I love a good steak but I don't eat it anywhere near enough to say I would go without bacon. To me there is nothing tastier than the regular weekend breakfast delite that i fry up. Caramelised onions, mushrooms, melted camembert cheese(at least two layers), egg and of course copious amounts of bacon. Then smash it all together and fry the sandwich til the bread is crispy. It is unreal and there is nothing better than a fried crispy piece of bacon covered in melted cheese.
This was easy for me: Beef all the way. Bacon actually makes me feel ill after eating, whether it's one rasher or five it doesn't matter, so I don't eat the stuff anymore. Sausages are awesome, as are ribs, but I don't like chops. The only pork product I regularly eat is salami. The rest of what I eat is mostly beef, chicken and fish. So, for this debate, piggy gets the heave-ho.
I love Bacon, but Beef wins this by miles. Steak is the most delicious thing on Earth. It is also is used to make the most delicious drink I have ever drank. I share this family secret, hoping you will use it for good. Take around 6-8lbs of round steaks (although Sirloin may also work); marinade with a metric fuckload of cracked black pepper corns, onion and cold pressed virgin olive oil(You may also optionally use a hot spice like ground Cayenne pepper). Cook all the steaks on a large hotplate (NOT GRILL), until they are rare to medium rare. Put all steaks in a couple of deep metal dishes and allow to settle for 5 minutes. Consume the delicious steaks. After the steaks are eaten and you are full and content with life, pour the accumulated liquid from the dishes into a pint glass. I suggest you slowly sip this delicious juice, as drinking too much too quickly can result in seizure as the brain is overwhelmed by awesome. I also suggest you sit down, as you knees may become weak as your tongue orgasms. One Pint should be enough for 3-4 people. Before you ask, yes it does mix well with good vodka and yes it may cause immaculate conceptions in women or overly feminine men.
Great topic, but I think the results are a little off right now because of all the WONDERFUL pork-related products out there, you chose the single worst for the topic title; bacon. Give me delicious sausages, high-quality ham, pork chops, and expertly roasted pork over boring bacon any day of the week and twice on Sundays. Don't get me wrong; bacon is nice too, and it's the perfect thing to add in my omelets, but in the Pantheon of great pork products, it's strictly second rate. That being said, even with all those fantastic uses for pork, it's hard to choose against beef. It's truly the ultimate meat, and at its very very best, not even the tastiest pork can beat it. So ultimately, I will still go with beef. That being said, chicken deserves some credit, as does lamb and turkey. They're not quite as elite-tier as pork and beef, but they are still outstanding, tasty meats I eat at least a couple of times a week. Remember kids; no animal deserves to go un-eaten!
Speaking of which, how do those feral pigs down your way taste? You must have bagged one at some point.
Pretty effing good. We don't fuck with eating the boars, as the meat is spoiled from the high testosterone levels (or, as VG put in in the hunting thread, they splooge themselves upon death and it ruins the meat). But there is nothing wrong with the small sows and piglets. They are just a bitch to clean, and they don't have as much fat as a normal pig.
I like beef, but I love pork. All the great beef-related foods could be replaced. No more steak? I'll survive; pork tenderloin would take it's place. No burgers? Chicken sandwiches and BBQ pulled pork fill the same need. However, try and take away bacon or sausage, and there is nothing that can soften the blow.
Beef all the way, seriously. Don't get me wrong, I love me some bacon and the occasional ham at thanksgiving, but nothing beats a perfectly cooked rare steak. Nothing. As for the Chicken, I don't really eat it that often, and when I do it's because I'm pressed for time and need protein, not because I enjoy it. Vegetables are for pussies.
