection systems to the pork/bacon/poultry industry. His slogan was "Why sell meat when you can sell water". You say "there's no bad bacon". Oh, yes there is. We lived in the USA for eight years and their bacon is nasty, all fat, very little meat and microscopically thin. Try to get hold of American supermarket (Publix, Wynn Dixie, Piggly Wiggly, Food Lion, Albertsons). When we had visitors over from England we told them "Bring bacon or don't come!"
I’ve been hoping for something like this. It would be interesting what the weight was after cooking. Is it better to pay more and have less shrinkage. Or just don’t go the baths.
Think I might give Aldi bacon a try , gave up on bacon from Lidl, way to much water added, felt I was poaching it rather than frying ! ,but maybe you just get what you pay for ? , can't beat bacon on toast though, great review as always
Just got back from our local butchers where we bought some real bacon with no added anything. 210 grams for £2.00 and no shrinkage when you cook it. An added bonus is that it is a lot thicker than the see through bacon in the video. Support your local butcher, they can be cheaper than supermarkets and the taste and quality is much higher.
100% agreed👍
Impossible to find bacon in a supermarket that isn't transparently thin... even the extra special crap is wafer thin. 100% agree with your butcher comment, it's the only place to get good thick bacon in the UK.
@@whippy89 Plenty of thick sliced bacon available in any supermarket, what are you on about?
@@Charlie_Crown Wholeheartedly disagree. Even the stuff labelled "Thick" is average. Maybe it's thick by UK standard, but when comparing it to bacon you get in America it's piss poor.
Your not wrong there m8.
Added water is the biggest rip off going. And thin bacon is the absolute worst.
i cooked a large piece of beef in a large covered tin...i had to squeeze it in ........by the time it cooked it was half the size and my son in law told me it was because of water
butchers bacon always the best
There was an outcry over one particular bacon supplier, Dutch I think, back in the 1970s. Shrinkage was at least twice than the amount in this review. The product was withdrawn, but adding water survives! It is *so* tempting for the producers!
Which is why I always buy thick-cut Bacon
@@FART-REPELLENT Make your own..Easy peasy...Haven't bought bacon in 10 years...
Never mind about reduced salt, how about reduced water!
In our town of 145,000 people ( south Wales ) UK, we have the grand total of one butcher, who has not even got a proper shop. ( market stall ) and as a pensioner, I certainly can't afford to shop there. It's mostly down to the scandalous rent and rates that poor business people have to pay. These days, those people are better off on benefits, and their shops stand empty. Surely someone is going to wake up and smell the coffee one day?
25,000 in our town but the butcher closed up shop. He loved his shop. I do smell the coffee, and a lot more besides but I can't share it here, only on my threads.
Top tip for supermarket bacon Gareth ... remove all the bacon from the packaging, throw it in the bin and slowly fry the packaging in a little oil ... much tastier ... 😁
😂
Sure whatever you say
Hahaha... No shit, omg this guy makes me laugh..
Yeah, yeah. You've come up with this school boy observation before. Yawn ......
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂❤
Can't beat a bit of bacon during Ramadan!
I agree a good sarnie during Ramadan is great depending on the weather 😉😏😏.
Because sometimes it’s ‘ Sunni ‘
And sometimes it’s ‘ Shi’ite ‘
😂😂
@@gerrylewis5281 Is that Sonnie or Cher?!!
@@brabusta
It was a Muslim weather joke 😲
😂😂😂😂
Try making your own dry cured bacon, takes 3-4 days and all you need is an air tight container a piece of pork loin and some sea salt or kosher salt, the nitrites are added to keep the bacon pink, if you dont use it your bacon wont look pink but will taste exactly the same, they call this bacon "green" bacon and has a greyish look to it when cooked but will taste better than any supermarket bacon out there.
Suggest half way through boiling, pick up all the bacon with your tongs and let the water drain into pan, then drop a piece of tissue into pan to dry it up. Add a drop of oil into pan and the bacon will fry up nicely.
