We decided to give Burger King another shot. After the bacon fail at Burger King a few months back we took a break from the capital of “Have it Your Way”. Some buddies wanted to make a fast food run and we wound up at Burger King where I spied the BK Stacker on the glossy overhead menu. It looked so tasty & juicy I had to give it a try.

The burger arrived in a specifically-labeled wrapper. Nice touch BK! On the wrapper it reads:

You might be looking at this BK Stacker saying, “It’s piled so high with meat, cheese and bacon, I want to climb it.” Don’t. Just eat it.

While kind of humorous, once we opened the wrapper we quickly learned that this was a bit of an overstatement.

The pile was not nearly high enough to warrant any oohs or aahs, let alone make us want to climb it. There was enough bacon peeking out of the sandwich to make us want to continue though, so continue we did.

If you’ve been reading Bacon Today for a while, you know that the proper way to test any bacon-enriched food is first — before anything else — to tear off a piece of plain, unbridled bacon and test the quality of the porcine ingredient. We did just that with the BK Stacker burger and give the Burger King bacon a “fair to middlin” (that’s mediocre for you folks not from the mid-west portion of the United States).

From a presentation standpoint, the burger lacked any “food sexy” for sure. From a tastiness standpoint, well we give this burger a Smaste™ rating of 26.687. Good for a quick bacon jolt when you need it, but not recommended for a true bacon connoisseur.

EXTRA CREDIT QUESTION:
Why is it that the non-Whopper burgers taste so much different than the genuine Whoppers at Burger King anyhow? Any former Burger King patty slingers out there that can shed some light on this phenomenon?

This weekend we visted the Burger King fast food restaurant in Superior, WI. Upon entering the establishment we spied the following sign on the front counter.

Only $3.68 for a bacon cheeseburger combo meal? Our order was already decided for us. Bacon cheeseburger, fries, and a soda — yum!

We waited in anticipation for order number 168 to be called. We grabbed the tray off the counter and rushed back to the table to begin our feast. After unwrapping the burger we saw this…

The burger didn’t look like anything special, but certainly didn’t look horrible. One thing was missing however — where was the bacon peeking out from under the bun like you usually see on a good bacon burger? Further investigation was required so we popped the hood.

Look at that. We got maybe half a slice of whimpy, flimsy, paper-thin bacon on top of that single slice of American cheese. Poorly cooked and terribly presented, this bacon cheeseburger from Burger King is a complete BACON FAIL.

Good thing our next stop was bacon at Sonic Drive-In. Little did we know that Sonic was about to save our bacon today.

Smaste™ rating for this burger: a very low 17.898.

Recently I traveled to Indianapolis, Indiana. This was my first visit to what turned out to be a really great town. Downtown Indianapolis was clean, pleasant, and I felt quite safe. Of course when I got there, I needed to find some bacon.

I attended an awesome party on Massachusetts (“Mass Ave” for you locals) and got a little tipsy. After the party I decided it would be a good idea to walk back to my downtown hotel. After about 45 minutes of stumbling around the city after midnight, I began to get hungry. I was quite lost until I found the direction I didn’t even know I was headed — toward Steak & Shake and what would turn out to be one of the best bacon burgers I’ve ever tasted.

I ordered the “Single Steakburger™ with Bacon & Cheese ‘n Fries”. For only $3.99 I figured I couldn’t go wrong. Turns out Steak & Shake is a build-your-own-burger kind of place so I let my waitress know my request for toppings: onions, pickles, lettuce, and mustard. I kept it simple so as not to dampen the bacony goodness headed my way.

When the burger arrived it looked great. A perfectly buttered bun on a well-arranged plate. A deep green leaf of fresh, crisp lettuce was spilling out of the sandwich. Keep in mind it was nearing 12:30 a.m., the place was packed with people, and the food still came fresh and well-prepared. Very impressive.

When I popped the top off the burger my jaw nearly hit the table. The bacon was prepared to perfection and had no resemblance to the usual limp, flimsy bacon you usual get at fast food restaurants. I immediately tore off a section of bacon to give it an unhindered taste. True to its appearance the bacon was fantastic. I quickly reassembled the burger and got to work on the meal.

From first bite to last, the Single Steakburger™ with Bacon & Cheese was a definite winner. Classic burger taste. Full, salty bacon flavor. A highly recommended experience if you’re ever within the vicinity of a Steak & Shake restaurant. this burger earned an extremely high  Smaste™ rating of 42.94 and will likely be ordered again as soon as I see another Steak & Shake.

–Corey James

UPDATE: I ended up going back to Steak & Shake three nights in a row and ordered the same bacon burger. Each time it was the same tasty meal, so my after midnight experience was not a fluke.

While reading an email in Gmail from staff writer Mike Kirsch (read his articles), an interesting ad appeared on the right side of the page. Here’s the ad:

The ad was compelling, but unfortunately it only took us to the home page of the Rice Krispies site. At first I was going to claim false advertising, but decided to give Kellogg’s the benefit of the doubt and dig a bit deeper. A simple search of “bacon” on the Rice Krispies site gave me a gem of a recipe:

Beef and Bacon Burgers

What??? A Bacon Burger recipe with Kellogg’s Rice Krispies? It’s great to see such a clever matchup of breakfast cereal and nature’s meat candy. My mouth is watering just looking at that savory photograph. Well done Kellogg’s!

We’ll definitely have to give this recipe a try here at Bacon Today.

–Mr. B.

Seems no matter where you go, you’re bound to see some bacon. While sitting at Dodger Stadium last night I spotted this McDonald’s ad featuring “savory, sizzling bacon”. Mmmmmm…delicious.

If you have any bacon-related photos, send them to bacontoday@gmail.com!

As the author over at Peppers and Smoke said, “May God have mercy on my colon.”

You got it buddy. The entire patty for this bacon burger is made of 100% ground bacon. The only thing more likely to fill your arteries with more bacony goodness is the deep fried variety of the same burger.

If only they used my favorite bacon to make the burger…Boss Hog’s Honey BBQ Rubbed Bacon. Now THAT would be a burger I could really sink my teeth into.