Falling in at the number 1 spot on our Top 10 Best Bacon Brands list is Oscar Mayer Thick Cut. Odd, I know. Wright Brand Bacon brags more about being the best but is 2nd place on our list. I tried my hardest to find a reason, ANY REASON, to not have Oscar Mayer be number 1. I didn’t want to give the top prize to some extremely famous brand that owns the bacon-world. I wanted Carolina Pride to be number 1 for the longest time because I love it! But there was no denying the powerful flavor of this Oscar Mayer Thick Cut bacon.  Nothing in the world is without its flaws, and it was a very difficult decision to put Wright at 2nd but it was the right thing to do.

I put off buying Oscar Meyer for a long time because I never really thought it would be a quality product. After all, it’s just Oscar Meyer. It’s an extremely large corporation that sells meat products to multiple countries, most notably America. So, I could only think of this product as being of average quality and therefore, average taste. I was thrilled to discover quite the opposite.

We tested a few of the nearly 10 different variations of Oscar Mayer Bacon and we came up with similar conclusions down the line. But the result of the Thick Cut bacon was by far the best. The Super Thick Cut is really good but reminds me less of bacon and more of a crispy country ham slice.

One of the first things I noticed was that this bacon feels very firm and thick. If you tried to balance an uncooked slice on your finger, it would almost hold its shape due to the stiffness. I like this quality. It gives it more of a meaty kind of a feel than most bacon, especially regular sliced bacon. It also doesn’t stretch thin when you pull it from the package.

The texture is near flawless and the flavor is just the way I expect bacon to be. Even when overcooked, the ends of the bacon strip stay a little soft and juicy but the centers of the bacon strip don’t get too over-crispy. The flavor of the bacon is superb on all accounts. It has a very rich salty flavor, but the smokiness is generally unnoticeable. While I enjoy the very salty flavor, it might be a little too strong and overpowering for some. The flavors aren’t too balanced with the salt being the forward flavor, but the finish is a rich pork meat flavor.

Overall, this Oscar Meyer Thick Cut bacon was a very welcoming surprise participant in this contest for the best bacon in America. It’s an exceptional strip of bacon loaded with salty and meaty flavors that coat the taste buds for minutes after the bacon has been swallowed. I was surprised yet pleased. It’s in the average to high cost range but at a full 16 ounces, it is worth the $5 to $8 you’ll spend. You will be pleased.

The Results

10. Hormel

9. Smithfield

8. Curtis

7. Plumrose

6. Pederson’s

5. Boar’s Head

4. Neese’s

3. Carolina Pride

2. Wright

1. Oscar Mayer

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Missing the Cut

Gwaltney. The Gwaltney brand missed the cut by a wide margin.

This bacon falls way below the line in almost every category. I am a truly dissatisfied customer. Where to begin with the overall disappointing quality of this bacon… For those who don’t know, Gwaltney is a pretty much synonymous with cheap meat products. You can get a 6 pack of Gwaltney hot dogs for like $1. So I guess the expectations for this bacon weren’t too high. But I expected much more than this!

The bacon came out of the pack and was basically falling apart. There was something that kept this bacon from sticking together and every single strip fell apart in the same three places. Granted, they did stick back together when cooked, but it was difficult to get out of the package and to make it into the frying pan without dropping the pieces on the floor.

When cooking, the bacon yields an incredible amount of fat. I mean, FILLED THE PAN with only 4 slices. Even my butcher cut ones don’t do that. And those things are 3 times larger. The sizes of the bacon strips decrease over 50%! This is incredibly disappointing. My thick sliced bacon is now the same size as a regular strip of bacon.

The texture was far less than satisfactory. The strips weren’t as crispy as they were just… hard. They didn’t break apart very well. They also didn’t look very good since the pieces were all jacked up from falling apart in the pan.

Overall, far below most standards for decent bacon. I highly recommend staying away from Gwaltney bacon as your $4-$5 is best spent on a comparable brand. For the exact same cost, you can get so much more. Please do.