Bacon Salt - The Good and The Bad

It all started at Christmas. I decided to stuff my husband's stocking with bacon-related stuff, Bacon Bandages, Bacon Dental Floss and Bacon Salt.

The Bacon Salt is an actual, non-joke product. We stuck it on a shelf after Christmas and I just recently decided to give it a try. A sprinkled a bunch of it into a brine I made for a whole chicken. I put some on some Tilapia. It was decent - smokey, salty, peppery - like bacon. Duh.

But then I read the ingredients. Salt. Garlic. Paprika. Blah, blah. Monosodium Glutamate. What??? I thought just about everyone stopped using that stuff. Unless this is old school chinese food or canned soup, haven't we all decided that MSG is no not a desired ingredient? I have a few friends who are allergic and I never would have thought to read the ingredients on Bacon Salt. There are quite a few other ingredients that I can barely pronounce - none of which I saw in actual bacon - but probably serve some sort of preservative and non-caking purpose.

The company that makes Bacon Salt also makes Baconnaise - yep, mayonnaise that tastes like bacon. The weird thing is that as I was sitting down to write this blog post earlier this afternoon, ABC News ran a story (warning: video) on the guys who created Bacon Salt. True entrepreneurs. They have big plans for all kinds of bacon products - like popcorn and ketchup. It is obvious that I am not a health nut - heck, I bought bacon salt - but I really don't need to buy anything else with MSG.

I think I'd rather buy Squeez Bacon.