I was thinking about this when I was reading about the death of the Egg McMuffin guy.
Just out of curiosity, are there any Americans out there under the impression that what you call “Canadian” bacon is just called “bacon” here?
Where I’m from, anyway, my bacon is the same as your bacon. The thing you call Canadian bacon is pretty similar to what I’d call “back bacon”, although I think your Canadian bacon is a little hammier (thicker, I guess, and more tender) than back bacon.
Here’s the weird thing: I’m not even sure if you can get that Canadian bacon stuff in Canada. I’ve never had anything here and thought “this is just like that Canadian bacon you get in the States”. That is, I can get back bacon, which is similar, but not identical, and I don’t think we ever call anything “Canadian Bacon”. Unless we’re talking about something you get in the States.
So anyway, if there’s anyone down there dreaming of coming to Canada so you can eat “Canadian Bacon” every day, I’m afraid you might have to give that dream up.
On the other hand, for all I know, Canadian Bacon is all they eat in the Maritimes. Canadian Bacon and Screech, I guess.
I was in New Brunswick a few years back, OK, 20 years, and I ordered what I seem to remember was a “smoked meat” sandwich. Looked and tasted like what I knew as Canadian bacon. New Brunswick is part of the Maritimes, right?
I could never understand why it’s called Canadian “bacon.” I realize it may come from the same part of the pig as strip bacon, but as MrSquishy pointed out, it is more ham-like than bacon-y.
New Brunswick is indeed a part of the Maritimes and for my part (born and raised in NB) my first exposure to Canadian Bacon was visiting my wife’s family in New Jersey.
I’m sure it’s available here but I’ve never seen it. FWIW, when my wife’s family comes up to visit they go nuts over our “regular” bacon, not sure why it’s different.
At least to me, “Canadian Bacon” is a mildly amusing movie staring a dead fat man
To get back to the actual question, at least here in Ottawa (or maybe just in my home), back bacon is called peameal bacon, due to the fact that it’s coated in peameal. Also, might I add just as an aside, damn, do I love the swine in any edible way.
For the same reason you Eastern Canadians have “Michigan Sandwiches.” Despite having lived in Michigan for most of my life, I’d never heard of such a thing.
Perhaps you would like to read this thread. At post 55 we start to realize there is a difference between American, British, and Canadian terms with bacon. It was a detailed discussion on a couple items of difference.
If you go back to the origin of the term, the 1800’s, it’s pretty interesting the rivalry between Canada, Denmark, and the U.S. to produce bacon for the English Market, which must have been the largest export market for this kind of product.
I’ve done some research on this, trying to get an article out of it for either the SD or the American Dialect Society. The product the US produced was called “streaky bacon” and suffered by comparison to the Canadian product in the British market.
Oh sheesh, when we were in Quebec several years ago, every little sandwich shop had something called a “michigan sandwich.” I seem to recall it was some sort of meat sandwich thing.
Of course, I can’t find anything about it on the Interwebs. Am I hallucinating?
In BC what Americans call Canadian Bacon is called back bacon. We seldom see peameal bacon here.
I go to a shop that sells gammon, which we like, and they also sell Aberdeen bacon, which seems to be like peameal bacon, only fattier.
What the Brits call streaky bacon we call side bacon, but according my English friend who just got back after 3 months in England, their streaky bacon is not as fatty as our side bacon.
When we raise our own hog, I use the “cottage roll” or boneless picnic, sliced, for bacon.
