Never Any! Hickory Smoked Uncured Bacon

For a limited-inventory grocery store, Aldi stocks more choices than you might expect when it comes to certain products. The store has several options for toilet paper, for example. The same for pizzas and cheese. Aldi also has multiple types of bacon, including traditional bacon, premium bacon, turkey bacon, and uncured bacon. Aldi also occasionally sells limited-edition name-brand options such as Wahlburgers bacon.

If you prefer uncured bacon, Aldi stocks it under its Never Any! house brand. Never Any! is not a separate company. Instead, it’s the private label Aldi uses for various minimally processed products such as lunch meat, ground bison, spiral ham, lamb legs, whole turkeys, and more.

Never Any! Hickory Smoked Uncured Bacon $5.89 for a 12-ounce package at the time of publication. This costs more than any other Regular Buy bacon option at Aldi. Most other bacon options come in a larger 16-ounce package and cost less than $5. You’re paying more for this bacon because it’s uncured and minimally processed.

This bacon is a Regular Buy, which means you should be able to find it at Aldi all year.

This bacon is a product of Canada, and it is not preserved and contains no nitrates or nitrites except for naturally occurring nitrites in sea salt and cultured celery extract. It also contains no sugar. The pork used in this bacon was raised with no antibiotics and was fed a vegetarian diet, although keep in mind that pigs are omnivores.

Nutrition information and ingredients. (Click to enlarge.)

Ingredients are pork, water, sea salt, cultured celery extract, and spice extract. It would be helpful if Aldi would specify what is in the “spice extract.”

One package contains about six 2-piece servings. Two pieces (18 grams) contain 90 calories, 6 grams of total fat (7% DV), 2 grams of saturated fat (10% DV), 240 mg of sodium (11% DV), 0 grams of carbohydrates, and no natural or added sugars.

The package features instructions for cooking the bacon in the microwave, in a pan, or in the oven.

To microwave, place bacon slices on a microwave-safe dish or paper plate. Cover with a paper towel. Cook on high power for approximately one minute per slice.

To cook in a pan, fry in a skillet over low heat, turning frequently and allowing slices to brown evenly.

To bake in the oven, place bacon slices in a shallow pan. Preheating the oven is not required. Bake at 400 degrees for approximately 15 minutes. No turning is necessary.

Bacon after baking in the oven.

I baked this bacon in my oven, which is my family’s preferred way to cook bacon because it’s easy and avoids the grease splatters that come from pan frying. I use a rimmed baking sheet to catch grease and line it with parchment paper to make cleanup easier.

This bacon turned out great, and one family member said they like it better than the Aldi Appleton Farms Premium Sliced Bacon we usually buy. It was flavorful and crisp in some spots, chewy in others, and didn’t have large fatty sections. It even had some spots that literally melted in our mouths. The bacon was evenly sliced and of average thickness.

While this is one of the most expensive bacon packages Aldi sells, it’s still cheaper than a lot of traditional grocery store bacon packs. The fact that it’s uncured and minimally processed is a bonus.

The Verdict:

Never Any! Hickory Smoked Uncured Bacon contains no sugar or added preservatives. It’s one of the pricier bacon options at Aldi, but if uncured bacon is important to you, this might be worth it. It cooks up well and has a good texture and consistency, and our family deemed this bacon to be tastier than other bacon options we’ve bought at Aldi.