Fair play to Aldi for introducing nitrites free bacon 🥓 obviously i am aware that processed meats like bacon and ham and hotdogs contain nitrites as a preservative despite the shrinkage during cooking which tends to happen to most bacon during cooking but on the whole it looks a good colour and appetising bacon and reasonable price too 😊
No added!
I agree the nitrites are not good for us - though how bad when eaten in moderation is debatable
I shall buy some on Thursday. No Nitrites, hurray!
@@evelynbrown4550no added. That's different.
Apparently there are more nitrites in many green vegetables like salary and cabbage....than in Bacon
Proper bacon was when it didn’t shrink, didn’t give you a raging thirst a hour after eating it, you could tell the butcher how thick you wanted it sliced and no plastic packaging in sight.
I remember when the butcher had a cigarette hanging from his lips 🚬, 🦮 you could take your dog in with and also have a cigarette 🤔🚬. But your bacon was as thick or thin as you wanted. Chemicals weren’t heard of and your meat came wrapped in paper.
You were also were referred to as “ sir “ or “ madam”. 🫶🥓🥓🫶
I used to go to the shop in the fifties for my mum and ask for half a pound of green streaky bacon cut on number six.
@@stephenrandall3551 streaky bacon was my nans favourite fried in either lard or beef dripping
@@gerrylewis5281 I'd walk straight back out if someone was handling my food while smoking
@@TheTrulyMentalShow
So would I today.
But back in 50’s and early 60’s? Life was way different then. You didn’t buy your bus ticket from the driver but from a female ticket seller, commonly known as a ‘ chippy ‘. If wanted to heat your house or have hot water? You put coal on the fire, no radiators back then, so every house had a coal cellar. Kids could leave school at 14, as I did. I remember being able to openly carry a large sheath knife openly. You could buy, or make your catapult or bow and arrow, you could have a high power air rifle. All whilst being basically a child. But the thing is there was no widespread violence like we have today. Milk and groceries, along with newspapers were delivered to your door. Shops closed on Sunday and for half a day on Wednesday, known as half day closing. That was to ensure that shop workers got time off to relax. Even in deprived areas in major cities you didn’t see vandalism and graffiti like you d today
We’re times tougher back then? Sure they occasionally were. Coal strikes and power strikes were quite regular which wasn’t good.
So yes they could be hard times and your butcher, fishmonger or greengrocer may have had the odd ciggy. But they were also great times.
I recently started buying "cooking bacon" from morrisons. Its £1 for 500 grams of off cuts, the 1st pack i bought was full of little mini rashers, but the last 2 packs have had whopping steaks bigger than a gammon slice😁 well worth the money😎
That's just the trimmings. Same meat exactly, just not in the shape or size that could have been cut into rashers. It's great value.
Thanks for the tip, I'll check it out.
@philipadams5386 if the pieces are too big,I just trim it into little strips like a stir fry😁
@va_str I saw some guy making budget meals on youtube, and he used it. When I search bacon on morrisons, it doesn't come up in the search. You have to type the full "cooking bacon" to find it.
Much more versatile than rashes too!
Same for Tesco lamb and chicken. I put a complaint about it being almost 50% water. They ignored it
It doesn't say no nitrites, it states there are no added nitrites!
Its unsmoked so shouldnt have too many
Shouldn't worry too much over nitrites anyway; there is more nitrates/nitrites in green leafy vegetables. I think celery powder is the natural/organic means by which you would cure meat and be able to call it organic.
@@TAM-tf7ul Those who get migranes from nitrates/nitrites may disagree.
@@tgheretford Fair enough.
@@TAM-tf7ulnitrites aren't a problem. nitrites become a problem at high temperatures when they form nitrosamines with proteins which are potent carcinogens. i'll take the water. i haven't found the stuff to be too bad. this is a matter of bang for buck.
Thanks for the post mate.👍
I go to the local butcher for my bacon because of supermarket shrinkage problems with their see through bacon.
You're welcome 😊
Why don't you just buy thick-cut Bacon?
Iv tried thick cut from supermarket And although better than the thin stuff it’s still not as good as the meat from the local butcher.
