How Do I Replace Bacon?

I'm a wife and mom and live with people who aren't dieting...I'm going to try to sneak in some turkey bacon, but should that not work, is there something else I can use in recipes that call for bacon that will give it the same smokey taste?

honestly, turkey bacon isn't even that much better for you than regular bacon. i say just use a little bit of the real thing.

You could try liquid smoke - a little of that goes  a LONG way, so be conservative.

You could also use ham instead - the taste won't be identical (and you won't get much rendered fat, if that's what the recipe is callling for), but you will get a porky, smoky flavor.

Thanks for the suggestions!

Or you could use real, lean bacon bits.  I have found that the brand of bacon bits I use (30 calories per tablespoon) goes a long way in giving a bacon flavor but so much more fat has been removed than when I cook the bacon myself or even when I buy precooked bacon and then cut the pieces up.  I have used the bacon bits in place of other meat on pizza, etc and have been very pleased with the results.  I sometimes put a tablespoon of bacon bits in my egg white omelet or put a tablespoon in my bq beans, etc.  One tablespoon has 3% total fat, 2% cholesterol, and 3g. protein.  On the negative side is the sodium, of course.

Ham bouillon or ham base might work for you... adds a great smokey flavor!

smoked ham or very lean bacon is best

Try Canadian back bacon.

Depends what the bacon is needed for.

If the bacon is required for the fat, there is no substitute.

If it is just for the taste, then I would go with lean pork bacon bits.

DO NOT GO THE TURKEY BACON ROUTE!  I don't know if it is all brands, but the turkey bacon just exchanges fat for salt.  My mom bought turkey bacon for the family to try once and I nearly choked on it because it was soooo salty.  The only way to stomach it was on a BLT.

MHO: you don't :P

Well, that depends on what you are talking about as far as recipes go. Some can be interchangable and some can't.

Personally, I cannot stand the taste of the turkey bacon, tooooo salty!!! I rather have the real thing. I like low sodium bacon and try to watch my "fats" for the whole day whenever I eat bacon since it is a little high in fat. 

Everything in moderation.

Jenni-O's extra lean turkey bacon is really good. 20 cals per slice and .5g of fat. I don't know what the sodium content is offhand, but it's not too salty for me. Bacon is generally high in sodium anyways, you can't escape it unless you buy low sodium versions. In which case you would have to buy the regular fatty ones. So it kinda depends on what you really wanna cut back on.

I haven't had pork bacon in YEARS, so I don't remember what it tastes like. In that sense, turkey bacon tastes like "the real thing" to me. If you're cooking with it, other flavors will blend in with it so I doubt the family would notice.

http://www.baconsalt.com/

Surprisingly delicious! I like the "natural" flavor.

You can use smoked paprika, also called pimenton.    Because it's paprika, it will work excellently if you want something hot and spicy.  It makes delicious spicy hot bbq sauce!  However, if you don't want hot and spicy, this is not the thing for you.

Alternatively, you can buy condensed smoke.  I don't know any brand names.  It's sold as a liquid, and a little bit goes a heck of a long way because it's condensed.

Finally, you could smoke whatever it is you want to give the smoky taste to.  Years ago, large houses used to have 'smoke-houses' where they would hang the salmon or bacon and smoke it to cure it and give it that delicious taste.  You can use birch, oak, etc types of wood.  This is what a lot of pizzerias add into their ovens to give the pizzas an extra bit of 'smokiness'.  I'm afraid I don't know how you'd go about doing this though, but you might find a way online.

Good luck. 

Depending on the dish you are making, you should try prosciutto. It's just an Italian version of bacon that has way less fat and is cut very very thinly (way more slices per ounce). It cooks to crispy and crumbles quickly. If you want to try it, Parma is better than domestic and it can be purchased on line or at a lot of stores.

Prosciutto has only 5% of it's calories from fat at 60 calories an ounce, instead of the 12% fat for bacon. The number of slices in an ounce will vary as there are no standards for a slice size. I've had packages where you get 5 slices to an ounce and I had the best prosciutto ever in a package with 10 slices to an ounce.

Sometimes there's no replacing bacon though, and if you watch the portions it can be incorporated quite easily into a day's allotment.

One thing I would caution about is using very much liquid smoke or using it very often; read the ingredients carefully.  It is rather powerful, and perhaps could be toxic if overused.  You can Google to find out if what I stated has any merit.  Also, I would be careful of eating too much smoked foods.  Again, one can Google to make up his/her mind about that.  I used to use liquid smoke a lot in my beef and turkey jerky and even in grilling several different meats.  I also used to use a smoker for fish, turkey, etc.  I had some adverse reactions to both the liquid smoke and the smoked meats.  However, I have eaten some smoked salmon on several occasions, and seemingly without ill effect.  My advice would be moderation in most things, especially in using liquid smoke and eating smoked meats.