Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Variation in quality is one of the key distinguishing features between manufactured products and works of art and craft. This is unscientific to say, but I would think that the fact that good restaurants seek out the artisanal, the fact that so many people relish their memories of fine artisanal products, would probably indicate that the amount of food you can get that is much better than the manufactured food's (albeit more consistent) level of quality makes the overall average level of quality at a farmer's market higher than that of processed food of a supermarket. I would think most of the people at this site would happily trade the guarantee of mediocrity for the promise of excellence that comes along with the risk of failure.

On a more visceral level, don't we all thrill in the joy of discovery? Doesn't the wide array of misses make your hits that much sweeter? I'm sure that even the knowledge that such bad bacon exists in the abstract makes Ed more excited to tell people when he finds a really nice slab of bacon somewhere. We need to have good and bad because we need to have expectations. We need expectations so we can derive real joy from having them exceeded or defied in new ways. This is what it means to have a vibrant and healthy culture. All good critics feel that deep in their makeup - it's what drives them to figure out what's good and bad and get so excited about the good that they just have to tell people about it. And then tell people when they find the bad as well so that people can understand your methods and engage in a dialogue with you.

So rejoice in your terrible bacon, Ed, because it's what makes us human.