My Zaycon Foods Adventure

Yesterday was my first experience doing business with Zaycon foods.  You may remember from my previous posts that they had a Bacon Event in Plano, where they were selling fresh cut Hickory Smoked Bacon for $2.97/pound.  I had heard about Zaycon Foods from other bloggers' experiences with their Chicken Events, and was anxious to try them, but did not have room in my freezer for 40 pounds of chicken.  Being a huge fan of all things bacon, I figured I could carve out room in my freezer for 30 pounds of bacon, and placed my order.  Then we all anxiously awaited the pickup day.  You would not believe how excited my and the boys were as I loaded in the car to go pick up our precious cargo.  I promised Zach that I would come home and cook up a big mess 'o bacon and we could all eat as much as we wanted.  (He said he was gonna eat an entire pound himself!). I figured we could afford to engorge ourselves this one day, 'cuz come on - we had THIRTY pounds of the stuff!

I showed up at pickup only to be turned away, dejected and bacon-less when Zaycon reps informed me that they had to cancel their Plano event because their supplier had shorted them.  I was more than a little ticked when they said I should have gotten a phone call, text or email informing me (none of which were received).  Those of you who know me well, know that this did not go over well.  :)  I was not looking forward to going home empty handed and telling the boys "You know all that bacon I promised you today?  Yeah, well, you're gonna have to wait until next Friday when they get a new shipment."  Unfortunately, I know all too well that they have inherited their mother's temperament.

When I walked in the door Tim informed me that I just missed a phone call from the owner of Zaycon foods.  I then went to email to check and make sure I hadn't missed the cancellation email in SPAM.  Nope, not there.  But there WAS an email from Zaycon's owner apologizing.  After several emails, I got a second phone call from the owner who wanted to apologize personally.  Nice touch, and he was very pleasant and of course, I understand that things happen.  But I still didn't buy why I could get emails reminding me to pick up the bacon, and emails asking me to place an order for their upcoming chicken event - but somehow never received an email about the event being cancelled.  I fully intended to sleep on it, then cancel my order the next day and be done with Zaycon Foods.

Around 6PM I received one more call from the owner informing me that he had an order of bacon left over from their Dallas event, and could he have someone come by the house and deliver it to me to fulfill the order.  Ummmmm....lemme think for  a minute.....HECK YEAH!  Two hours later 30 pounds of bacon showed up at my door.  Commence the screaming, happy dancing and high fiving from two very excited little boys (and, ok, one mommy).

This morning I cooked up what probably amounted to a pound or so of our fancy new bacon.  Here's what you need to know:

• It is delivered from a refrigerated truck, and is kept cold the entire time, so it's safe.  No doubt.
• I got two cardboard boxes which each contained two 7.5 pound packs of cut bacon.  I stuck three in the freezer immediately.  Cooked 1 pound of it this morning, and divided the remainder of the pack into 3 zip lock bags to freeze.
• The bacon itself is very meaty.  Not much fat at all - just enough for flavor.  Not at all like the bacon you sometimes get in the store, which is mostly fat, with a little meat thrown in.  This is some good lookin' bacon!
• The box says the bacon was cut on 9/15/11, so three weeks ago.  I'm guessing that's much fresher than what you see at your local grocery store.
• I cooked up two pans of it in the oven. (Took about 18 minutes at 400 degrees).  The bacon is pretty, and tasty.  Very flavorful.  A cross between regular and thick cut bacon.
• Would I recommend Zaycon foods?  Yes.  I think if you have the room in your freezer, and don't mind doing some upfront work to break open the large packages and repackage into smaller packs for freezing, I think you're getting higher quality meat for a decent price. I also can appreciate the fact that although they DID screw up by not making sure that I knew the event was cancelled, they made every attempt to apologize and make it right.  And I applaud the fact the the president of the company was actively involved in fixing this unfortunate situation.