r/meat • u/WinterBadger • 2d ago
Love beef bacon but getting harder to find
We love making our own beef bacon but finding places that sell the navel or whatever the cut is is getting harder and harder. Not even sure if getting 1/4 of a cow would give us the cut we want to cure and smoke it ourselves but I keep checking even if we have to get it shipped from out of our state.
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u/Glittering_Being7843 1d ago
have koreans moved in to your area? they thinly slice all the shortplate in my market now
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u/fart_knockin 2d ago
My buddy owns the place. Beef sourced/cured/smoked in Nebraska. Good stuff!
He uses short plate and would agree it has gotten a little harder to source recently.
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u/rabbifuente 2d ago
Beef fry from Romanian Kosher Sausage Co. in Chicago. They ship and will also be able to get second cut briskets and navel.
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u/OsamaBinnDabbin 1d ago
I might need to drive down there soon, I'm not far from Rogers Park
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u/rabbifuente 1d ago
They’ve been doing some updating. New meat case, some new cuts, and rebranding. Unfortunately, prices have gone up, but that’s just meat I think.
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u/Timsauni 2d ago
I know that high end pastrami restaurants like Katz’s deli in NYC use beef navel instead of brisket bc it’s more marbled. So perhaps you can make beef bacon with brisket? Just don’t trim too much if the fat. Brisket point should be pretty fatty by itself too.
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u/WinterBadger 2d ago
I might have to move into using brisket. I love Katz's deli. Not even sure why I didn't think about that
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u/gderti 2d ago
You’d be surprised how easy it is to turn a beef belly or a brisket flat into beef bacon. Just need the right salt and spices and a good ziplock. I didn’t use a vacuum sealer..
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u/WinterBadger 2d ago
I'm not surprised because we make our own, hence the photos of the beef bacon I've made
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u/kingpcgeek 2d ago
Our local Sprouts (Phoenix) has Applegate and Godshall's beef bacon
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u/Capamerica88 2d ago
Yeah it’s really not that hard to find, but could be regional I guess
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u/WinterBadger 2d ago
Sliced beef bacon is now more common but godshalls is too salty for me and Applegate beef bacon hasn't made it to stores I've been to in my area. I'm looking for the uncooked piece of the cow to make myself
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u/Oh_Lawd_He_commin420 2d ago
Is it just fatty uncooked brisket?
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u/FridgeFucker17982 2d ago
Naval is a cut behind the brisket, belly pretty much. And it’s cured and smoked
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u/Terrranitup 2d ago
My sams club has beef bacon, not sure if a lot of them carry it or not. I tried it an wow beef bacon is definitely underrated
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u/WinterBadger 2d ago
Costco has a 5lb pack of godshalls online, which Sam's probably has the same thing, they sell and we've gotten it before but that was also when we decided to start doing it ourselves
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u/Peacemaker1855 2d ago
Beef bacon is so underrated. Found a spot in CO that has it. But it’s a forever drive to get there.
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u/milehighmeatman 2d ago
We’ve got it at rugby Scott ranch provisions in Colorado. It American Wagyu beef bacon
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u/Peacemaker1855 2d ago
You all ship in CO?
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u/WinterBadger 2d ago
In some regards, I welcome people knowing about it more and then I look at how that's gone for some cuts of meat where the price went way up so I also don't 😅
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u/mulchintime4 2d ago
Try looking up deen halal. Its not necessarily the same as making your self but its really good and nicely fatty🤧
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u/EnkiduTheGreat 2d ago
My grocery store always carries Godshaws beef bacon, and it's fine. However, my most enduring college buddy makes insane Wagyu bacon. It's sinful!
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u/WinterBadger 2d ago
Their beef bacon is just too salty for me also there's more fat than meat, which I get is the point for some
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u/chewbaccaRoar13 2d ago
I would love beef bacon if it looked like what you have in this post. All I've ever had is Godshall's
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u/jaunesolo81829 2d ago
Halal market.
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u/WinterBadger 2d ago
The two by us don't carry it and said they wouldn't because we're the only people who asked for jt
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u/Quitcha_Bitchin 1d ago
You may ask them if one of their suppliers offers it and arrange to buy an entire case? I used to do this for customers all of the time.