Wow, that bacon sarnie looks good. Well cooked and plenty of it. I can hear my fridge calling me, so I've a large bun in hand and the pan is on. Keep the videos coming, 👍
Cook your bacon in the air fryer, much better, crisps up lovely and quick too.
Pigs in blankets done in the air fryer are top drawer 😋👌
I had a brief read up about nitrites recently and my take from it was that unless you are eating bacon, sausage and other processed meats all day every day it’s not worth worrying about
as a butcher and charcutterie of 30 years plus now, i concur . my old boss lived till his nineties, and had a scotch pie roll every morning. did have a tripple heart bypass tho. haha
@@grahamlaidlaw7164 More to do with the Randle Cycle. Consuming carbs and fats together
big red flag is water in the ingredients for a slice of meat. should be regulations for that like we have for everything else.
Yep, in this video it's becomes so obvious what they've done, pumped it full of water.
It used to be regulated but since covid and all the price hikes companies are getting away with daylight robbery.!! Anyway they can they are shrinking products and charging more to claw back all the money lost during covid, using it as a convenient excuse for more and more price hikes. We are fed up of being ripped off in order to live. Sorry for the rant lol. ❤
@@susiew.9012 totally agree.
Oh man that bacon sani looks yummy
All bacon seems to have it in it nowadays
Nitrates and nitrites very very important in setting up a new fish tank or pond, please don't forget this valuable information. Im not so sure it matters in a dead pig unless you are keeping one below water, if so, make sure you let the tank/pond cycle for at least six weeks 😁😂
Well that pig is practically swimming in added water
Nitrites and nitrates can potentially cause cancer when cooked on high heat, also can cause hypertension and mess with the chemical processes in the body, also can reduce oxygen to vital organs, but who doesn't like a bacon sandwich? 🤣
We all know about shrinkage when we get in a cold bath lol
Thanks for the video Gareth! What caught my eye, as soon as I learned it was no Nitrites, and reduced salt - as the very short use by date. Salt and Nitrites are the preservative used to cure bacon for a generation (my Dad used to cure his own), and that bacon, once dried also, was good for months, and required no refrigeration. It was simply hung in the pantry. He would slice a few cuts, then soak it for an hour in water before Mam would cook it. Delicious!
You're welcome
I’d love it if you compared farm shops against supermarkets 😊
There are two types of bacon, the first is essentially brined in a salt solution. This is the bacon that pumps out the white fluid that that then sticks to the pan and goes black ..... it's the cheap and nasty option.
The second type is dry cured, this is left to cure naturally and is the best option but more expensive.
Not strictly true, there are plenty of supermarket dry cured bacon options that pump out the white fluid and puddles of water....The best option is always a good back bacon from the butchers
'Traditional Wiltshire cure' used brine to cure whole pork sides. But once the pork was cured it was allowed to hang to loose moisture and would never have given out the white sludge that we see today.
As usual down to earth ,honest reporting with great response! Magic !
Am I odd in thinking that a bacon sandwich would use bread rather than toast?
Bacon and cheese on toast is is a great sandwich...
That's almost hate-speech to some people 😅
The black stuff is most likely burned-on salt after the water has been boiled off. Worst thing about cheap bacon = injected with gallons of salt water to bulk up the weight. 2 minutes in the pan and it's swimming in wet, white muck. Dry-cured every time for me. The Tesco Finest one is pricey, but spot on.
I just love your smile and quirky ways, absolutely brilliant 😂 makes my day :)
You're welcome 😊
Thank god you spared us you getting it out mate 😂😂😆😆
Another class review from the best in the business. You have some following up here in Scotland mate 👍
Glad you enjoyed it
Bacon isnt like it used to be, too much water for a start. Great review, thanks Gareth xx
You're welcome 😊
This is now my favourite channel. My wife and I are working our way through all the videos. We have watched hundreds.Absolutely love them and Gareth you are so funny. The one with the lobster I was crying with laughter. Keep up the great work
Our pleasure!
No nitrites, but more water pumped in it so when it cooks you loose 80% of the bacon. Our bacon from the local butchers goes in and comes out the same size, like it used to years ago.
