“Ba de ya, dancing in September!” And now you’ll have Earth, Wind and Fire as your earworm. But September is almost here! A very different September than we’ve known in the past. However, you can think about all the wonderful end-of-summer dishes and start preparing for fall.
One of the things I like to eat at this time of year is a BLT, with juicy ripe Michigan tomatoes, great bread and of course, bacon. (You’ll find my recipe below.) And that brings us to this week’s story.
‘Smoked From Birth,’ Tanya Nueske Runs A Beloved Bacon Brand
I don’t eat a lot of pork, but when I do, it’s bacon. My earliest memory of bacon is waking up on Sunday morning to smell it sizzling in the kitchen downstairs. During the week, we were cold breakfast eaters. But Sunday brought sweet rolls from the Quality Bakery in Ann Arbor, eggs for my parents and best of all, bacon.
Until I attended Zingerman’s Camp Bacon, I didn’t realize that so much went into preparing bacon, or that there were so many varieties. At one of the first Camp Bacons (Camps Bacon?) that I attended, one of the speakers was a young woman named Tanya Nueske. She came with her father, Bob, her husband and her brand-new baby.
At this point in time, I wasn’t buying that much bacon, maybe a few strips here and there from my local butcher if I needed them for a dish. But, meeting and listening to Tanya, and trying her bacon made me intrigued.
I started to check out Nueske’s products, and I immediately found that its bacon was twice as expensive as ordinary bacon. In Michigan, Nueske’s runs for around $12.99 a package, when you can get a package of mass-produced bacon for about $6 on sale.
But there’s a reason why Nueske’s costs more. It’s a better product, or as we call it in our house, “the good bacon.”
Why you’ve heard of applewood smoked bacon
These days, applewood smoked bacon -- bacon that is smoked using wood from apple trees -- is on menus everywhere. The reason is Nueske's. Applewood smoked bacon is the signature product at its factory and store in Wittenberg, Wisconsin.
Lately, it’s been joined by cherrywood smoked bacon, which I actually like better. This bacon is even meatier than applewood smoked. That extra heft means it takes a little longer to cook, and gives you even more bacon for your sandwich.
Even though its bacon is famous, however, Nueske’s has not budged from the area where Tanya’s father and grandfather ran the company.
That doesn’t mean it hasn’t grown.
Nueske's (pronounced NEW-skis) has a Web operation, a mail order business, five regional sales offices and a network of 60 distributors across the United States. It has received multiple offers to partner with big names and to buy the company outright, but Nueske’s has always said no.
The story began in 1933, when Tanya’s grandfather, whose company was then called Bob's Fancy Meats, took his smoked products on the road. If you dine at Zingerman’s Roadhouse in Ann Arbor, there’s a photo of Bob with his truck over the fireplace.
Bob Nueske used recipes brought to the U.S. by his father, Wilhelm.
"He sold it out of his automobile, took it to Northern Wisconsin, visited town halls and what not," Tanya says.
When her grandparents married, Bob Nueske built a home with a meat plant attached. Tanya’s parents later moved into the house, which had a breezeway between the house and the plant (she likes to joke about being smoked from birth).
After her grandfather died, her parents and aunt and uncle took over. But a bad fire struck the business in the late 1970s, and the family had to make a decision on whether to give up, or rebuild and take the steps needed to go from home business to a USDA inspected company.
In 1980, they opened a facility on Highway 29, and "desperately waited for someone to stop in," Nueske says. People who did thought Nueske's was a roadside restaurant, and seemed disappointed to find only a meat store.
So, the Nueske's decided to offer samples, which sparked crucial word of mouth in the days before the Web.
The turning point: chefs
In the 1990s, what we now know as foodie culture was beginning to bubble in the United States. People went to restaurants in search of top-quality meals. Chefs, in turn, were eager to work with smaller purveyors that could provide something to help them hook diners.
That’s where Michael Lomonaco comes in. Most recently at the Porter House Bar & Grill and Hudson Yards Grill in New York City, he was at the helm of Windows on the World in the World Trade Center when he connected with Nueske’s.
Once he put it on the Windows menu, other places wanted to try it. One of the first customers was Zingerman’s Deli. But the magic didn’t happen overnight.
Tanya would visit food shows, while her sales team drove across Wisconsin, visiting grocers and restaurants. Later, Nueske hired sales managers and dispatched them to five locations around the United States, which is how Nueske's has been found on menus from New Orleans to San Francisco.
A big boost came in 2000, when the late R.W. Apple (who we all called Johnny) raved about Nueske’s after a trek to Wittenberg.
“The sweet, thick slices held their shape as they crackled on the stove,” he wrote. “They tasted pure, porky and intensely smoky, in the Midwestern style. Best of all, they didn't pucker your mouth with saltiness.”
Johnny said that bacon was due for a revival, and the food world listened. Since then, Nueske’s has become a supermarket darling as well as shipping thousands of pounds a day of bacon and other meat.
hen COVID hit
The COVID pandemic has been brutal on meat packers. You most likely heard about the big plants in the Midwest and the Plains states that shutdown when workers were infected. The spreader situation also shed light on terrible working conditions in those plants. I know which companies I’ll never buy from again.
