We Taste-Tested 10 Brands of Bacon—This One Had the Best Balance of Smoke, Salt, and Chew

The world of bacon is vast. An American breakfast staple, bacon is cut from pork belly and most often cured and smoked before packaging. But how thick it’s cut, what it’s cured in, seasoned with, and smoked with can completely change its texture and flavor profile. So, what’s best? Cured or uncured? Hickory smoked or applewood smoked? 

To find the best all-around bacon for cooking, snacking, or serving alongside pancakes, we taste-tested 10 brands you’re likely to find at your local supermarket. We prepared the bacon using one of our go-to methods: baking it on a foil-lined sheet pan at 400°F (205°C), which evenly distributes heat, makes cleanup easier, and lets the bacon fry in its own fat. We then sampled them in random order, tabulated the results, and crowned an overall winner and a runner-up.

The Criteria

Your bacon preference is as personal as your coffee order. Our editorial director, Daniel, likes some chew. “I don’t like shattering pieces of bacon. I want the lean part pretty crisp, and I want the fat part well rendered, but still with some flex and chew. I don’t want a piece of bacon glass,” he says. Laila, our associate culinary editor, agrees. “I particularly don’t like the super crispy, super crunchy bits.” Even though I, similarly, want a variety of textures within the same piece of bacon, I love it when there are extra-brittle bits. 

As for flavor, our testers wanted more than just pork, salt, and fat in their bacon—they wanted some smokiness, just not so much that it would overpower the pork’s overall flavor. As Daniel said: “When eating my bacon with eggs, do I want it to taste like a super intense campfire? Maybe not.”

Overall Winner: The Best Versatile Bacon

Smithfield Thick-Cut Bacon, Naturally Hickory Smoked

This bacon checked every box for our editors. It delivered on the promise of a “thick cut,” which helped it retain a distinct meaty chew after baking and prevented the strips from becoming too brittle or shattering into “bacon glass.” Daniel said there was a “good distribution of lean and fat,” which gave the pork a tender bite. 

Our tasters found the flavor profile to be everything they were looking for. The balance of salt and smokiness—which Laila described as “smoky without tasting artificial”—made for a quintessential piece of bacon versatile enough to eat for breakfast, add to a sandwich, or toss into a salad. “This tastes like bacon I would want and expect on a bodega bacon egg and cheese,” said our associate director of visuals, Amanda.

Runner-Up: The Best Smoky Bacon

North Country Smokehouse Organic Applewood Smoked Uncured Bacon

This bacon had a bolder, smokier flavor profile than our winner, with notes that bordered on complex and tobacco-like. Though it had an assertive smokiness, it was balanced by a pleasant sweetness. Laila, who enjoyed its “savory and deeply meaty” flavor and slight chew, put it best: “This is bacon turned all the way up.” Amanda was also a fan, noting, “I love the smokiness. I would eat it by itself, and I like the touch of sweetness. It has an ideal bacon texture: crispy throughout with extra crisp edges and a chew in the center.”

The smoke’s intensity and sweetness, however, polarized some tasters, costing it the top spot. “I’m torn,” Daniel said. “This has a sweetness I don’t love, but the smoke flavor is quite nice. There’s definitely more of a smokehouse vibe on this one.” If you’re looking for a more intensely smoky bacon, this is the brand to purchase.

The Contenders

• 365 by Whole Foods Uncured Applewood Smoked
• Applegate Natural Hickory Smoked Uncured Bacon
• Boar’s Head Naturally Smoked Bacon
• Jimmy Dean Premium Hickory Smoked Bacon
• Oscar Mayer Naturally Hardwood Smoked Bacon
• Nature’s Promise Hickory Smoked Uncured Bacon (Stop & Shop)
• North Country Smokehouse Organic Bacon
• Smithfield Naturally Hickory Smoked Thick Cut Bacon
• True Story Foods Applewood Smoked Kurobata Bacon
• Wellshire Farms Uncured Bacon

Key Takeaways and Conclusion

Texture was the make-or-break factor in our tests. Generally, our tasters preferred thick-cut bacon. Standard-cut supermarket bacon often rendered too much fat too quickly in the oven, resulting in brittle, shattering strips that lacked the substance and meatiness our editors preferred. Our winner, Smithfield, was labeled “thick cut.” While it wasn’t thick enough to be considered thick-cut for Daniel, who would have preferred an even heftier slice, that little bit of extra width provided the necessary flex and chew that helped it win out. 

While nitrates and nitrites in bacon are a cause for concern for consumers because they’ve been linked to potential cancer risk, they didn’t determine our rankings. We enjoyed bacon cured with sodium nitrite and those labeled “uncured”—a term often used for products cured with celery powder, which contains naturally occurring nitrates that can convert to nitrites during processing and digestion.

As former Serious Eats editor Elazar explained in his guide to cured pork products, nitrites are the key curing agent: They inhibit Clostridium botulinum, speed up the curing process, give bacon its pinkish-red color, and contribute a characteristic “hammy” flavor.

Although some products are labeled “no nitrates or nitrites added,” that phrasing refers only to synthetic sources. The naturally derived nitrites in these products are chemically identical and function the same way during curing. “When people see ‘uncured’ and ‘no nitrates/nitrites added’ on a label, they believe the meat is healthier,” says Amy Keating, RD, in an article from Consumer Reports. “But that’s not the case.” 

Our overall winner was a traditionally cured bacon containing sodium nitrite, while the runner‑up was an organic “uncured” bacon made with celery powder (which also, as just explained, contained nitrites). Ultimately, flavor and slice thickness mattered in our taste test, not the curing agent.

Different brands included flavoring agents such as fruit extracts, white pepper, brown sugar, and maple syrup to enhance the bacon’s flavor. While sweetness was welcome, as seen in our runner-up, the balance of both salt and smokiness was key. Our favorite bacons tasted primarily of pork and smoke, rather than brown sugar, maple syrup, or seasonings like herbs or spices.

Our Testing Methodology

All taste tests are conducted with brands completely hidden and without discussion. Tasters taste samples in random order. For example, taster A may taste sample one first, while taster B will taste sample six first. This is to prevent palate fatigue from unfairly giving any one sample an advantage. Tasters are asked to fill out tasting sheets, ranking the samples according to various criteria. All data is tabulated, and results are calculated with no editorial input to provide the most impartial representation of actual results possible.