What manufacturers do with bacon is inject a solution (water, salt, Nitrate) into the bacon so it cures very quickly. Alternatively, purchase a loin of pork. Add 25 grams of salt rub in 90% on meat side 10% on fat side. Put into plastic bag (It tastes slightly different omitting the nitrate). Leave in fridge (the crisper is a good place) for seven days. Remove wrap in a cheese cloth or t- towel for 2 days. Allows the skin to create a pedicure (the skin toughens). Slice, eat. It's better than that rubbish and no difference in price. But no water.
So basically watery salty bacon.
I prefer a bit of Ayrshire back bacon. It's the dogs cahoonies.
Hi Gareth, I buy ALDI specially selected dry cure smoked back bacon that’s £2.49, great bacon, no water in the pan when cooking, little to no shrinkage, they do in un smoked too. Tastes & looks fab, pay a bit more for good bacon because all cheap bacon seems to be full of added water & taste of nothing!
great vid.. on the black bits - this is commonly known as "ive burnt it" :). I note that it says no added nitrates, which is kind of misleading as means nitrates still exist and not necessarily healthier
If nitrates still exist it has to be naturally forming in the pork meat,as there are no nitrates listed in the ingredients.Yes that was burnt,and for me well over cooked,bacon that thin would be cooked in 2 minutes.
According to the missus those black bits are umami which i think is posh for burnt 🔥
That’s not true lol
Don't know where Toby Carveries get their bacon but it's amazing and with their unlimited breakfast you should get a fix to last you a week.
87% pork, the rest is water, the Naked sausages are 90% pork, ha ha. A great video, thanks for sharing.
You're welcome
The average pack of bacon here in Canada 10 years ago was 500 grams, it is now 375 grams. The average pack of cheese slices was 500 grams and now 425, probably soon to be 400. That's the way it is going everywhere.
Bidenomics.
The tastied bacon I remember having was the "Tendersweet" rashers that Sainsbury's did in the early 80's. Nothing else tasted like it. And then it was gone. And they also sold "Breakfast Slices" in the 90s which were some kind of chopped and shaped FrankenRasher and made a lovely bacon sandwich.
Gareth, after watching your culinary skills in a few of your videos, I feel that a cookery book should be forecoming 😊😊.
Hey Gaz try the bacon in the Aldi Sourdough bagettes, the bake at home ones are great for this and cook them in the air fryer.
Great idea
Thanks for the video. Have you done a shrinkage test on the Naked bacons you've reviewed before? It might be interesting to know the £/gram after shrinkage for comparison.
Cheers Graham, not yet 👍
Those are the thinnest rashers I have ever seen. Nice review, amazing how much water and fat as well.
good review,i agree with the shrinkage but its awhile since i went swimming!
I get the regular Aldi smoked bacon - Don't like unsmoked.
Always grill it as well and like it quite crispy and love it on a flouty bap with best butter and HP Fruity sauce.
Great review Gaz you can’t go against beacon it’s just enjoyable to eat 👏👏👍👍
We came for the food reviews, we stayed for the dad jokes. 😂😁👍
I must admit it looks nice but for it to lose half its weight after cooking is unreal, I always use local butchers for bacon whenever possible, good job we have you doing these reviews mate!
I've got so fed up with the amount of water in modern bacon that I've started making my own, amazed at how simple it is. Really enjoy your videos.🥪
me too, its so easy
You're welcome 😊
Thanks Gareth for sharing that was certainly a good sandwich you had
Very hungry now having watched this! Our weekly shop is Aldi, and we get the Oakhurst thick cut back bacon. You get 10 rashers for about £2 I think. I generally go through several packs to find a lean one, but it is really good bacon. Yes, it shrinks, but I generally grill it and you get a decent bacon and egg sandwich with 2 rashers.
7:56 That's a passport photo right there.
🤣😂👍🏻
😂😂😂😂
Was it Surprise or Shock.
Or both..
