Why is bacon so expensive these days?

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bbqgeekess

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It seems like it would be much more affordable to smoke ourselves assuming the pork belly cut isn't expensive. How can a cut of meat, predominantly fat, be that expensive? It seems like $1.50 a pound would be about right. Compare that to the $5 per pound they are fetching for bacon these days.
 
That's cheap. Even the basic, run of the mill bacon here is $4.50 for 0.6lb. Uncured belly I get for $2.80/lb and that's the cheapest I've ever seen it
 
bbqgeekess said:
It seems like it would be much more affordable to smoke ourselves assuming the pork belly cut isn't expensive. How can a cut of meat, predominantly fat, be that expensive? It seems like $1.50 a pound would be about right. Compare that to the $5 per pound they are fetching for bacon these days.
Click to expand...
I figured out how expensive it was about a month ago when I did bacon wrapped this, and bacon wrapped that for a party. I think I had more money spent in bacon than the 12 lb brisket and the 10 lb butt that were also cooking that I got on special!
 
Cured meats are expensive for a few reasons.

1. they are more labor intensive
2. they lose a lot of moisture during the curing process
3. they have more ingredient costs

The fact is though, that at a wholesale level, bacon is one of the least expensive items you can add to food, that has the cache of being an upgrade, so burgers, sauces, snacks, everything has bacon in it, and the people selling it know that. And they are charging more, because they know people will pay for it.
 
There are some stores in southern California that sell it for like 7 or 8 bucks a pound. :crazy:
Costco is 4lbs for 10 bucks.
 
Keep your eye out as some brands are dropping from 16 oz to 12 oz for the same price.
 
grillinguy247 said:
There are some stores in southern California that sell it for like 7 or 8 bucks a pound. :crazy:
Costco is 4lbs for 10 bucks.
Click to expand...

Dry or wet cure? Wet cure can be done in a day through injecting meat, dry cure takes a week or more. Doesn't take much to see why some bacon is way more expensive than others
 
My butcher shop just put bacon on sale for $1.50/lb.

I'm seriously thinking about buying a chest freezer for the basement JUST for this bacon sale. The little box on top my fridge just isn't cutting it.

They have Butts on sale for 2.19/lb so seriously. I really need a chest freezer...
 
Whole pork loin 2.10 lb 12 lb loin = 4 lbs Canadian bacon,- 4 lb loin roast,- 4 lb double cut loin chops ( suitable for stuffing) If bought separately 4 lbs Canadian bacon 50.00,- 4 lb loin roast 22.00,- 4 lb double cut loin chops 32.00. savings 67.00 after my labor the cure & a roll of food saver bag material. My knife is sharp :biggrin1:
 
Because peopple like it and are willing to pay for it Use to be that it was an insult to serve someone lobster in Main They use to throw the lobsters in the fiends if caught Now look at it
 
Yea I pay $5-6 a pound for pork belly in the CT area, and then have to do all the work--however two things.....1) mine is much better than store bought and 2) I never look at the price in the store so I don't know any better :-o
 
It's my fault. The price went crazy, when I started using a lot of it.

The same thing happened to the price of diesel fuel, back when I bought my first diesel pick-up.:icon_blush:
 
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