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Waitrose Gloucester Old Spot Bacon - Product Reviews - Food with Passion | Regional Food and Drink | Slow Food | Quality Food

Waitrose Gloucester Old Spot Bacon

Waitrose logoWaitrose is at the premium end of the supermarket food chain and likes to stand for quality. 

Waitrose were the first supermarket to clear their shelves of caged chicken eggs and more recently, Waitrose has claimed that they are reintroducing heritage rare breeds back onto the dinner tables. Food with Passion thought that we would take a closer look starting with their Gloucestershire Old Spot Free Range unsmoked bacon.

We have spoken elsewhere about food labelling concerns raised by the Rare Breed societies, but until our local Waitrose started stocking the products, we could not see first hand.

In Food with Passion's opinion, the general public could well be misled by the packaging into thinking that the bacon is pure Gloucester Old Spot. The packaging extols the virtues of the Gloucester Old Spot breed in great detail and only in relatively small print does it say that the meat 'is produced from pigs sired by registered pedigree Gloucestershire Old Spot Boars'.

The dams are indeterminate from the labelling and therefore under current food labelling law it would seem logical that the bacon could equally well have been labelled by whatever the breed the dam was.

Anyway, discussions on the protection the UK provides us via food labelling regulations are for another day. Let's discuss the actual bacon itself.

Upon opening the pack, the bacon was very visually appealing and had the customary flecks of fat amongst the eye of the meat. The dry-curing process had left it with the usual waxy feel.

How to cook ... we prefer simple grilling until the fat just starts to show crisping and turns golden ... no more than that and you may as well eat salted cardboard.

So, with the Gloucestershire Old Spot (sired with indeterminate dam) bacon cooked perfectly, did it pass the taste test? The smell was terrific from the grill, but the flavour....? Unfortunately, the taste did not live up to expectation and was bland compared to the bacon that we had home-cured ourselves.

At £3.99 for 250g, this was an expensive bacon even by Waitrose standards and in our view you can find better value and tastier bacon. Watch out for our own article on making your own bacon.  

Were we disappointed ... well would you expect to buy something labelled as a labrador dog and then to be delivered a labradoodle ..... Food with Passion was sold the proverbial pup here.

Not recommended.

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