Brilliant 👌 glad someone seen it 🤣
😆
With you on the swimming pool shrinkage lol :)
Where can I find the plates ? I know you said Asda but can't find them ,great vid as usual
Asda
Picked a packet of this up yesterday. Looks good, can taste it 😂 🥓😋
I make my own bacon. Pork belly on a plate, coated with salt and pour off the osmotic liquid every day. Two weeks later I have the best bacon and it doesn't shrink.
Not for me Gaz I need thick cut Butchers Bacon!! 🥓😀 Top Video pal …. Smithy
Cheers Smithy
I'd eat that no problem, got to love a bit of bacon. Thanks for another honest review 💜💜💜
Cheers Barbie
Just to let you know I have now bought and eaten Aldi's nitrate free bacon. Delicious. It is so good to be able to enjoy a good bacon sandwich again. (I developed cancer from eating sodium nitrates so now avoid it in processed foods.)
Cheers glad you like it.
I get my bacon 🥓 from my local butchers which comes from free range local pig farm absolutely unbelievable flavour
It may be no nitrites, but you need half a pack per person. Can't beat a butchers bacon. Cheers Gaz
Can't remember what Nitrates do but do remember checking their levels in the tropical fish tank to keep the water safe for them 😂
Looks good, can't argue with that Price.
Be careful eating those Crusts, I was told when I was a Nipper they will make your hair curl.........might suit you tho.😂
I got hauled into hospital last July, high BP. So anyway, I daily record what I eat,. So the key, in my opinion is, that a varied diet is the way to go, so I might have a fry up or bacon butty one'ce in a month, twice at most, so that isn't going to do me any harm. If you ate it daily or almost daily it's going to be a different story, same with most foods.
Pork is my favourite meat, it's so fully flavoured, belly pork, but I eat a bit of everything else, fish, both breaded & smoked as well as sardines, , chicken, cheese, pie, steak, eggs, burgers, some days I go light & just have soup, but a variable diet is not going to cause much harm. Besides if your card is marked theres not a lot you can do about it, otherwise eat with common sense says I!
I used to buy a lot of bacon from my local Booths in Penrith but even when grilled the steam coming off made my kitchen into a Turkish bath. Kicked Booths into touch and use Steve Wilson’s at Corby Hill near Carlisle. I have to deduct a point for what appears to be criminal use of margarine on the toast.
Butter, watch the video lol
Can't beat the bacon from the butchers. Not had any from supermarkets for years .
I think that the naked has a little bit less water - the pork is 91% on my smoked streaky naked bacon pack, but I think most bacon has added water unless its fancy air cured etc
I buy bacon and rinse it in water ,it’s amazing how the water changes colour ,smoked and unsmoked !
What make are the scales, they look great, thanks in advance
Heston Blumenthal
The UK meat label code belongs to Finnebrogue a manufacturer in NI who also make Naked Bacon. This is made to Aldi specifications so not so good as Naked which I liked. You get what you pay for at the end of the day
Great video mate. As per always but I didnt know they sold nitrite free bacon.
Cheers Gary
Ah my biggest pet hate is added water, they do one good thing by rejecting the nitrites and then follow it up by adding water. I would rather have a little less for the money and have real bacon. The shrinkage was amazing, more than half managed to disappear somewhere? But at least it seemed tasty enough so not a total loss.
That wasn't bacon!it was the stuff from Pinderfields burns unit whats used for skin grafts??😂
Love a bacon sandwich
Best wishes gareth
Cheers Kizzy, hope you're well 👍
Hi Gareth. That bacon didn't look that great to be honest but you seemed satisfied with it, so that's all good. As you were saying, you are missing 130g there. If that's the amount thats wasted, maybe better sticking to the nitrate one keep up the spot on work. Best wishes from Scotland.
3:37 Those tabs are the biggest lie in the food industry 😂
At £1.89 and a cook loss of weight at 130g, it`s real cost is approximately £3.78 for 250g cooked. weight. So not good value at all for poor quality plastic wrapped bacon.
I rarely eat back bacon. Mostly it's smoked streaky cooked nice and crispy with lettuce and sliced tomato. Most bacon shrivels up to nothing nowadays tbh. It's still yummy tho.
