Nice try.
Sizzlean was supposedly a lower calorie, less fattening bacon substitute product that was smoked and cured like bacon, but made from pork shoulder instead of pork bellies (where bacon comes from.)
Pork shoulder is ironically one of the key ingredients of Spam, one of the most fattening foods on earth.
Sizzlean (on top of having one of the most grotesque names for a food product in history) was an abomination to bacon lovers everywhere. First, it ALWAYS remained soft in the pan, no matter how long you cooked it - there was no such thing as 'crispy' Sizzlean.
My mom however was a hardcore fan of this stuff, because it was cheaper than regular bacon.
Sizzlean was discontinued by 1985. And today, it really doesn't look so bad now. Especially when compared to THIS atrocity today.....
Hmmm, might want to do some fact checking on this one. I ate this and I remember it being beef bacon. I am a Seventh-Day Adventist and we have a strict diet including NO pork. Our family ate this and I can't imagine eating it if it had any pork product in it. In fact we weren't even allowed to eat Oreo cookies or those McDonalds pie's back in the 80s because they had lard in them and that is of course made of pork.
ReplyDeleteWe love turkey bacon and can cook it just as tasty as pork bacon and it's better for you. In fact I'm off to eat a TBLT!
Actually, I believe there was a beef based version of Sizzlean. I neglected to mention it in the original post (it came in a brown label package.) But original (white label) Sizzlean was very likely a pork based product. My mom's doctor advised her not to eat original Sizzlean in her later years because he said it was made of pork shoulder.
ReplyDeleteAnd I also heard that all Sizzlean wasn't Kosher. And if the Rabbis say no....
But coming from a mega-corporate meat processor like Swift, who knows what was actually in it?
I did look around, but it seems like no one truly knows what it was. My only information came from that doctor. There should have been an ingredients listing on the label. But alas, they don't make it anymore. So we may never truly know.
However, I am considering an update as information gets verified and I have more examples. I wrote that post with what information I had. But I'm not leaving out the possibility I could be totally wrong. Time distorts. And since I always took that stuff for granted when it was available, I admit I never fully researched it. So it could be interesting.
You are completely wrong. Sizzlean was delicious! I loved Sizzlean as a kid and it did get crispy around the edges where it touched the pan. The middle would bubble up a little and it wouldn't get brown in those spots unless you kept turning it over. Maybe you just didn't cook it on a high enough setting.
ReplyDeleteThat was some delicious stuff! I could eat an entire pack of it as a kid. I do remember there being a beef version of it, YUM!!! I wish it was still around. Good memories. :)
ReplyDeleteI loved Beef Sizzlean. It did cook up crispy, And I found it easier to cook than "real" bacon which is much fattier. I miss Sizzlean to this day.
ReplyDeleteSizzlean was still available until the mid 2000's, not 1985.
ReplyDeleteI LOVED Sizzlean...miss ya kid :(
ReplyDeletedoes anyone know WHY this product was discontinued? I, too, absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVED this stuff! And yes, there was a beef version. It sounds like many many ppl were very fond of sizzlean so WHY did they stop making it? I hate when that happens! And it always seems to happen to all my favorites, whether at restaurants or in grocery stores. Leave stuff alone and stop taking it away from us! LOL
ReplyDeleteTurkey bacon probably kicked it off the store shelves.
DeleteI loved Sizzlean because it was meaty as real bacon is mostly fat with a little meat.
ReplyDeleteSizzlean was launched as both beef and a "light" pork version. It was popular in the late 70s and throughout the 80s. For some reason, most likely due to profits, it slowly began to be distributed in less and less states. I stopped seeing it in the early 2000s.
ReplyDeleteThe pork was obviously not kosher, but I'm almost positive the beef was...
And I'm not sure what the point of this blog is, but the author is wrong on multiple points...up to and including the texture of the product when cooked. It most definitely got crispy, as I remember multiple times growing up being told that I overcooked it.
I loved sizzlean. Brings back some memories for sure
ReplyDeleteCrispy bacon gets thrown back to this day, so claiming Sizzlean's softness after cooking is just loco. That's why I loved it. It's the medium cooked bacon that has all the flavor. I musT have gone the entire 80's without eating actual bacon, beca use I worshipped thus stuff.
ReplyDelete