Please do yourself a favor and pick up some Garrett County bacon (they have it at Whole Foods and other nicer markets). If you typically skew towards the Oscar Meyer stuff, I swear…you won’t even recognize what you’re eating, but you will eat a lot of it. It is expensive, but 100% worth it. 

Also, reader Liz recommends the double-smoked bacon at Schaller & Weber, sold whole by the pound (you slice it yourself). The family-owned German meat shop is right near me, on 85th and Second Avenue, and I’ve been meaning to stop in ever since we moved.