Appleton Farms Gourmet Thick Sliced Bacon

Last Updated on March 19, 2024

EDITOR’S NOTE: In March 2024 rumors spread about the sourcing of Aldi bacon. You can read our take on these rumors here.

Weekends are for big breakfasts. At least in my house they are. Sometimes I’ll make a casserole with crescent rolls, cheese, eggs, and sausage. One of our favorite “fancy” or indulgent breakfasts is an English breakfast tray bake with eggs, bacon, sausage, mushrooms, and tomatoes. We love eggs over easy with some Everything Bagel seasoning on top of some hash brown patties. Other times, we’ll make omelets, scrambled eggs, breakfast sandwiches or burritos, sausage patties, pancakes, French toast, or waffles. Pair breakfast with a cup of hot tea or coffee and maybe a glass of juice or milk, and you’ve got a good start to the day.

Of course, one of my family’s favorite breakfast meats is bacon. Aldi Appleton Farms Premium Sliced Bacon is our go-to bacon for everything from breakfasts to BLT sandwiches. While some readers complain about it being sliced too thin or being too fatty (hello, bacon is supposed to be fatty), we haven’t had any major problems with it. We also like to try some of the other bacon options at Aldi, including hickory smoked uncured bacon and lower sodium bacon.

Another choice in the bacon aisle at Aldi is this gourmet thick sliced bacon. It’s sold in a mixed case with two flavor options: peppercorn or maple flavored. I bought one of each variety to try.

Peppercorn bacon on top, maple flavored bacon on bottom. (Click to enlarge to view nutrition information, ingredients, and cooking directions.)

Appleton Farms Gourmet Thick Sliced Bacon cost $7.69 for a 24-ounce package at the time of publication.

This is a Regular Buy, so you should be able to find it at Aldi any time of year.

The peppercorn bacon is cured with water, salt, sodium phosphate, sodium erythorbate, and sodium nitrite. The maple flavored bacon is cured with water, salt, maple syrup, sugar, sodium phosphate, sodium erythorbate, maple flavor (natural and artificial), and sodium nitrite.

One package has about 20 one-slice servings. For both bacon flavors, one serving has 80 calories, 7 grams of total fat (11% DV), 2.5 grams of saturated fat (13% DV), 10 mg of cholesterol (3% DV), and 290 mg of sodium (12% DV). In addition, the maple flavored bacon has 1 gram of total carbohydrates (1% DV) and 1 gram of added sugars (3% DV).

The package has directions for pan frying or microwaving this bacon.

To pan fry, place the bacon in an unheated skillet and cook over medium heat to desired crispness.

To microwave, place bacon slices on a microwave-safe dish and microwave on high for approximately 1-2 minutes per slice. Drain on absorbent paper towels.

Pan fried peppercorn bacon on the left, maple flavored bacon on the right.

We initially chose to cook this bacon on a two burner griddle on our stovetop. It is definitely a thicker cut than what we typically buy, and it was a little more challenging to cook on the stovetop. We had to flip it a lot to keep it from getting too well done, especially in the middle. We enjoyed the bacon both on its own and in some breakfast sandwiches made with biscuits, eggs, and cheese. The bacon was fine in the sandwiches. Certain pieces of bacon — especially when we ate the bacon on its own — were tougher to bite off and chew because they’re thicker, while other parts were fairly crispy.

When we cooked more of this bacon later, we opted to bake it in the oven at 425 degrees on a parchment-lined rimmed baking sheet. Baking is our preferred method of cooking bacon, and it turned out great this way. The bacon was done after about 14 minutes in the oven. It was evenly cooked, perfectly crispy, and even had some melt-in-your-mouth bits that were really good. We served it again on some breakfast sandwiches, and it was a lot less chewy and more like what I expect from bacon. So I highly recommend baking this bacon in the oven over pan frying it.

As far as flavor, the peppercorn bacon has a slight kick to it, so naturally if you don’t like any spiciness, this bacon won’t be your thing. The maple flavored bacon has a slight sweet flavor but doesn’t scream maple. We did notice that the maple bacon has a strong maple scent that lingers in your kitchen long after you’ve cooked it.

I’m glad we tried this bacon, and it’s good. However, given the extra cost and the fact that this isn’t great for those times when we might want to pan fry it, I’ll probably stick with buying regular bacon.

The Verdict:

Appleton Farms Gourmet Thick Sliced Bacon comes in peppercorn and maple flavored varieties. We liked this in breakfast sandwiches with eggs and cheese. The peppercorn bacon is mildly spicy, while the maple flavored bacon has a mild sweet flavor. If you fry this in a skillet, some of this bacon has a tougher, chewier texture because of the thickness, and it can be hard to get it evenly cooked. We had a better experience baking this in the oven.