Best bacon ever.

Denny O wrote:

I’ll be stopping by Thielen in Little Falls in Oct. Gonna get bacon and picnic hams! Then will see about their brats! Yum Chicken n pineapple! a few others.

Oh and wild rice meatloaf mix.

Wife and I hit up Thielens on the way up to the cabin. Bacon was very good. Only maybe second it to the bacon the butcher used to smoke at the Super One in International falls before it was bought out. But you can’t get it anymore. We also did a couple pounds of burger and a couple NY Strips that were also excellent. Give a report at the meatloaf. Sounded better to me than it did to my wife. We will be stopping to stock up on bacon on the way home. I don’t have much of a taste for mass produced bacon. All I get is the additive taste. Thanks for another good heads up.

Grabbed some hickory smoked and maple bacon from Petty Bros in Annandale last weekend. It was very good and excellent brats too. Definitely worth a stop if you’re in the area.

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Finally tried that pepper bacon at Fresh Thyme—–good stuff

For those that are huge fans of Thielen in Pierz I heard it was recently sold. No idea to whom but will be interesting to see if this impacts anything. I would imagine much of the staff will remain unchanged.

CaptainMusky wrote:

For those that are huge fans of Thielen in Pierz I heard it was recently sold. No idea to whom but will be interesting to see if this impacts anything. I would imagine much of the staff will remain unchanged.

This is true. My inlaws are from the Harding/Sullivan lake area and have been die hard Thielens bacon aficionados ever since I’ve known them. We were out there this weekend (they have a lot on Sullivan we camp at) and tried some bacon from RJ’s in Hillman in a blind taste test next to some from Thielens and dare I say the RJ’s bacon was the unanimous winner.

Don’t get me wrong, Thielen’s bacon is absolutely TOP NOTCH, but we will probably start buying from RJ’s for our “bulk” bacon buys that tie us over through the winter.

CaptainMusky wrote:

For those that are huge fans of Thielen in Pierz I heard it was recently sold. No idea to whom

Yeah, this has been in the works for a while, and they just announced it online. The Thielen boys sold to Teamshares (I’m not very familiar with them), and Thielen’s will be 80% Employee owned within 20 years, and existing employees will start getting dividend checks by the end of the year. All 3 boys will be staying on, for awhile at least, along with the existing employees and no changes to their existing products, recipes or processes.

waldo9190 wrote:

tried some bacon from RJ’s in Hillman in a blind taste test next to some from Thielens and dare I say the RJ’s bacon was the unanimous winner.

My cousins, who were raised on Thielen’s, have said the same thing. I need to get up there and try it!

Big Chief Truck Stop on I94 near Dalton,MN has a new burger with 3 kinds of bacon. Regular, Canadian Thick style, and Canadian thin style. On a Bison patty. Not sure where they got the bacons but very tasty and extra.

Lakes Country Meats in Alexandria is our go to for bacon.

BigWerm wrote:

Yeah, this has been in the works for a while, and they just announced it online. The Thielen boys sold to Teamshares (I’m not very familiar with them), and Thielen’s will be 80% Employee owned within 20 years, and existing employees will start getting dividend checks by the end of the year. All 3 boys will be staying on, for awhile at least, along with the existing employees and no changes to their existing products, recipes or processes.

Good to hear. I havent bought much from them, but everyone raves about them I would hate to see that change. Never heard of Teamshares will have to do some digging.

Ellenson wrote:

Lakes Country Meats in Alexandria is our go to for bacon.

Have you tried the beef bacon there? It’s a fun change to the normal bacon routine.

The FG brought her favorite bacon with this weekend, cranberry Chipotle from Schmitts in Nicollet.

Best I’ve ever had hands down. Told her to grab me 10# next time she’s over there

Deuces wrote:

Schmitts in Nicollet

In my years of Bacon fandom, Schmitt’s in Nicollet is probably the #2 most recommended after Thielens. I’m not a huge fan of flavored bacon (or whiskey) but they have an excellent product. I did a side by side to Thielens once and Schmitt’s was a lot fattier and about 25% the size of Thielens by the time they were done.

A quick bacon tip:If you are cooking a lb. of bacon its easier to do it in the oven, if you are making it in the oven put the bacon in a cold oven and let it get up to temp. the fat renders better. Also if you buy those bacon wrapped chicken breasts same thing put them in a cold oven.

I haven’t fried bacon in over 25 years, I always bake it on a cookie sheet.

That’s why they call it Bacon and not Fryon.

done it on the grill to, but oven here too

Super clever Eel

Anybody ever had bad bacon ?”I’ll have a bacon sandwich with extra bacon and a side of bacon”. The waitress about peed herself.

true that!!!

wkw wrote:

Anybody ever had bad bacon ?”I’ll have a bacon sandwich with extra bacon and a side of bacon”. The waitress about peed herself.

BigWerm wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>waldo9190 wrote:</div>
tried some bacon from RJ’s in Hillman in a blind taste test next to some from Thielens and dare I say the RJ’s bacon was the unanimous winner.

My cousins, who were raised on Thielen’s, have said the same thing. I need to get up there and try it!

Had a family reunion at the cabin on Platte (Grandpa bought it in 1957 for a Desoto car and cash ), and stopped and picked up some RJ’s. Pretty cool that they slice it fresh for you to your desired thickness, no idea if that actually helps the flavor or not. It was really good! I’ll need to do a side by side with Thielen’s but as far as I could tell it was right up there and very similar in flavor, meatiness and thickness.