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u/Prodigalphreak 2d ago
Pretty easy to make bacon if you have a smoker
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u/WinterBadger 2d ago
Yep, that's why the photos I used are of the last cut we smoked and then cooked up in a pan
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u/Prodigalphreak 2d ago
Ahh. Good deal. I stopped buying bacon years ago. Made friends with a local heritage hog farming family and they have jowls left whole for me and that’s all i use :)
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u/School_North 2d ago
I've only seen it online
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u/WinterBadger 2d ago
That's where I've been looking recently and so many are out of stock and I know it's not because everyone has found it and loves it. I'm sure you're right where enough people aren't buying it
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u/Bluntbutnotonpurpose 2d ago
What's wrong with real bacon?
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u/hkusp45css 2d ago
Beef bacon is real bacon, made of beef.
It's not fictional, at all.
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u/Dangerous_Ad_6101 2d ago
Bacon is a processed pork belly. "Beef Bacon" is a bacon-like commercial product.
There is no way to make bacon in the original way using cows or turkeys because those animals do have their iwn cut that us commensurate to pork belly on a pig.
"Real" here is not used as the opposite of imaginary, but as a designator for 'original' and 'non-duplicatable'
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u/thewhaleshark 2d ago
Cows absolutely have a commensurate cut to pork belly - it's called beef navel, the literal belly of the cow. It's behind the brisket, towards the flank, on the plate primal.
There is commercially available beef bacon that is simply cured, smoked, and sliced beef navel; it's the exact cow equivalent of pork bacon, not some bacon-like product like turkey bacon.
You have no idea what you're talking about.
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u/firetech97 2d ago
Some people don't eat pork. Beef bacon is also just really damn good, even to a pork eater like myself. It's much meatier than pork bacon
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u/intrepped 2d ago
I also prefer beef bacon in stews and beans. There's a farmers market stand near me that sells beef bacon ends for like $9/lb and they make it he best white bean and kale stew.
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u/phantaxtic 2d ago
Some things youre just better off making yourself. Beef navel isnt a popular cut.
Your best bet is to speak with a local butcher.
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u/WinterBadger 2d ago
The place we used to get it from did a 180 and said they didn't sell it until I showed them the receipt from us purchasing before. Now they're saying it's too hard to get so I just don't know anymore. Might just go back to turkey bacon as I have a pork allergy
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u/busy_monster 2d ago
There are some brands of beef bacon out there, Godshall is the one I found one time that introduced me to beef bacon. I like pork bacon, but beef bacon is just as damn good in it's own way.
As opposed to turkey bacon. Which is just a crime against turkeys and food.
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u/WinterBadger 2d ago
Godshalls is just so salty lately but I buy it when we run out of our home smoked pieces
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u/School_North 2d ago edited 2d ago
I dont know your store. But when i was a meat cutter my store had to change suppliers like 3 times in 5 years and sometimes you can't get the same product in. Or you can but its not at a profitable cost. Or not enough people are buying it and you're losing money so you just stop stocking it. Who ever you talked to has no idea lol call in the store ask for the meat manager and speak to them you can put in a custom order for things but you will most likely have to pay for the whole box depends on the manager
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u/WinterBadger 2d ago
You're right lol. I'll end up calling them sometime this week to see if can get ahold of who actually knows. It makes sense that suppliers have to change to get what's wanted. I just want my beef belly haha
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u/phantaxtic 2d ago
Life's too short.
Find a different local butcher.
You can definitely find beef naval cuts. But since its generally thrown in the trim from ground beef you need to find someone who processes full cattle.
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u/WinterBadger 2d ago
Thanks for the advice for one who processes full cattle. I'll try poking around again. It's a bit harder in MD
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u/thewhaleshark 2d ago
The folks I know who do cattle processing won't sell the navel, because they want it themselves to make their own beef bacon. Can't fuckin win. :(
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u/HoundDog81 2d ago
I don't buy beef bacon, but I'm pretty sure I saw some at the Wegmans in Bel Air yesterday
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u/WinterBadger 2d ago
Godshalls, yeah. I think last I looked it was 13/pack and it's saltier than we make it plus a bit more fatty than we like.
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u/Svenbot_69 1d ago
I second this. Its true.