The Bacon Express
I get a lot of requests asking me to do more reviews of kitchen gadgets. This is great, as often the requests I get are asking me to do less - less talking, less modern reviews, less retro reviews....and I'd love to do more kitchen equipment videos. Therefore for the last few years every month I've been checking everywhere I know, trying to find something as silly as the Rolli egg cooker to present in a video. Unfortunately though it seems like the small appliance kitchen market has moved away from such frivolity.
Perhaps the customers that used to buy these 'time saving' devices have come to realise that most of them are really just a waste of time, or maybe everything that could be invented for the kitchen already has been...but regardless if they don't make them then I can't review them.
So in the spirit of pure desperation when I saw the 'Bacon Express' hit the market I bought one just to make a video about it. So here it is....and I suggest you don't throw that frying pan away just yet...
Comments (51)
I think you should have flipped them earlier
I've never heard "streaky bacon" before, but I like it! As a Canadian, I often find myself with unsolicited challenges from Americans about "Canadian Bacon," which is what they call Back Bacon (it's like having a Canadian passport means I must always be ready to defend products associated with Canada). I hope you haven't had too many of them with this video! :)
I sympathise, it seems like a number of people from the US are always surprised by any differences in other countries or cultures. I’m surprised when I travel if I see anything that’s the same as it is at home. The differences are the reason for travelling.
Brand New, You're Retro - <a href="https://i.pinimg.com/736x/5d/4d/2b/5d4d2b3bba03e3bce62a5174c502aa62--bacon-cooker-hamilton-beach.jpg" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://i.pinimg.com/736x/5d/4d/2b/5d4d2b3bba03e3bce62a5174c502aa62--bacon-cooker-hamilton-beach.jpg</a> Though have also seen one in a B+W 1950s US film, pyramid shaped and made of cast iron with an electric element in the middle I think.
So I suppose I was right in the first place - there are no new kitchen gadget ideas. Thanks for the link.
What do you have mounted in your cabinets? Is that a coffee machine?
Yes it's just an Espresso machine.
Mmm... Really, I love your channel as it is. I don't feel the need to say less of this or less of that, but on the contrary, more of Techmoan is always good! Just keep up the good work, Mat! You're doing just great!
As Alton Brown of Good Eats would say, this is a prime example of a unitasker (not a particularly good one at that) and it has no place in the kitchen. Great video as always!
I'm sure you'll be well aware that, finally, followup programme 'Return Of The Eats' is coming in 2018. Good Eats was one of the few US shows I was ever enthused about enough to import (and convert!) the DVDs for. Here's hoping it's as good as the originals...
Surely bound to reignite the old "your bacon is ham"/"that's not real bacon" debate between the English speaking nations once available on Youtube... However, there is something entertaining about watching you get progressively disappointed/disillusioned with these sort of gadgets as the review progresses. to be point of the whole product being a complete waste of time!
Yes, I really wasn’t looking forward to seeing the inevitable response when this goes public. So I’m going to put it out at the same time as the Mail Call video in an attempt to distract attention...and I also won’t be looking at the comments.
Useless machine, really. I do my bacon on baking paper on a tray in the oven, eight slices or so. No splatter, no smoke, no stench
Nice video as always, but i wont see me buying one of these anytime soon.
It's a folded streaky bacon maker (reaches into cupboard, retrieves frying pan)
This. A pan and one of those tight metal mesh covers is all you need. :)
I hope you don't use this device regularly, that is, if you want to live.
It's already neatly boxed up ready to be donated.
Not trying to nitpick but the music for the updated outro is a bit out of sync (which bugs me slightly
There are only two things I've ever lined up with the audio in the outro. The first is the door closing on the record player, and the second is the transition to black at the end of the song, the rest of it is just a load of clips in random order.
You'll have to let us know if anyone uses the link to buy one of these. I wonder if you can cook bacon quicker with hair straighteners?
Interesting video! I think the Bacon Express must be based on the old British Rail - Slow! Always good to see you back in the Kitchen, sharing a new purchase with us. It would be great to see what you think of the Health Fryers now available as there is a boom on those at the moment. I recall a chip/French fry video you did from a few years ago. I also use the George Forman for Grilling, so much quicker and easier. Cheers Matt
Fast, efficient restaurant bacon prep: Use a large baking sheet with raised edges .... line with parchment paper .... lay out your bacon, no overlapping ... bake in fullsize over at 425F until done ... about 15 minutes for thin, 25 minutes for thick. 425F is just below ignition temp for parchment paper; that paper prevents virtually all grease from reaching the pan allowing for a super-fast cleanup. And there's no stovetop splatter to deal with, nor any 50 pound expenditure!
