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"I&amp;#039;ve said it before and I&amp;#039;ll say it again, people LOVE bacon. That includes us in the Good Housekeeping Test Kitchen.   I conducted a blind, albeit somewhat informal, taste test of 12 bacons within the GH Food Department. All 12 samples were roasted on a wire rack on a sheet pan in the same 400F oven (my favorite method for cooking big batches of bacon splatter-free) until the fat rendered and the bacon turned a deep, mahogany brown. The differences were fascinating. Here are a few of our faves: Nueske&amp;#039;s Applewood Smoked Thick Sliced Bacon ($21.95/2 lbs.) is only available in certain butcher shops and through mail-order, but bacon is one of our favorite kitchen staples, so feel free to order this bacon in bulk and stick it in the freezer (see below). Super smoky, with a hint of sweetness, this bacon didn&amp;#039;t taste as salty as some of the others we sampled. Its texture was meaty, but still fairly crisp. Working with a small co-op of family farmers, Niman Ranch strives for quality over quantity and it shows in their new Double Smoked Uncured Bacon ($6.99/12 oz.). This fantastic bacon has a smoother, less sharp smokiness than the Nueske&amp;#039;s and it is crackly crisp without crumbling into bits, a huge plus in our books. We unanimously &amp;quot;loved those extra crunchy double smoked edges!&amp;quot; We also appreciated that it didn&amp;#039;t shrink much.   Niman Ranch also won us over with their Applewood Smoked Uncured Bacon ($6.99/12 oz.). Very thick and a little chewy, this bacon scored points for being just as meaty as the Nueske&amp;#039;s, yet crispier. Some tasters appreciated that it had only a faint smokiness to it, while others longed for the smoke of the other two. Flavor-wise, it was richly porky and pretty salty with almost no sweetness at all. While each slice cooked up into an odd shape (wide on one end tapering sharply into a point on the other end), Dietz &amp;amp;amp; Watson Hickory Smoked Gourmet Bacon was a surprising dark horse. This bacon was pleasantly sweet which balanced out the saltiness. It only lost a couple of points for being slightly tough.   Some bacon cooking tips:  Bacon keeps amazingly well in the freezer (see above). If you typically use your bacon chopped up in salads and pastas, store slices in stacks of 4 or 5 slices wrapped tightly in plastic. This will make it easy to cut it into neat, little cubes. Just let it defrost for a few minutes before cutting, so it&amp;#039;s not rock hard; no need to defrost fully before cooking. If you typically cook your bacon in whole slices for breakfast, spread them out in a gallon-sized ziptop bag, so that it&amp;#039;s at most 2 layers of strips on top of each other, and freeze flat. When ready to fry or roast, grab only the few slices you need to defrost (they&amp;#039;ll break off easily from the rest) and cook...or go ahead and cook the entire bag, we know you want to.   It can be tricky to chop up fatty, soft bacon. Wrap it in plastic and freeze for 30 minutes first for easy chopping.   Easy way to jazz up a salad: chop bacon and cook in a pan until crispy. Use the rendered bacon grease in the salad dressing and the cooked bits on top of the salad.   When wrapping things in bacon (scallops, filets mignon, etc.), microwave the strips between a few sheets of paper towel for a couple of minutes to render out the fat. The strips will still be pliable enough to wrap, but will crisp up better.   Microwaving is our favorite short cut method of cooking up bacon odor- and grease-free. Line a large dinner plate with 2 sheets of paper towels. Arrange 4-6 slices in a single layer on top. Cover with 2 more sheets of paper towel and microwave for 2 minutes. Continue microwaving in 1-minute intervals until crispy and browned. It&amp;#039;s not quite the same as roasting or frying it, but it gives you hot, crunchy strips of bacon in about 5 minutes flat.     Favorite Recipes featuring bacon: 5 Quick and Simple Ideas for Bacon Easy Glazed Black Pepper Bacon Linguine with Frisee, Bacon, and Eggs Potato Salad with Bacon and Arugula Zingy Bacon Mashed Potatoes "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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