I think you were right the first time. Turkey bacon is gross, even the stuff people insist on putting on your plate claiming it's great. I've heard that duck bacon is good, but that would be because of the fat. It's just kosher if slaughtered correctly by a shochet. Therefore, the thing to do is hide it. Don't even try to feature the flavor. It's food=money. It's perishable, so hard to give to the hungry. Bean soup or stew, perfect. Beef stew, yes. Anything thick and heavy with dominant flavors that aren't bacon. It can just be there and add a little salt and protein.

After living with a vegetarian spouse and suffering trough ersatz poultry bacon for too many years, my suggestion is just to bin it. I can't imagine it has improved much in the intervening years.

If too thrifty to just toss, plllog's suggestion to hide with something where it is not a primary component is a good idea.

It would probably make good dog treats.

I bought one pack of turkey bacon in my life,because SO wanted to try it. It ended up as food for the feral cats at my job. Just gross.

If you are going to cook it in something, I strongly suggest that you put some real bacon in there with it....

It seems like 'The Sunk Cost Fallacy". If it's so bad that you have to hide the taste in order to use it so you won't feel you wasted money, maybe just admit it was a mistake (we all make them), pitch it and move on.

We luckily have Williebird turkey store nearby and, after trying almost all of the turkey bacons, this is the best!

Of course, I love Real bacon about once a month.

Their turkey sausage is absolutely great!

Oh yeah. Put it in a bean soup or something.

I think turkey bacon would be good in bean soup , and it's the time of year for it too. Might also be good in scalloped potatoes. Or cut up on pizza...?

I think frying it up in any kind of fat helps the taste a lot.

I agree with LindaC. It's not terrible, as long as you aren't expecting it to be anything resembling bacon. I do tend to avoid foods that are masquerading as other foods, it seldom turns out well. To avoid that disappointment just remember that it isn't bacon, and never will be bacon. It's turkey, kind of smoked. It would work OK in a pot of beans or as Carol mentioned, cut up on a pizza as long as it had a lot of other things. Oddly enough, it doesn't taste like bacon OR like turkey, and doesn't much resemble ham either.

My Mother bought some and I cut it up and added it to fried potatoes and onions and it was edible. Nothing to shout about, but edible.

Annie

Exactly! I'm willing to believe that anything from WillieBird is good, but if turkey bacon in general tasted like something I wouldn't be so grossed out. I like smoked turkey better than non-, but turkey bacon is not that, not bacon, not turkey-ish, not something entirely new and yummy. "Edible" is faint praise. :) But it should be harmless in the bean soup. :)

I love turkey bacon and I generally prefer it to pork bacon, which has too much fat for my taste. I use it in sandwiches, omelets, and salads, or pretty much anywhere I would use pork bacon. The main thing to remember is that it is very lean, but it does fry up crisp.

I do not think it does much in bean soup, as it would get fairly lost there, and the bean soup needs the pork flavor.

Turkey bacon is best when fried crisp. It does not belong in recipes that do not require it to be crisp. It's especially good in a Cobb salad, but I add it to spinach salad also.

I had turkey bacon once when my BF bought it. I checked the package and it was higher in saturated fat than regular bacon… why? and, therefore, why do people think it’s a healthier alternative?

eta: to the original question, rather than toss it, I’d probably use it in something like a soup too.

I, too, like turkey bacon - but find it's more like ham than bacon. I buy an organic brand at my food coop and have used Trader Joe's. The box directions say to separate the pieces and place on a baking pan (I use a broiler pan), turn on the oven to 400 and add the pan immediately with no preheating. I think the time is something like 12-14 min but I'm not sure and I don't have any in the refer to check. No turning required and it comes out perfectly. Sometimes if I want it extra crispy, I turn it for the last 5 min or so. It's a nice low cal, low fat protein source. And it has less sodium than regular bacon, too. We just eat a piece or two as a breakfast food; I never use it in recipes because I don't cook anything that has bacon as an ingredient.

I think I am going to cook it and then freeze it and use it when I need a crumble of bacon in something, like maybe quiche, etc.

Reporting back on two turkey bacon projects. One was "Irish Bean Soup with Smokey Bacon." It was good, but gave the soup a peculiar chemical aftertaste. Not overpowering, but definitely there and not a plus. The soup is simple so the bacon flavoring is key to its success. I liked that it was lower fat than regular bacon, that was a plus, but I wouldn't use it again due to the aftertaste. Also made it more salty than usual, since I use either uncured or lower sodium bacon usually.

The second dish I made was German potato salad with the vinegar, sugar, bacon and onion dressing. It was good in that. No bacon fat for the dressing, but this was a lower fat recipe anyway, called for olive oil as the fat. So not strictly traditional but I don't much care for the traditional anyway. It was favorite of my late mother.

Takeawy is that I think this would be better in salads and sandwiches than the long simmered soups.

I appreciate your point about the difference between putting it in a soup vs. salad, but why would you consider again using a product with "a peculiar chemical aftertaste"?

I'm not going to buy it again. I can't afford to waste a protein source I have already invested in. It wasn't so bad as to be inedible, just noticeable. For me it was what it was. I can taste the BHT in boxed cake mixes and the nitrates in many smoked foods too, but that's doesn't mean they are inedible or bad. That issue has already been discussed here. There are the "just throw it out already" folks, the boxed cake mixes sweet/savory cornbread sucks, etc., and the folks for whom that ethos of either side will never resonate for a variety of reasons. One does not have to be one or the other either, it's all good, not looking for anyone to have to defend or abandon either position. As I mentioned, different strokes for different folks. No one here has to ever buy turkey bacon, but if you find yourself with some, I'm just sharing my experience.