We get our bacon from a store called Sheridan Fruit Co. and this is far and away the most delicious bacon I’ve ever had. I usually lay it out on a rack in a 375 convection oven for around 25 minutes and it always comes out a little dark, slightly crispy, and just loaded with smoky fantastic flavor. It’s not overly smoky, but it has just the right amount of smoke and salt and it is fantastic.
So I tried a batch in the Anova - set to 149, had it on about 14 hours. Then I finished it under a broiler for about 5 min. per side.
On tasting, it really lost a lot of the original smoky goodness that we’re used to, so much so in fact that I probably won’t use the SV for bacon but I was wondering if anyone else has seen this and/or knows why?
Smoke doesn’t penetrate the interior of the meat, it merely clings to the surfaces. So, when you’ve sous vide processed your bacon some of that surface smoky goodness has dissolved and been lost to the surface of the bag.
At least that’s my take on it. I’ve not tried sous vide bacon as I cure my own.
I would agree to a certain extent with @Ember. In a convection oven, water can evaporate as the food cooks, leaving the food caramelized with all the flavour left on the surface. Whereas for SV, I would guess that the smoky flavour is mainly lost to the juices remaining in the bag, rather than to the material of the bag itself. While bacon may be something best left to the oven, I hope you find other food that work better for you with your Anova!