I learned it was called “back bacon” from Bob and Doug MacKenzie.
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On the fourth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me
Four pounds of back bacon,
Three French toast,
Two turtlenecks,
And a beeeer in a treeeeee.
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I was just getting ready to make the same reply! 
What Canadians call “American cheese” we call “back cheese”.
And the cake-y type things with blueberries or chocolate in them we call… a muffin as well. Context means there is never a mix-up.
Is America the only nation that names its food after other countries?
French toast, French dressing, Swedish meatballs, Spanish rice, Israeli couscous, Italian ice, Irish coffee.
Maybe we as a country lack creativity.
No, I think that happens everywhere - so in the UK, we have things like French Mustard and American ginger ale.
(and its worth noting that products so named, don’t necessarily always resemble anything actually from the named country).
Well at least the US & UK people agree on something!
Thanks for the pics, Enola Gay. I have been wondering what Americans mean by Canadian bacon for a while now.
FWIW, in Australia, ‘bacon’ means the streaky, fatty bit attached to the round, meaty bit in one piece; you buy it all together. You can get ‘short-cut’ bacon, which has much less of the fatty strip, but still at least some.
Brit living in US:
I have never been able to find rashers of back bacon in the U.S. I have no idea what happens to that part of the pig here.
All that seems to exit is rashers of what’s called in the U.K. “streaky bacon” (just called “bacon” in the U.S.), and the highly processed circles that do not exist in the U.K. outside MacDonalds, and are known in the U.S. as Canadian Bacon. I have never encountered these circles of “Canadian Bacon” with peameal.
I’ve never heard of peameal before this thread. I’ve learned something. I’m not sure it’s useful, though.
I’m waiting for a Canadian to ask "What do Americans call Kraft Canadian Slices?
https://www.chowstatic.com/uploads/8/8/3/1309388_image149.jpg
That’s almost the same as asking us what is “Kraft Dinner.”
Actually the only thing I’ve not heard of in this thread is “gammon.” Looks like ham, even though Wikipedia says the timing is different.
This reminds me of the That '70s Show episode where the guys can’t think of anything else to say and eventually ask a Canadian hey, when you guys get change back, does an American coin just happen to be in there every once in a while?
Back cheese?? That sounds even more repulsive than peameal :dubious:
Bob and Doug is where I learned it too!
And touque!
No, we’re just proper academics and cite things properly!
Which is somewhat problematic, because “pomme” is French for “apple”, so “pomme frites” could mean fried apples. I suspect that they usually just call them “frites”, which is what Americans call them most of the time anyway.
Even more problematic is in German, you might simply ask for “Pommes”!
Well, I think they often do call them “frites” because it’s easier not because of any chance of confusion.
There is a great picture on this pagethat will help visualize the differences between American (streaky), Canadian (back bacon) and British bacon (rashers). The third picture down gives the best view.
American bacon is pork belly and is taken from the fatty part of the pig’s midsection (the part on the left side of the photo). What we in the US call Canadian bacon is taken from the lean meat above the pork belly (that portion on the right of the photo). In the US this is called “pork loin” or “pork roast” and is commonly served similar to this. British rashers are sliced in such a way as to include both parts, the lean loin and the fatty belly (the 6th picture down).
And so concludes Bacon 101. Please clean your drool before you leave.