Bacon!
You love it, right?
What about canned bacon?
Though obscure today, it's been a big deal for a while.
It was even included in the most expensive sandwich of all time!
Keep watching to learn the many mysteries of canned bacon!
Toward the end of the 18th century, France fought many battles all around the world.
Due to these many battles abroad, the French government wanted to come up with a better
way to provide a reliable source of safe nutrition for all of its soldiers.
In order to solve this problem, a wave of new culinary experimentation spread across
the country.
The government decided to hold a competition with a grand prize of 12,000 francs — the
equivalent of nearly $13,000 dollars in today's currency.
A young chef named Nicolas Appert experimented for 14 years with airtight champagne bottles
and wide-necked glass containers.
He would seal them with wax and boil them in water.
He won the prize in 1809 and kicked off a new food industry that would eventually produce
canned bacon.
Appert went on to publish a book on his method titled,
The Art of Preserving, for Several Years, all Animal and Vegetable Substances.
According to Britannica, Appert used his grand prize to start up the House of Appert, the
world's first commercial cannery, which stayed in business for more than a century, from
1812 until 1933.
European Space Agency astronaut Tim Peak pulled a smooth move as he planned his trip into
space in 2016.
He worked with celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal to develop a special menu with some of his
favorite food.
One of Peak's requests was a bacon sandwich.
As it turns out, launching bacon 250 miles above Earth to reach the International Space
Station requires a lot of culinary finesse and strategic planning.
According to Business Insider, space agencies put up a lot of red tape when it comes to
food regulation for astronauts in order to prevent them from becoming sick.
Blumenthal adapted Peak's menu to meet these specifications, but that meant the bacon sandwich
had to be canned.
To further complicate matters, the canned bacon sandwich had to be heated for two hours
at 140 degrees Fahrenheit in order to kill off any possible contaminants.
Creating a bacon sandwich that could withstand that kind of sustained temperature meant the
ingredients had to be resilient.
The bread was extra dense and the bacon was tough and slathered in thick butter.
"Butter your bacon!"
"Yes, father."
What was the price tag for this undertaking?
According to Forbes, launching all of the food for each astronaut's meals from Cape
Canaveral, including the canned bacon sandwich, cost nearly $3 million.
While it's difficult to break down the exact cost of the canned bacon sandwich alone, it's
fair to say the sandwich was…
"Very expensive!"
You probably don't spend much time thinking about the secretive network of underground
bunkers scattered across America.
"No!
Not really."
And you probably spend even less time considering what their subterranean shelves are actually
stocked with.
As it turns out, we have a good reason to believe that there are massive quantities
of canned bacon buried deep underground.
All of which are just waiting to be consumed by the world's most powerful people to ensure,
quote, "continuity of government" in the event of a doomsday scenario, via MRE Depot.
Scanning MRE Depot's online store shows that it sells freeze-dried Canadian bacon in cans
that were manufactured by a military defense contractor for purchase by the executive branch.
According to MRE Depot, this usually means that its intended purpose is for storage in
underground bunkers for military leaders, congressional members, and White House leadership
in case of emergencies.
Considering bacon's widespread popularity, it's no wonder that it would be top-tier survival
food for the most powerful and privileged among us during an apocalypse.
Imagine you're exploring a frigid wasteland surrounded by a churning sea of crushing ice.
The temperature is so low and the wind is so strong that you can feel the bitter cold
soaking into the marrow of your bones.
What kind of food would you want to warm up your soul?
"...a tasty burger!"
Okay, a little off-topic.
But you know what you could put on that tasty burger?
"Pizzaaaaaaa!"
Canned bacon!
That's right!
Ernest Shackleton was an exceptionally adventurous explorer who led a team of more than a dozen
men on a gruesome and exhausting journey into Antarctica.
Unfortunately, their ship got trapped in the ice and drifted through the freezing waters
for ten months, bumping into massive chunks of ice until it was totally ravaged.
Their ship was destroyed, and the team then aimlessly drifted on ice floes for another
five months before escaping in boats to a nearby island.
According to Slate, Shackleton wrote extensively in his journal about food, and the effect
it had on him and his crew.
"Meals were the bright beacon in those cold and stormy days.
The glow of warmth and comfort produced by the food and drink made optimists of us all."
Among the team's food items packed for the land of endless winter were nearly 1,500 pounds
of canned bacon.
Other items on the list included 1,600 pounds of ham, over 1,200 pounds of sardines, and
25 cases of whisky.
If you're wondering what happened to Shackleton and his team, don't worry.
According to Britannica, Shackleton led four separate relief missions and rescued every
last member of his crew.
Amazingly, everyone survived.
