Is there a scientific reason that bacon is so delicious?

[Markxxx]

@Blake

Anything with a lot of salt and fat is going to taste good. Bacon has astoundingly high amounts of both.

I agree with this. I absoutley love instant Ramen Noodles and if you look on the package it’s full of fat and salt. Face it Ramen Noodles are about as healthy as a bag of potato chips (maybe worse), but I love them.

I am not much of a meat eater, if I had to give up meat, I could do it rather easily. The only meat I ever crave is bacon.

Oddly enough though I like pork I won’t eat ham. I simply don’t like the taste.

[Left_Hand_of_Dorkness]

@bump

I suspect the flavor of bacon is a combination of a few things:

[ul]
[li]The taste of pork[/li][li]The fat content (mouthfeel, taste)[/li][li]The salt level[/li][li]Flavors created by the curing process[/li][li]Smoke flavor & other flavors created by the smoking process[/li][li]Last but by no means least, Maillard reaction products from browning the bacon.[/li][/ul]

I suspect that the last 3 are the real differentiators of what you think of as bacon flavor, as opposed to that of a chunk of fatty pork boiled in salty water.

Excellent answer. This article discusses the Maillard reaction in a little bit more detail. I think the Maillard reaction is one of the coolest things about food.

[mr_kidd]

I think its texture might be underappreciated, crunchy and chewy are always fun sensations… Especially getting a nice sweet, smokey, and salty burst of flavour from every bite.

[Cat_Jones]

You want science … behold the flow chart.

[Cat_Jones]

@jjimm

It might do.

Kids in the UK used to eat “dripping” sandwiches. My dad certainly did in the '40s and '50s. This is unpurified fat that dripped off the Sunday roast (usually beef), kept congealed in the larder or fridge, and spread on bread.

While the idea grosses me out, I tried it once out of curiosity and it was delicious - salty and meaty and savory.

Lard is purified, so it lacks the things in pig fat that would likely make it nommy. I am sure that the fat from a roast pig, collected in a similar way, would be equally delightful, if presented on a ‘neutral’ base like bread.

Restaurants in Poland in the mid-nineties often had a pot of “smalec” on the table for smearing across bread as an appetizer while waiting for your food to arrive, most people added a scattering of salt. It was, nay still is - I know you can buy it in the “Polski Skleps” in Ireland - essentially lard altho’ I think there would sometimes be the odd lump of something a bit more meaty in it.

[naita]

@jjimm

Lard is purified, so it lacks the things in pig fat that would likely make it nommy. I am sure that the fat from a roast pig, collected in a similar way, would be equally delightful, if presented on a ‘neutral’ base like bread.

Yup. That’s an essential part of Christmas day breakfast for me. Bread, fat from the rib roast of Christmas Eve, some salt and pepper and some of the crackling. drool

[ethelbert]

Is there a scientific reason why I need to open every thread that has the word “bacon” in it’s title?

[Fear_Itself]

@Cat_Jones

Restaurants in Poland in the mid-nineties often had a pot of “smalec” on the table for smearing across bread as an appetizer while waiting for your food to arrive, most people added a scattering of salt. It was, nay still is - I know you can buy it in the “Polski Skleps” in Ireland - essentially lard altho’ I think there would sometimes be the odd lump of something a bit more meaty in it.

Sounds like the Polish equivalent of the Yiddish “schmaltz”

[pulykamell]

@Fear_Itself

Sounds like the Polish equivalent of the Yiddish “schmaltz”

It is. Maybe I should have been more specific in my previous post, but smalec (pronounced “SHMAH-lets”) is a cognate of the word “schmaltz.” It does sometimes contain chunks of meat in it. It was not unusual to bury smoked sausages in smalec to, I assume, help preserve them longer. In Hungary, one would also find rendered goose fat with chunks of goose liver buried in it, too.