bumping for anyone who didn't see it first time around

Ingredients from Bacos: Defatted soy flour, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, water, salt, sugar, natural and artificial flavor (some type of glutamate no doubt, but not MSG because I'm allergic to that and it would give me a stomache ache), artificial color, and red 40, maltodextrin, dextrose, tocopherol, (preservative). I am allergic to nitrates, they give me headaches, so I buy natural bacon and keep it in the freezer. I slice off some bits to fry for flavor, but not for the broccoli slaw style salad. I don't mind a dash of the soy product stuff to add some bacon flavor to something like soups and salads or braised greens, if it's just a dash for flavor. It absolutely is full of sugar and salt so that's why I said use judiciously. In a BLT where bacon is a key ingredient rather than a flavoring, I want real bacon, I tried the soy stuff for BLTs and it didn't cut it for me. Also, some of my friends are vegans and others are observant Jews and Muslims, so the Baco bits work for when I am cooking for a mixed crowd, which is what my gang tends to be. I'm liking the idea of smoked almonds for salads though. I have been avoiding them due to the salt content, but a few might be interesting in salads.

Ellen, here I rarely see any ground turkey except those frozen one pound "chubs" and it's about $3 a pound ON SALE! I do use ground turkey, I just don't buy ground turkey already ground. I grind my own in the food processor, usually from turkey thighs, but I peel off the skin. If you cut it into pieces and put it in the freezer until it's just starting to get really firm and freeze, it chops up realy well in the food processor. Beef too, and pork for sausage. At least I know what's in there that way. I know nearly everyone here loves the "crispy skin", but I won't even eat poultry skin fried or roasted, I peel it off, always. I can usually get turkey parts around the holidays, i.e. from Thanksgiving to Easter. My local (very small and independent) grocer gets turkeys from local farmers by the truckload and sells them fresh for holiday dinners. Anything that isn't sold or that gets bungled up during the processing becomes "parts", sold by the pound in packages. The owner says that parts actually sell better than the whole turkeys, although most people want turkey breast, so the thighs are a lot chepaer. i don't try to grind legs, too many little bones, cartilege and such in there. Annie

I like good smoky thick cut bacon and lots of it. I heard so much about turkey "bacon" and I did like a couple of the turkey "hams" that I bought and so I was going to try the turkey bacon. But then I did some reading on it and saw some interesting comments. Quite a debate, not unlike with many things. Many said there was very little different in the fat and calories but the sodium was *way* higher in the turkey stuff. I checked some packages and found some truth to it, however it did vary with brands and types. Some had 3 times the sodium of real bacon, some had twice the cholesterol of pork. Low sodium bacon of course compares much more favorably and in the few brands of turk, it varied too and they weren't all that bad. I'm not in the mood to experiment on it though. Good bacon doesn't shrink that much, especially if you press it, bake it or otherwise. Some of the cheapies though... the strips end up resembling postage stamps more than a flavorful delicacy. I figured why bother. I don't eat bacon for every meal every day, though I could probably join Burgess Meredith from Grumpy Old Men "Every morning...I eat five strips of bacon. And for lunch, I eat a bacon sandwich. And for a midday snack: bacon, a whole damn plate! And I usually drink my dinner..." Cooked and drained lean bacon isn't the fat-monster the bird growers want us to believe. And frankly I think fat is better for you than the excessive sodium. I get plenty of sodium and sugar these days so those are two things I would rather cut down in my diet than the heavenly flavor of the world's best miracle, commonly known as bacon. Hey, watch this.... turkey bacon! Listen! Do you hear it? Jennifer Patterson is spinning in her grave! And Clarissa just fell off her chair! :)