Can anyone shed on why sometimes bacon tastes piggy and is not appetising at all? I have bought some bacon form Dobrich English market and on occassion the bacon when cooked tastes horrible and I finish up giving it to my cats.I think it could be the way the pig is slaughtered and if it was done inhumanly and the adrenaline flowed as it was being slaughtered tainting the meat. The reason I have come to that conclusion is that when I was based in HongKong we had the Gurkah based at my barracks and they always slaughtered their goats with a red hot poker entering it through the anus to the heart which I found a bit barbaric. When I asked a Gurkah soldier why they do this I was told that it was so not to taint the meat with the fear of the goat and this way it's over very quickly without the goat seeing what's going on. If anyone has any other ides to why some bacon tastes horrible I would be interested to know.

I think you will find its the way its been killed and bled, with out going into to much detail, if the animal is stressed at the point of slaughter then the body and muscle tense, causing adrenalin to rush around the body tainting the meat.

Also if the animal has not been butchered and bleed properly, this will also taint the meat, especially if during butchering some of the organs have been punctured.

Of course you are not going to know this if you have not been present during the slaughter, as once the meet has been washed off it will all look the same, until of course you come to cook it then try it.

And if the animal is old.

Hope this helps

Darrell