The aim of the present work was to investigate consumers' acceptability of bacons produced from entire males. Three different processing technologies (brine injection, dry salting with and without fermentation) were used. The raw materials had skatole levels from 0.04 to 0.43 mg/kg. The consumers showed little variation in liking scores for bacon produced with the different technologies. Assessors trained for recognizing skatole flavour, nevertheless identified the odour and flavour of skatole for more samples and technologies than the consumers did. However, trained sensory panellists could not identify taint in all dry salted bacons fermented with Staphylococcus xylosus even at a skatole level of 0.43 mg/kg fat. Sufficient liquid smoke in brine injected bacons masked the skatole flavour of bacons having 0.43 mg skatole/kg fat. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.