The primary reason that you have to go with beef is a perfectly rare prime rib. The other reason is because you're a good person. However, I start thinking of the following protein sources: King Crab, Blue Crab, Dungeness Crab, Lobster (all fuckin' type), Shrimp, Shrimp so big they resemble Lobsters, mutant sized Craw-Dads, Huge fuckin' Scallops, Oysters, Clams, Mussels, Baked Rock Fish, Smoked Blue Fish, Arctic Char, Random Fish Fry what ever I catch out of the water around me, crazy raw fish and sea urchin, octopi and other primitive invertebrates and I'm pretty sure I could not live a happy life without them. Chalk me up for fish over all.
If you have to cook it to make it safe to eat, you should probably not be eating it. That leaves you 2 options, fish (from the ocean) or beef. Although I love fish it is no contest, beef wins hands down. If you have ever seared a beef tenderloin to medium rare and consumed it you would not even consider putting that swine flesh in your pie hole. Let us compare, would you rather have a pork chop or a ribeye. Really, a hunk of quasi white meat or a marbled slice of heaven. You have to marinate the chop for days to get any flavor, you have to cook it for a long time to make it safe, the ribeye requires only 8 minutes on the grill and no marinade and it is ready for consumption. If bacon is the highlight of your meat eating resume, you have obviously been eating the wrong thing, there is a reason the north end of a southbound horse tastes like shit.
WRONG. I'm not even a big bacon fan. I think it is average, at best, in comparison with all of the above.
What? You just said you do have to cook beef; there are entire industries set up to making edible pork products without properly cooking them, and isn't there a risk of E coli poisoning from eating certain cuts, especially burgers and ground beef? It also seems like there's some kind of anti-bacon sentiment brewing up around here. Maybe it's a backlash against the kind of ridiculous internet fads in its favour, but how many of you have ever had home-cured and home-smoked bacon? Maple cured and smoked bacon is to regular bacon as a fine red of your preferred vintage is to a mix of vodka and grape juice.
If I had to choose, and I will.. Beef. Then again, I grew up on a Beef farm, so I'm biased towards beef. Nothing better than a fresh juicy hunk of sirloin on the grill! Seeing all that slaughtering going on in my youth, you would think it would have turned me vegan but nope! Remembering the smell of burning chicken feathers turns me off of chicken temporarily though, not a pleasant smell (or sight) I discovered Bison beef within the last few years, it's DE-LISH! Some local restaurants make bison burgers/steaks quite awesomely.. others do an aweful job at it, since bison beef is alot leaner than cow beef.. you're not supposed to cook the hell out of it as much, like you would to beef.
Dearest sir, Until you have experienced steak tartar or beef sashimi you have not experienced fine cuisine, when I spoke of cooking the beef I meant I basically seared the tenderloin, and when you sear it the outside is cooked and in middle is still room temp and uncooked, the texture change is a nice touch. Your attempt to elevate the lowly belly of the dirty swine to anywhere near as palatable as beef was in vain, it also further reinforced my belief that beef is superior as it needs no arduous preparation to eat. I have heard that grape martinis go well with bacon. Good day to you.
Breakfast of champions! Bit over cooked but I was still half asleep... this bastard of a thread gave me nightmares about a steak shortage.
I will not sit here and be told that I know nothing of fine cuisine by a man who suggests that a cocktail of fruit juice and vodka is deserving of the title of martini.
No. I just can't accept this question. It is seriously distressing. Steak is so fucking good, it's why I get up from my afternoon nap. But bacon is why I get up in the morning. The OP sucks for making me even have to contemplate a world without both. God, I'm so upset, I'm going to go prepare some steak wrapped in bacon.
Honestly while I love steak, it's not the thing I would miss the most if I had to give up beef. My one true food love will always be the cheeseburger. This one brings tears to my eyes:
Well, no sooner do I say this than do I attend a lecture by the foremeost infectious disease expert in the country. The conditions in which e coli grows in beef are encouraged by feed lot practices. Range fed cows tend not not to be contaminated. And the problem may not necessarily be from the meat itself, but the processing facilities where one bit of contaminated meat/equipment means that a whole lot of ground beef is contaminated. The more you know.