Bacon

[Quindiana Jones]

Crispy fat, soft and delicious meat with an actual meat flavour instead of an overcooked flavour. Blooming delicious.

Can't get proper bacon in China (the largest consumer of bloody pork! ). It's genuinely heartbreaking.

[Iceglow]

I'm not kidding with my vote. I like smoked bacon (has to be smoked for health reasons and back bacon or lean) as is. It has to be super fresh like a pack opened that day and preferably one with a lot of time on the use by clock still there. After it's been opened 24 hours or so I'll only eat it cooked but trout yeah, give me them bacon slices all smoked and raw and trout! It's smurfing awesome!

When cooked, pretty much depends on the cut of the bacon, Back cuts I cook soft, streaky bacon I cook crispy.

[Pumpkin]

crispy

[Shiny]

Why would anyone eat raw bacon? Swine is probably one of the filthiest animals in existence, yet you choose to eat that e.coli infested meat raw?! You crazy.

Also it is totally not American to crisp your bacon or at least it's not over here, because when ever I asked for bacon they always cooked it floppy and soft, so I had to tell them to prepare it well done. That was when I ate pork bacon though. I have horrible turkey bacon now.

[Iceglow]

ITT you should get your facts straight about pigs Shiny. This Link and many others will repeatedly tell you the facts of the matter. Pigs are actually one of the cleanest animals bred for food. Of course, the site linked and all others will refer to adequate space being provided. This can be hard to achieve. However, this is why countries like England and many others especially within the European Union (which unsurprisingly, has the same laws for most if not all member states on this topic) has regulatory laws governing the space requirements on farming animals. I.E. how many pigs you can have per acre of land or so forth.

Also the meat is not raw so to speak. Unsmoked bacon is completely and utterly raw. Smoked meats are by nature safer to eat (OK, I wouldn't recommend it for pregnant ladies, people with troutty constitutions or those whom simply have very little idea of what the hell they're talking about or doing) because smoking will kill most bacteria including E-coli and Salmonella.

That being said as indicated in my original post on the matter, you ought to purchase the best quality, freshest smoked bacon possible. You should also not eat it without cooking it in a pan/grill once it's been opened more than a day or so just to be safe. Essentially, eating red meats raw (which beef is another typical meat which can be eaten without cooking Reference) is a bit like Sushi, if you're dumb about it... you're going to have a bad time.

[LocoColt04]

I like bacon with floppy parts and crispy parts. The top picture looks ok, the middle looks underdone, but the sweetspot is somewhere in between. Mmmm bacon.

Exactly this. I like a little crunch on the outer edge but the moisture still in the fatty edge. Nom.