I think it'll be hard to top the breakfast sandwich maker for 'devices which only have one function'
I'm hoping to get another video published here before the end of this week. This one was just a quickie (and not very good), the next video has a forgotten retro-tech theme.
Your video is just fine! It's not your fault the Bacon Express is a bad product. :) The presentation in your video's is top notch! I'd love to see you do more gadgets of all sorts. Cheers!
As a vegetarian, it would have been really interesting to see what other meals can be achieved using that device.
Your review was more interesting than the product you were reviewing. Especially learning about different cultural standards of "normal" bacon. I appreciate that you are so thoughtful of your world-wide audience. Only thing that I noticed was that your to-camera segments had you a bit out of focus. A thought would be to use a white balance grey card w/target clamped to a light stand as your stand-in to set your focus.
Who would ask for less, especially less puppets? That's mind boggling
If you're looking for kitchen gadgets I wonder if the Guardian's Inspect A Gadget series contains anything of interest: <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/series/inspect-a-gadget" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/series/inspect-a-gadget</a>
Thanks, I've had a look through but unfortunately nothing jumps out at me as being fun/silly/useless enough.
I laughed out loud when that back bacon refused to be cooked on the other side :))
In retrospect do you think it's a bit of a con? A Bay con?
I tend to agree with your analysis. Of course, I can't eat bacon anymore due to my high cholesterol.
Come on, we are Americans. Just up your dosage of Zocor!
An express money saving video - there wasn't even time for the express machine to finish😀. What you need gov is wireless frying pan <a href="https://www.pantelligent.com" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.pantelligent.com</a>😂.
Wow...I'm not entirely sure whether that's a real product or a parody.
From my experience, bacon in the US is like paper, so even though your bacon seemed thin to you it was probably too much for the bacon express
Fun review, the quirkier the better! :)
I'm just mostly curious if the UK bacon (not the streaky bacon) is smoked and cured like the US bacon. In my mind, that's ham, not bacon, so as to not be ignorant on the subject, I'm curious if it's brined, smoked, and cured like our bacon is.
Depends, you can get smoked and unsmoked (normally blue for unsmoked as shown and red for smoked) also I think most bacon is wet cured in brine unless it states it's dry cured. Found this on the internet which might help :) <a href="https://pork.ahdb.org.uk/media/39776/the_baconologist_-_guide_to_bacon_cures.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://pork.ahdb.org.uk/media/39776/the_baconologist_-_guide_to_bacon_cures.pdf</a>
Do you think it would cook quicker if you'd put a second batch in?
No, it's just as slow, I cooked another batch after the one you see in the video.
Great video as always. You are a great presenter. It is always entertaining to see you review odd and quirky gadgets. As an aside, I started cooking bacon for 15 minutes in the oven at 400F on a baking sheet covered with aluminium foil. It takes a bit longer than on the cooktop, but cleanup is easy.
Whenever I have the time I cook it in the oven, it's the best way.
I am pretty sure you can cook it quicker than just just using a frying pan.
If you can't then it's time to get a new pan. I'm sure sitting on it would cook it quicker than this.
That was actually a lot more fun that I thought it was going to be - surprisingly entertaining. :-) Have you ever done boiling water dispensers (as opposed to kettles)? I have been thinking about getting one of this sort of thing <a href="https://is.gd/hot_water" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://is.gd/hot_water</a> for ages, but indecision as to what to get is my enemy. It would be an expensive review to do though, I understand that.
I've got one built into my coffee machine, so unfortunately I don't really need another....but if I made lots of tea, I'd probably try one.
Woo! Love the kitchen gadget videos! Idk if they're available in the UK, but there's a US brand called Nordicware that has a whole slew of specialized cookers for use in the microwave; egg cookers, egg poachers, popcorn, bacon, veggies, rice, etc. I'd love to see a review of those to see how they stack up!
I'll see if they do anything unusual that I haven't seen before.