No pain. No gain.
Would anyone object if the adage no longer applied to cooking bacon?
When artfully prepared, the long strips of salt-cured and smoked pork are nothing less than crispy bites of heaven. And yet, cooking bacon at home is hardly anyone’s favorite task. It requires a decent chunk of time, constant supervision and draining of the rendering. Plus, the cleanup is no picnic.
If you know, you know.
All that is about to change with the introduction of HORMEL® BLACK LABEL® OVEN READY™ thick-cut bacon. Open the package, place the tray of bacon in a preheated oven, and cook for 20 minutes. There’s no need to touch raw meat or babysit the frying pan. And the cleanup is a breeze — just toss the tray. Perhaps best of all, the bacon cooks evenly and perfectly. Premium bacon without the hassle? It’s an offering so revolutionary, it has a patent in the works.
Just ask Aly Sill, a senior brand manager for Hormel Foods who’ll answer to the title of bacon boss any day of the week.
“It’s a high-quality product that removes all the pain points without sacrificing any of the qualities of your favorite crispy, thick-sliced bacon,” she says.
The secret is in the tray, one of which comes in every package of HORMEL® BLACK LABEL® OVEN READY™ thick-cut bacon.
Developed exclusively by Hormel Foods, “It has ridges that were designed to capture the grease. But what we learned through all the tests is that it’s cooking the bacon in the perfect amount of grease to get the right flavor and the right crispiness. And it does still catch the grease at the bottom, so it’s less of a mess as you’re taking it out of the oven. That’s the magic in the technology.”
He knew that we could do bacon better on behalf of our consumers.
Kelsey Hedlof, senior project and portfolio professional
“Dan is the heartbeat behind this project,” says Kelsey Hedlof, a senior project and portfolio professional and the innovation manager for the HORMEL® BLACK LABEL® OVEN READY™ bacon line. “He knew that we could do bacon better on behalf of our consumers.”
Dan’s wife knew it too. She watched for years as Dan checked out grocery-store offerings and continuously experimented with various and sundry trays, sheets and pans in the Vierkandt kitchen. Then came the 2019 companywide innovation contest, a watershed moment for Dan’s brainchild.
By George, I Think We Have Something
More than 130 years after George A. Hormel founded his meat company, you have to look far and wide to find a team member who can’t echo his call. The patriarch’s guiding principle — “Originate. Don’t imitate.” — is alive, well and deeply ingrained in the culture and operations of Hormel Foods, a leading modern-day global branded food enterprise with more than $12 billion in yearly revenue.
Dan and Nick Schweitzer, who recently served as the brand manager for HORMEL® BLACK LABEL® bacon, presented their idea for no-muss-no-fuss bacon a few years ago.
Disruptions from COVID-19 notwithstanding, leaders at Hormel Foods — up to and including Chairman, President and CEO Jim Snee — got on board with the concept, giving the team what it needed to move forward. Of course, it didn’t hurt that customers weighed in, giving the new bacon an enthusiastic thumbs up.
As a result, Nick says, “We’re about to unveil the next innovation, which is again setting that standard for the most convenient product that is going to hit the bacon marketplace this year for sure and possibly ever.”
Applying for a patent [on the tray] just shows how much the company believes in this package, believes in the product, and believes that we’re going to see success and really change the entire landscape of the bacon industry.
Jeff Wallace, R&D packaging
It wasn’t as easy as he makes it sound, however. There were myriad iterations, including trials pertaining to how much grease should run off and how much should remain on the meat to result in the most flavorful, well-cooked bacon.
In fact, so much went into the design and manufacture of the tray, the company is in the process of obtaining a patent, listing Dan, Jeff and others who made it possible.
“Applying for a patent [on the tray] just shows how much the company believes in this package, believes in the product, and believes that we’re going to see success and really change the entire landscape of the bacon industry,” Jeff says.
Bacon With a Side of Anything
They are admittedly biased toward bacon, but team members nevertheless crave everything about it. As it turns out, they are not alone.
It’s America’s meat, they say. The first thing to go at a breakfast buffet, good luck not sampling a bit as you’re plating it. But make no mistake: It’s no longer simply an early-morning food. You can find it in and on more dishes than you can think of, from savory to sweet.
“It has continued to grow every year. It’s going to continue to grow. It’s one of those foods that just truly makes everything better,” Nick says.
Unlike the SPAM® brand, canned hams and a plethora of other inventions, Hormel Foods didn’t dream up bacon. Rather, it has been around for millennia, but probably not as we know it in the States today. The signature, irresistible crispy strips of pork belly — a delight for all the senses — are the reason there’s a category known as “American bacon.” And indeed, Hormel Foods deserves some credit for that.
According to Dan, “We only use fresh bellies, and we are using really fresh ingredients. We use a limited amount of ingredients in all of our bacon as well. So, you get a cleaner, fresher taste. We know that we … are smoking our bacon longer than everybody. And we know that lends itself to more texture, a better bite and more flavor.”
For her part, Aly believes she’s been entrusted with nothing less than a national treasure.
“I feel like we have such a privilege to work on a product that means so much to our consumers. Every time I talk about bacon to a customer, someone in a grocery store, to friends and family, tell them what I do, you just automatically get that smile,” she says.
“And it gives me a lot of pride at the end of the day.”