I normally make my BLATs with two rashers of bacon. Maybe three. Being married to a woman who thinks one or two crispy strips is enough, I don’t want to raise her eyebrows. But a proper BLAT should have four slices.
I worked at two different restaurants while in school and in both, 3 strips was a side of bacon.
When I was a kid breakfast side-meat was a choice four rashers , or four sausage links (or a slice of ham). So four seems ‘normal’ to me. It’s just that after seeing that John Wayne scene, I remembered that people ate differently 60, 70, or 150 years ago.
I think four is a good number for bacon or sausage links.
In restaurants and diners a side of bacon is usually 4 (sometimes 5) pieces.
In my area, restaurants almost always call it two - two would be included with many breakfasts, or with a “side” of bacon.
At home, I usually eat one while I’m cooking at two at table. It’s not that I wouldn’t dearly love to eat more (and frequently do), but bacon seems high enough in everything bad for you that I’d rather savor a smaller portion most of the time.
Two at most restaurants I’ve been to. My teenage son, who is bacon-crazy, will always ask the server, and then order however many sides will get him to four, six or even eight strips (depending on how hungry he is).
When I was a kid, my mom would always offer my sisters and me the meal of our choice on our birthdays. One year I said, “I want to eat as much bacon as I can.” She must’ve made at least a pound or so, and I just kept eating.
:: wistful sigh ::
Ah, for the days before they invented cholesterol…
So she gave you two and said, ‘That’s all you can eat!’
3 or 4.
When I worked at a popular breakfast restaurant that has been in business 60 years, we always did 3 strips of bacon and 2 sausage links (the big ones) to an order. Most things were in 3s- Hotcakes, French toast, large omelette or 2s- regular eggs, biscuits, toast, sausage. 3 Pieces also went in BLTs, but I think 2 in clubs.
At home, I usually have more, especially when I’m purposely eating high fat and/or low carb. 4 would be typical if I make a sandwich (bacon for me usually goes in something or wrapped around something).
Fortunately, she wasn’t a grammar Nazi. She knew what I meant.
6 to 8 slices for me when I’m making my own breakfast. I eat somewhat healthy overall, just not at every meal. I want about a quarter pound of bacon on my plate some I’m cooking up about a half pound uncooked. Now after a meal like that I’ll go another three of four months without such a splurge. It’s like a treat.
3-4 with breakfast. a BLT requires 6-8 (it needs 2 layers of bacon).
And crisp. I had to fire an intern because she liked limp bacon.
4 thick cut slices is my norm.
For Christmas, my mother gave me a Cuisinart panni/grill. I’ve discovered this thing cooks bacon to perfection. It also makes preparing bacon WAY too fucking easy!
Just the other day, I had a bacon snack. Threw five strips in, and seven minutes later, I’m chowing down.
Before I had the Cuisinart thing, I don’t think I’ve ever made bacon as a stand alone meal. I felt so guilty! :o
So basically a whole tomato between two slices of bread? 
One scrambled egg white (watching my cholesterol), 4 oz of grapefruit juice and a side of fried pig.
[when I IV drip an antihyperlipidemic during breakfast, I’ll take both sides of the pig].
1 pound.
I agree. If I open a pound, I might as well cook it all. And if there’s cooked bacon anywhere in the house, it gets eaten pretty darn quickly.
2-4 seems to be the norm. That said, if bacon’s available at a buffet it would be strange if I consumed less than 8 strips.
These are the real answers. Bacon does not get thrown away because no one wanted to eat it. The normal amount of bacon is always less than the amount of bacon that would be eaten if there was more.
2-3 strips is “normal”. A person wanting a “plenty of bacon” would therefore expect at least 4 with no definable upper limit without more info on the gluttonous appetite of the individual involved.
Note that very hard working people in the old days ate a surprisingly large number of calories with fatty meats like bacon being a good, dense source. Modern people should eat maybe 1/2 to 1/3 of what a John Wayne cowboy-like character would eat.