But things were different at Nueske’s, as I wrote in this story for The Midwesterner.
Orders flooded in, as they did at many mail order companies. Nueske’s was able to keep operating. Customers seemed eager to purchase products for themselves and to send to friends and relatives that they were unable to visit.
The company ran out of pork chops, kielbasa, and smoked liver in the early days of shelter-in-place, and it began offering five-pound packs of bacon previously available only to restaurants.
In the meantime, Tanya spent the spring homeschooling her five-year-old while keeping the plant running and fielding calls from her sales staff. It made her think about what her grandfather, Bob, faced during the Depression.
“COVID-19 is one more hurdle we will clear,” she says.
Nueske’s is approaching its ninetieth year in 2023. But, Tanya remains firmly in charge and firmly dedicated to keeping meats in safe production.
Micki’s BLT Recipe
3-4 strips of Nueske’s bacon
1 ripe tomato
1-2 pieces of leaf lettuce, washed and dried (optional)
2 slices of white bread
Mayonnaise
Basil leaves (optional)
Cook the bacon to the desired level of crispiness. (I like mine fairly burnt.) While the bacon is cooking, toast the white bread, and apply mayonnaise to both slices. If using basil leaves, place these on the mayonnaise, then add the lettuce. (To be honest, I usually skip the lettuce, because I think it gets in the way of everything else.)
Place sliced tomatoes on top of the basil and/or lettuce. When the bacon is ready, drain it and place it on top of the tomatoes. Add the second layer of bread. Squish it all together a little so that the heat of the bacon warms up the tomatoes and allows the mayo to become nice and drippy. Eat with napkins.
CulinaryWoman Of The Week
I have been a Chicago Tribune reader almost since I was old enough to read. The newsboys sold it outside church on Sunday, along with the Detroit Free Press. As a three-generation Chicago family, news about the Windy City has always been important to us.
The Trib has always had wonderful food coverage, and I’ve been delighted to make friends with some of its staff, including Kevin Pang, whose since become a culinary entrepreneur, and Bill Daley, who is taking a gap year as he figures out his next adventure.
In 2019, I was tickled to be able to meet Tribune food writer Louisa Chu. We had followed each other on social media, had many friends in common, and I enjoyed the wonderful Chewing podcast she co-hosts with Monica Eng. It turns out that we all spent time at WBEZ in Chicago, but somehow had never really met.
Louisa has amazing credentials. She was born in Hong Kong, and raised in Chicago, where her parents now live. She lived in Los Angeles, and Paris where she graduated from Le Cordon Bleu (I took my classes at the Ottawa branch) and cooked with Alain Ducasse.
She trained at the legendary El Bulli in Spain and has worked at restaurants like Alinea and Moto in Chicago. She’s also been a correspondent for Gourmet magazine, a fixer for Anthony Bourdain and even served as a judge on Top Chef America.
There are a couple of things I admire most about Louisa. First of all, she will take on any topic, and investigate the heck out of it.
She has gone off on quests to find the best dim sum (I got to join her on one stop), takes listeners to Japanese and Indian markets, explored Chicago’s notable bar pizza, and recently went to Chinatown to see how restaurants had survived COVID-19. You can be sure that any list of places she recommends has been well-explored.
But her journalism is also personal. I feel like I’ve gotten to know her father through her work, as well as our conversations (he is a big fan of the Hudson Motor Company, which means I need to take him to the Ypsilanti Automotive Heritage Museum, when it’s safe to do so).
Everything she writes is both informative and entertaining, and her podcast is spirited and funny. She and Monica have a feature called “Will She Eat It?” which makes me laugh every time.
The Chicago Tribune can use subscribers, so you can give the paper a boost while you check out Louisa’s work.
For her coverage in print and on air, I’m pleased to name Louisa Chu as the CulinaryWoman of the Week.
Even If You Can’t Actually Tailgate, You Can Plan Ahead
Tailgreat: How To Crush It At Tailgating
By John Currence
John Currence is the culinary king of Oxford, Mississippi, and one of the funniest people you can hope to meet. He’s the the chef and owner of the City Grocery Restaurant Group and has elevated tailgating to an art form.
Last year, I got to interview him for a story at The Takeout. In between laughs, I was frankly amazed at how much planning and preparation goes into a Southern-style tailgate. Up north, we do our share of pre-game gatherings, but the tailgates where he presides are elaborate operations.
Now, you can learn his strategy in his new book, Tailgreat. You’ll drool over the recipes, like huevos rancheros grits casserole, and potato pancakes with smoked trout. And you’ll get solid advice on how to impress your friends, who better pitch in and do some of the clean up work, at least.
Even if you can’t tailgate this year, you can plan ahead for 2021 (assuming we get a vaccine). The link above takes you to Oxford’s Square Books, which can sell you a signed copy.
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If you’d like to get in touch, I’m at mamayn@aol.com. Stay healthy, wear a mask, and see you next Sunday.