By now you probably know about the discovery of a painting which is alleged to be the only portrait of William Shakespeare (Mel Gibson’s Hamlet, Romeo+Juliet, Shakespeare in Love) to have been finished while the Bard was alive.  Scientific tests have been run, X-rays have proven this, tree-ring dating that. Tweedy old English fellows have […]

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Yes, I really, really did eat nothing but bacon for a few days short of an entire month. Once the whole thing started to seem sort of, I don’t know, silly - is that the word I’m looking for? - and my family was growing increasingly frustrated with the stunt, I thought it might be […]

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As March approaches, I figure a lot of people are going to be wondering how Mike’s Bacon Stupidity month fared. Well, it’s been an interesting past couple of days here at RiffTrax HQ. The lingering smell of bacon, which had been omnipresent for the month of February, no longer loomed in the air. […]

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It was a red letter here day at RiffTrax HQ last week! While media accolades have unceasingly poured in* over our 2.5+ year run here at RiffTrax, our local San Diego media has maintained an eerie, BoingBoing-esque silence regarding our work. Nothing from the local paper, no TV coverage, not even a blurb from […]

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Reader Brit (of the excellent blog Think of England — read his own fine bacon post here — commented: I’d be interested to know to what extent bacon is now dominating your life, in a way that food normally wouldn’t…Do you dream about bacon? Or does it not really come up except at mealtimes?
The latter […]

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I missed a purely slab bacon weekend by only one meal consisting of Henry’s thick sliced*. This was the thickest thick slice I have yet encountered and comes about as close to my ideal slice thickness as I can get without slicing it myself (the preceding sentence was brought to you by the word “slice”).
After […]

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This morning, the Toronto Star published an interview with our own Michael J. Nelson regarding his now world-famous (well, Canada at least) Bacon Stupidity Month.  It’s part of an article exploring the current bacony flavor of the internet culture entire. Let me simply say that Toronto is indeed a tasteful, urbane and cosmopolitan city, and […]

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Having just returned from a retreat to Mexico, I’m delighted to see that Michael J. has kept his word and embarked on a solid month of bacon stupidity.  All week I broke my fast con tocino, and this morning in his honor I cooked up a batch of Nueske’s, which contrary to some east-coast prudes […]

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Many people, obviously envious of the path I’ve taken for Bacon Stupidity Month have asked me how they might undertake a similar course. It may seem impossibly complex, almost Byzantine at first: you - what? - eat bacon? for a month? how? Where am I? Help! But it’s really quite simple. First, go get one […]

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Yes, I promised reviews of flashy bacons, but I got busy this weekend and had to rely on supermarket brands yet again: Safeway and Farmland brands, which were nestled together at my local Von’s like a couple of, well, see photo.
And just like the boys in the photo, these cured and smoked strips of pork […]

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Breakfast and lunch consisted of Smithfield thick sliced. My main impression: meaty. I’m not entirely sure I like my bacon to be meaty, but Smithfield bacon didn’t seem to care. It just went ahead and was meaty without concerning itself with my feelings on the matter.
If I were going to write a slogan for Smithfield […]

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Late in day 6 of Bacon Stupidity I stopped to stock up, approached the check out and dropped eight pounds of various brands of bacon on the conveyor. The clerk, an attractive middle aged woman, smiled wryly and asked, “Cooking breakfast for everyone, no?” with an accent I guessed to be Eastern European. For reasons […]

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I’m well into my 6th day of Bacon Stupidity the last couple of which have featured regular old grocery store bacon, i.e., utility bacon: Kroger’s, Ralph’s, and some off brand I don’t even remember. Like utility infielder Chris Gomez they’ve been dependable, if not flashy, and when properly prepared have been able to hit for […]

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This morning’s meal consisted of a bacon face-off. On one side, Jimmy Dean’s Original Premium bacon (motto “Shine On”) and on the other Niman Ranch Applewood Smoked. The Niman’s was clearly still smarting from the pounding it received at the hands of Cook’s Illustrated - it looked down on the much smaller Jimmy Dean (exactly […]

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A short break (kind of) from bacon. Joining our blogroll is Jimmy Moore’s livinlavidalowcarb.com, a site packed with information on Viking shipbuilding techniques of the Iron Age (I’m kidding - it is of course low carb focussed.) Very interesting and entertaining podcasts - a favorite is his interview with the brilliant Gary Taubes. And, of […]

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