Yummmm bacon. If you don’t like bacon then move along. Wild Bill’s Sweet Maple Glazed Bacon Jerky is a bag of Maple Syrup infused bacon-y goodness. Upon opening the bag you can smell the smoky bacon and the maple-syrup sweetness. When you take a bite your greeted with a sweetness on your tongue and as you begin to chew the thick cut of bacon the saltiness of the pork is released and your mouth fills with flavor. This is as close as you can get to making fresh bacon and drizzling maple syrup on it. As I was eating it I wondered if I could heat it and serve it with breakfast.
Wild Bill’s hails out of Martinsville Virginia and their bacon jerky is part of a line of meat snacks that trace their roots back to 1955 in Balwell’s Butcher Shop in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Wild Bills is now produced by Monogram Foods. This group also produces other Jerky brands including Hannah’s, Trail’s Best, O’Brien’s, King Cotton, Circle B Brand, Enjoy and Hickory Best, and Bulls.
As a jerky I’m a little torn. It’s too sweet for my taste for daily chewing but my wife loves it. I feel it would be a perfect complement to a salad or on top of those deviled-eggs you’ve been dying to make. If you are going on an overnight camping trip with the kids take a bag and eat it in the morning and you wont need to go to Denny’s for pancakes on the way home. Or just get crazy and follow the Wild Bills Facebook account where they suggest you put some on top of a Krispy Kream doughnut. (Presumably with a home defib kit at the ready.)
Whats in this stuff? Bacon! 100% real cured with water, Sugar and Salt. Look at the pictures, it’s bacon. The 3 oz package retails at $5.99 (March 2015) putting it in the middle of the value scale and right on par with other beef jerky’s. The carbs per serving are relatively low at only 4 grams but the sodium as expected is a heart-stopping 530 mg per serving.
Overall this is a solid offering with a lot of flavor and a good snack value. I’m not going to recommend it as everyday jerky (as I want you still around to read the blog next month) but for a special treat, go ahead and fire up Wild Bills Sweet Maple Glazed Bacon Jerky. wildbillsfoods.com