British, Irish, and (IME) Australian and Kiwi bacon is usually served much softer, and much less crispy than American bacon. Again, only IME, American bacon is fried to the point of being very dry and brittle, whereas the stuff we eat is moist and meat-like.
It would be impossible to eat most American bacon with a fork the way we are taught to use a fork in the UK, i.e. tines down as a stabbing implement, unless it were crumbled into bacon bits and stuck to something else. That said, over here you’d receive looks askance if you did this in a caff: you’d be expected to try to get it from plate to mouth using a fork.
I love both versions, but I don’t think we’re necessarily talking about the same thing here.
I’ve had irish bacon. It did seem to be more meaty. I don’t overcook my bacon. I like it somewhat crisp, but not to the point where it breaks apart. I want something I can chew.
As for the orientation of the fork, I normally eat tines-down. Except with bacon I’ll cut off a bit (with the fork – I don’t bother with a knife) and pick it up with the fork tines-up, as if I’m eating rice or mashed potatoes or peas.
As I mentioned, my dad was in the Navy. Wives were invited to dine aboard ship on Fridays when it was in port. Dinner was always fried chicken. One officer’s wife had never eaten fried chicken with a knife and fork, but everyone was expected to do so – and wives were expected to attend. So she was stuck.
Unless it’s between two pieces of bread, bacon is most definitely a finger food. I will quite happily pick up a strip and gnaw on it gleefully. It has, in fact, never occurred to me to apply utensils to it. Mind you, it is important for me to have a napkin or two close to hand because greasy fingers bug me.
I eat it with my fingers, but I like my bacon crispy. If I can pick up a strip of bacon, and it flops over, it’s not done yet.
I guess if I’m ever out to breakfast with you fancy-schmancy fork-using people, I’ll just get sausage instead for fear of shocking you with my barbarian ways.
Fingers and I’ve never seen people use a fork and knife in normal usage. The only exception to this is people who tend to mix all their breakfast foods together and then I’ll see them bringing bacon up (as well as everything else) with a fork.
Personally I’ve never been one of those types, what’s even worse is people who put syrup on everything. I’ve never liked anything very sweet for breakfast though, while I do enjoy pancakes, waffles, muffins, and etc it’s very rare that I ever want something like that at breakfast.
Re: impossibility: see post 19. I am British but live in America. I eat both American and British bacon with a fork, tines down. True, you cannot stab really crispy American-style bacon. But you can manoeuver it between the tines and lift it up that way. What’s the alternative? Tines up or, shudder, fingers?
I like my bacon so crisp it snaps in half when you breathe on it. If I tried to stab it with a fork it would vaporize into a cloud of pork dust. So, fingers. Unless it’s wrapped in a soft tortilla shell with scrambled eggs and cheese. Yummy.
There was an old lady from Cork
Who liked to eat shit with a fork
Her son said, 'You goon!
‘You eat shit with a spoon!
It’s pork that you eat with a fork!’
– Ed Bluestone
Fork here. I don’t want burned fingertips and greasy fingers. Though I didn’t realise the US style was to cook the bacon so well-done, so in that case I’d probably use fingers too. But until reading this thread, eating bacon with my fingers has simply never crossed my mind.
Having grown up in the US and moving to Australia well after my bacon-formative years, I have to say that the bacon here in Australia is an entirely different beast than the bacon in the US. I know how to cook crispy bacon, but I’ve never, ever been able to get Australian bacon to go that crispy. Not in a frypan, not in a skillet, not even Alton-Brown-style-roasted-in-the-oven … the Australian bacon stays soft and meaty. It’s … thicker, or less fatty, or something different.
That said, Australian bacon is pretty yummy, and it just feels healthier than US bacon. But … every once in a while a girl just needs a big crispy strip of pork!
It’s threads like this that can make me miss my “homeland”.
Try cooking it halfway, then placing it on a cake cooling rack under the GRILL. Turn on only the top element of the oven to its highest setting, and place the bacon somewhere near to the top of the oven - this should get the results you a are looking for.
This is what I can’t understand about a friend of mine. Although I’m sure you’re not as bad as she is (throws away the part of the food that her fingers touch). If you can’t even trust where your own fingers have been, how the hell can you even stand to eat food prepared by strangers?
Does she eat food cooked by strangers? If she does then next time you go out pick up your fork and say, ‘I wonder how many people’s mouths this has been in?’.
