Sunday morning, cool & overcast. Slight ocean breezes bring a brief respite from the hellish, smoky airs. A very low rumble begins from down the street, Thor Sr. approaches. He creeps ever so gently to Meathenge Labs, like only thunder can. This Thor Sr. is our neighbor, Mad Meat Genius. A bacon delivery is in progress, oh yes.

Now, with a mighty rowr, he’s gone. Leaving behind a porky treat from his trip to The House of Beef in Oakdale. Pretty damned cool delivery system, don’t you agree?
Fast forward to Tuesday at 6:30am and it’s time to fry that bacon. Preheat 14″ cast iron fry pan and slice the slab. Hey, it’s got the rind on! The smell of the uncooked product is clean, with a very small hint of sweetness. I filled the pan, decided to cook it a little hard. The rind will cook to a pork cracklin’ crunch perfection. And given Ms. Goofy’s review of it being a light smoke, light cure, cooking it for a while made sense. This’ll bring out every ounce of flavor it can muster.

Low heat, take your time. Flip, turn and rearrange. The meat to fat ratio seems to be good and the smell coming from the pan was certainly of baconny origins.
Once ready, pat dry in paper towels and observe, sniff.

Bite, chew, crunch, taste. Wow, I don’t think I’ve ever had a bacon with so little smoke (none detected) or cure (none detected). The meat is good, very good in fact. Buuuut, what I eat bacon for wasn’t there. The boys each grabbed and ate a piece, but didn’t return for seconds. I had another few slices, just to see.
I’d like to try another portion from them in a few months to see if this is their standard, I’m not quite seein’ it.
Biggles
House of Beef
201 North 3rd Ave.
Oakdale, California, 95361
209-847-5991