Yoders Canned Bacon, 12 Oz per can, Smoke Flavor Added, Fully Cooked, Ready to Eat, Shelf-Stable, Long Term Storage, Camping, Survival, and Emergency Preparedness Pack of 12

I have purchased this bacon several times. We pack it in the fifth wheel for camping, hunting trips. I use it in the home when a recipe calls for chopped bacon, just chop it up throw it in. I do cook this a little longer if using for bacon and eggs as we like crispy bacon. Great taste. I have given a can or two in assorted kitchen gift bags. Never counted how many slices in the can will have to do that.

I did some comparison shopping before taking the plunge. The packages of pre-cooked you get in the local super markets have much fewer strips, these cans are stuffed and set up for long life. The packages in the store have warnings about shelf life and use within two weeks after opening, that kind of thing. I saved a layer in my meat tender months ago and they are still fine, 5sec in the micro wave, tasty and crisp. So if you do the math, these cans are not that expensive, although you are laying out some real cash. Just my two-bits. I just reordered a case.

We started w/3 cans thinking we will try one can, if good will share with friends. Ate all 3 cans! Ordered a case to share with friends. We are older, have disabled son, no time to nicely cook bacon. Unroll bacon (you'll never get it back in the can, haha, it's in there tightly) & put 7 pieces each on paper plates & freeze, no paper towel. Stored each plate in a zip gallon bag and froze. Took out when needed, put in microwave 1 minute to crisp /heat. Best BLTs I've had in years. Ordered more from same seller immediately, bc wanted to give whole case to person who turned us on to Yoder's Bacon! It's cooked bacon, cold & greasy, like after breakfast is over, you see leftovers on table, only wrapped tightly in wax paper and canned. I tasted some straight out of can then decided it was so good I would zap it! I almost needed pliers to get it out of can but I pulled slowly, that worked. Hubby priced it & it's a great value for $ for our needs. Got about 40 pieces per can so far, not half pieces, these are full size bacon strips.

Lot of bacon in each can. Little pricey, taste pretty good.

I bought a case for later use so I can't offer a review of product quality or taste. The reason for this review relates to the lack of product manufacture date and more important is the MISSING expiration date. It's no where to be found on the box or anywhere on the can. For a product with a 15 year shelf life I would think it's important. I do write the purchase dates on the top of everything I buy. I can only imagine they have their reasons for deleting the expiration date. I gave it a 3 star rating for this reason only.

This review is based partly on my earlier review of a single can I bought before deciding to buy this full case. I opened and tested the bacon in the single can. First of all, the taste. The bacon slices tasted as you would expect - bacony. The slices were cooked to what I would call a medium consistency, not well done. They were soft, not crisp. The bacon was not the best I have had, but it’s certainly not the worst. As a retired Army officer, I would call it “mess hall” bacon. There is a fair amount of grease on the slices, not to mention on the paper that separates the slices and in the can. The slices are relatively thin. Now to the issues - There were 32 slices in the can I opened. Some reviewers have mentioned “40-50” slices. So, if they got that many slices, they must have been very thin. Which leads to the second issue. The product is sold by weight - 9 oz. net weight. The single can I opened weighed 11.5 oz. The bacon AND the paper wrapping (with the grease) weighed 9 oz. The bacon alone weighed 7 oz. So, the paper and excess grease was 2 oz. My guess is that the most you would get is about 7-7.5 oz. of bacon, regardless of the number of slices. This differs from the description that says you get 9 oz. of bacon. ("Each can is 9 ounces of fully cooked and drained bacon.") And the number of slices could be anywhere from 30 to 40. In the case, the weights of the cans ranged from 11.5 oz. to 11.9 oz. In my can the top layer was only half covered. They stopped adding bacon when they got to the correct weight. When we cook bacon, usually frying in a pan, most of the grease is separated, either remaining in the pan or blotted from the fried bacon. The cooked weight of the bacon slices is less than the uncooked weight. With canned bacon, the grease is separated, but it's still part of the net weight Now to cost. If you buy a case of 12 cans, the price now is about $20.75 per can, 2/3 of the current retail per-can price of $32. That makes the price comparison a little better. Older reviews have mentioned prices of $12 to $15 per can, so the price has more than doubled in the past several years. The issue is how does the price compare to normal uncooked bacon. I have paid $7-$9 for a pound of bacon recently. On the average, those packs have contained about 16 slices. So, the can of Yoders I got would be equivalent to two 1-pound packs. Except for the fact that those packs would produce thicker slices than the Yoders slices. I believe it would take 5 of the Yoders slices to equal 3 slices of the bacon I normally fry. So, that can reduce the cost comparison, making the relative cost of Yoders higher. The description by the seller says, "Between 2-3/4 and 3-1/4 pounds of raw bacon go into each can." If I'm getting 32 slices and they are using 3 pounds of raw bacon, that's a LOT of fat in my opinion, given that those 32 slices weigh less than the stated 9 oz. One argument for Yoders is convenience - no cooking required. The other is the long shelf life and the availability for emergencies. No debate there. Having pre-cooked meat sources in a long-term emergency is good. Cost is less of an issue when you can’t buy anything at the grocery store. As to convenience, I had to use 5 paper towels to deal with the grease. There’s no escaping it. And I had to open both ends to be able to push the contents out. I wrapped up most of the bacon for freezing, saving enough for breakfast. So, there is a fair amount of work dealing with opening the can, separating the bacon and dealing with the grease. To me, only the benefits of long-term storage for emergencies are a true benefit. Oh, the grease-covered paper would make an excellent fire starter. Don’t throw it away. The cans I got in the case had a production date of “A1005” or Jan. 5, 2021. So, it was about as current as I could hope for. Because I can store my emergency food supplies at temps below 75 (about 65 in the winter), the bacon in an unopened can should be good for several years. One review I read mentioned buying the canned bacon in 2008 and eating it 11 years later. That speaks to both how long it can last and to the company. They have obviously been doing this for a while. Other canned meat (and fish) sources I have bought recently have "best by" dates 2-3 years off. Not as long as the estimated time for Yoders bacon, but long enough to build up an emergency stockpile of good quality protein and fats that would last a while (by eating the oldest and replacing it every so often). I think the case is a reasonable addition to my future emergency foods. But not for everyday use. The reasons offered by others for everyday use are valid, just not for me. But when the power has been off for a week, opening a can of bacon might not be a bad idea.

If you like bacon and don't want the fuss of cooking it, this delicious product is perfect for you.

Paid for case of 12 cans, received nine loose-packed cans.