We'd like to think this happy ending had a little something to do with all that canned
bacon.
Canned bacon is not very appealing to most people today.
However, during the wars of the early 20th century, it was one of the heartiest forms
of protein that soldiers consumed while they were overseas in combat.
According to the US Department of Defense, one of the combat breakfast ration sets for
soldiers during the war included canned bacon, biscuits, instant whole wheat cereal, coffee,
tomato juice, sugar, canned milk, and cigarettes.
At first, the soldiers were given corned beef instead of canned bacon, and early on in the
war there typically wasn't too much variety in the types of meals soldiers routinely ate.
However, as the war progressed, more meals were produced and flown overseas.
According to the Department of Defense, the rations eventually included other dishes such
as stews, spaghetti in meat sauce, pork and beans, meat and noodles, eggs and potatoes,
and chopped ham.
One of the most common brands of canned bacon for sale is Yoder's canned bacon, which is
pre-cooked and heat pasteurized before being sealed.
Heat pasteurization is a, quote, "heat-treatment process that destroys pathogenic microorganisms,"
according to Britannica.
This process typically involves heating the contents of food until it reaches a high temperature
and then holding that temperature for a set amount of time.
The exact temperature and the amount of time it must be held there depends on the product,
but the goal is the same: destroying pathogenic microorganisms.
This ensures the contents being canned are shelf-stable and safe for consumption.
The process of heat pasteurization was developed by Louis Pasteur.
When Pasteur was hired by Napoleon the third to study wine contamination, he discovered
that the best way to kill off microbes was to heat the contents of the bottles to 120–140
F. Heat pasteurization is now widely used across the food industry to kill off microbes
and prevent food poisoning.
First off, just to be absolutely clear, delicious as it may be, we're under no illusion that
bacon is even remotely healthy for you.
In fact, the International Agency for Research on Cancer has officially classified processed
meat as carcinogenic.
If something is carcinogenic, it means that it has the capacity to cause cancer in humans,
via the American Cancer Society.
According to the IARC, processed meats are defined as meats that have been modified in
the following ways.
"[...] salting, curing, fermentation, smoking, or other processes to enhance flavor or improve
preservation."
Without a doubt, bacon - particularly canned bacon - falls under this category.
That said, different cuts, brands, and methods of cooking and preserving bacon can result
in varying levels of sodium and fat.
The recommended serving size shown on most nutritional labels for bacon is three slices.
Looking at the nutritional facts on Yoder's canned bacon shows that three slices of their
canned bacon come in at 60 calories with 5 grams of fat and 190 milligrams of sodium.
Compare that to the nutritional facts for three cooked strips of fresh bacon, which
comes in at 120 calories, 9 grams of fat, and over 435 milligrams of sodium, via WebMD.
The difference in fat and sodium may have to do with how Yoder's canned bacon is prepared
and stored.
According to MRE Depot, the fat and liquid is drained off of Yoder's canned bacon before
it's sealed, which captures the flavor but spares you of some excess fat and sodium content.
Most of the canned bacon you see for sale online is just plain old bacon.
And while you may not be able to find much in the way of canned bacon in grocery stores
here in the United States these days, there's a treasure trove of riches awaiting for you
overseas.
Japan, for instance, offers a variety of canned bacon immersed in different sauces.
One of those flavors is canned bacon in honey mustard.
Canned bacon probably already sounds a bit strange to you.
But canned bacon that's submerged in a honey mustard sauce?
That might be too much.
But before you totally write it off, think about it.
The flavor combination of bacon and honey mustard is actually quite common in lots of
salads, sandwiches, and pan-roasted chicken dishes.
There are tons of awesome recipes that mix these flavors.
Imagine nibbling on some of this Japanese honey mustard bacon and sipping on some sake.
Keep an open mind and you might be surprised at how tasty this is.
What comes to mind when you think of a luxury treat?
Maybe a nice boat of sushi at a great Japanese restaurant, or perhaps a sizzling coal-fired
pizza at a fancy Italian joint.
One of the last things you'd probably think about is strips of bacon sealed inside of
a can.
But when you take a peek at the expensive price tag, that's exactly what it is.
"Very expensive!"
Shockingly, a single 9-ounce can of bacon tends to run nearly $30.00.
Buying 12 cans of bacon in bulk saves a little money, costing over $200 upfront, which ends
up breaking down to about $20 per can.
That's some pricey stuff.
It makes you wonder why you wouldn't just buy fresh bacon and cook it up nice and crispy
since it would probably taste better and be easier on the wallet.
But then again, fresh bacon doesn't last very long, and the whole reason canned bacon exists
is to prolong its shelf-life — which can be up to ten years!
"Wow!"
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