W30 Bacon

[emmyriley]

I bought some W30 approved bacon (had the W30 stamp on the package!). I was so excited to try it, because last time I did Whole 30, I couldn't find any of the approved bacon anywhere. So I cooked the bacon up this morning for breakfast, tried it, and it tasted like it was drenched in salt. Anyone else experience this with W30 approved bacon, or is this just the one I got? Don't want to buy more bacon if all of the W30 approved bacons are going to be like this. Thanks! 

[JulieP757]

I found Pederson's sugar free bacon in Harris Teeter and it's surprisingly good - super expensive though.  I've purchased some before at US Wellness online and thought it was yucky.  Hope you find some you like.

[Mama Stacey]

I found bacon at Lidl (a German owned grocery chain similar to Aldi's).  The bacon appears to be compliant and it tastes great.  It is a bit salty, but we enjoyed it.  It's their store brand and it labeled "Lower Sodium bacon" "Natural Hardwood".  I'm new at this and after reading about how it's basically impossible to find complaint bacon without ordering it on line, I was surprised to find some so easily - and it is very reasonably priced!  (Am I missing something??) 

[ShannonM816]

1 hour ago, Mama Stacey said:

I found bacon at Lidl (a German owned grocery chain similar to Aldi's).  The bacon appears to be compliant and it tastes great.  It is a bit salty, but we enjoyed it.  It's their store brand and it labeled "Lower Sodium bacon" "Natural Hardwood".  I'm new at this and after reading about how it's basically impossible to find complaint bacon without ordering it on line, I was surprised to find some so easily - and it is very reasonably priced!  (Am I missing something??) 

 It's getting easier to find bacon with no sugar. As long as you read the ingredients and they are all compliant, it's fine.

[kirbz]

I eat Pederson's bacon and find it to be absolutely delicious. It has a smoky flavor but I don't find it to be salty at all. I used to be able to only find it a specialty whole foods store but can now find it at my regular grocery story... It's $7.99 a package though... Ouch! Worth it! 

[nicol3rahhh]

We bought W30 bacon directly from a butcher - it is amazing. 10 times better than any other bacon we've had!

[salsasis14]

I found applegate no sugar at my local Fairway, and Willshire Farms no sugar (package shouts PALEO) at Whole Foods.  Willshire was slightly cheaper, but the pieces are so thin I had a hard time separating them to cook.  Haven't tried Applegate.  Baked it in the oven and saved the fat for cooking.

[John Corr]

Willshire farms no sugar bacon is not bad and in NYC Whole Foods it 6:99 for 8oz which isn’t terrible 

[BookJockey]

I quite like the compliant applegate farms bacon. It's maybe a bit more salty tasting than regular bacon cured with sugar, but I kind of expected that considering there'd be no sugar. I quite like using it in compliant casseroles, with spinach, or just chopped up in scrambled eggs to brighten things up - you might try using it that way instead?

[SchrodingersCat]

If you're organised enough 2-3  weeks before you start the Whole 30, making your own compliant bacon is easy!

Take a slab of pork belly. Mix together 2% of the weight of the belly of kosher salt and 0.25% of the weight of the belly of cure #1 (also known as Prague Powder #1 or pink salt #1), rub it all over the belly and pop it in a ziploc bag in the fridge.

Flip it every couple of days for a week - 10 days until it feels firm and the pork takes on a translucent look. Rinse well under cold water, pop back in the fridge uncovered for the same amount of time you cured it, then either slice for unsmoked bacon or cold smoke it (be sure to cook it before eating), or hot smoke it until it reaches 70 celcius/158 Fahrenheit (can be eaten without cooking again).

You can get creative with flavours (I like adding black pepper, juniper berries and thyme to the cure).