We live on bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwiches in the summer. So fresh and Summery!
Brilliant video, cannot beat a bacon sandwich.
That's shocking the amount of weight of water was lost in the cooking.
Still looked tasty though.
Hope all is well, take care
Hi Gareth. I live quite close to you in Dalton, suggest you go to Browns farm shop and try some of his home cured bacon. It usually has a lot of fat on it and the rind ( don't see that nowadays) cut half the fat off and fry the bacon and the fat all in the same pan there's no water so it doesn't shrink, then fry an egg and the bread in the bacon fat, beautiful but you can only have one about every three months 😂😂
I've reviewed the farm shop Pies but not the bacon. Nice one John cheers
😂😂😂😂the whole pack of bacon on a sandwich👌👌 love it 👍👍
Could you devour 36 rashers of thick-cut Bacon in one sitting?; I do it often
You’ll like American Bacon, very crispy rashers there (eg at Denny’s), even Beef bacon (which IMHO is a bit “musky” 😅
I bought thick back bacon couple of weeks ago.. had 12 slices in .. now 10 x
That’s typical for bacon in Germany always very thin.
For me, a bacon sandwich needs tomato ketchup. Not a lot. Just enough to add that tomatoey flavour. I've bought fresh seeded bread today from Lidl, so that's what I'm having for supper.
Ketchup is the absolute WORST tomato sauce, the fact that it is popular proves that overwhelming majority of people have utterly crap taste in tomato sauces; the best tomato sauces are made by Mexicans, Greeks, Turks, Portuguese, and Southern Italians.
Does it taste any different to the Naked Bacon you reviewed? Great vlog as always 👍
More salty
They add water to stuff so that they can sell more of the stuff, the water can be up to 20% of the weight of the meat. The water swells up the meat and a Kg of meat soon becomes 1.2 Kg or more with the added water. They do the same with frozen chicken breasts.
You my friend are a genius because you’re making a living doing what you are good at and you enjoy 👏👏👏👏👏
Celery naturally contains Nitrates, which can be converted to Nitrites.
Checkout Morrisons Bacon. 2 packs of thick cut 6 rashes for £4.00. 12 rashers of decent bacon for four quid. Super tasty, very little water. I use air fryer 200c for 10 mins perfect result. Great Deal for good bacon.
Shrinkage in the bath is a good thing. It's protection!
Shrinkage in the pan is a bad thing. You're getting less!
That bacon was bordering on transparent. You could use it for lingerie.
Mmm edible undies.
But I'd prefer the bacon sarnie. Even if it's only 120g of a 250g pack.
Cheers Gareth 👍🤤😀
They only use it to prevent botulism from cured meats and fish. I don’t use it if I make bacon or cold smoked salmon, but I would do if making anything curing for a long time that was intended for long term storage.
Mr BFG, 50% shrinkage - amazing. Should be half price.
7:54 haha. Be interesting to test the shrink rate of other types of bacon, see if it goes under half the original weight.
Added water. Back in the 1970s I knew a guy who sold water injection systems to the pork/bacon/poultry industry. His slogan was "Why sell meat when you can sell water".
You say "there's no bad bacon". Oh, yes there is. We lived in the USA for eight years and their bacon is nasty, all fat, very little meat and microscopically thin. Try to get hold of American supermarket (Publix, Wynn Dixie, Piggly Wiggly, Food Lion, Albertsons). When we had visitors over from England we told them "Bring bacon or don't come!"
I’ve been hoping for something like this. It would be interesting what the weight was after cooking. Is it better to pay more and have less shrinkage. Or just don’t go the baths.
Well should add oil or lard to stop it burning bakeoff should apply to go on there.
You got to put Daddys brown sauce in come on 😂😂😂 my mouth is watering
Think I might give Aldi bacon a try , gave up on bacon from Lidl, way to much water added, felt I was poaching it rather than frying ! ,but maybe you just get what you pay for ? , can't beat bacon on toast though, great review as always
You're welcome 😊