If you've tried the bacon from the Weeping Radish you may have noticed that it doesn't cook down nearly as much as bacon you may be used to from the grocery store. I noticed this the first time I tried their bacon, when I kept waiting for it to shrivel down into tiny little strips, and was surprised that it just didn't happen! I've always been curious as to why, and decided to ask them what was different about their bacon.

I talked to Sophie at the Weeping Radish, who said that the reason supermarket bacon cooks down so much is that factory level bacon producers add water binding agents to increase the weight of their products, and lower their costs. Water is much cheaper than meat, so if they can pump the weight up with water, they can increase profits. Sophie said that they could start with 100 lbs. of meat, and end up with 150 lbs. of bacon. The Weeping Radish, in contrast, does not pump their meat up with water and binding agents. As a result, their large, thickly sliced bacon does not lose 1/3 of its weight when cooked through water loss. The result is a full, un-shriveled, delicious slice of bacon.

Michele G. (Nov 23, 2011 at 7:01 pm)
Hmm. I always assumed it was a fat content thing. I'll have to try it.

Rob M. (Dec 10, 2011 at 2:29 pm)
@Shauna, in my experience the WR bacon produces less grease than I would expect from regular bacon I get at the grocery store. However, it definitely still has fat that cooks into grease, and can be used for other cooking applications.

Michele G. (Dec 10, 2011 at 2:33 pm)
I ended up buying some of the WR bacon last week, and it definitely has plenty of grease :) I almost took a picture for you.

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