Recently discovered that British* Bacon is different from both Canadian Bacon, and American Bacon. So, is there a definition of bacon that matches the different foods bearing this moniker?
*picture a thin slice of boneless pork chop (about the thickness of what gets labelled as “thick cut” bacon in the US), and you’ll have a good sense of the monstrosity Brits defile the name of bacon with. I suspect this is revenge for the cheese fiasco.
Broadly, it seems to be “cured pork meat.”
For the record, no one in Canada uses the term “Canadian Bacon.”
No one.
We also don’t say “American Cheese.”
It is? That’s not how I remember it.
Bacon, from a reputable British news source.
That there is “streaky bacon”. This is more typical of British bacon.
That’s what we call streaky bacon. The most common British bacon is back bacon, and there’s also middle bacon, which I don’t see quite as often. They’re all good, but a good smoked back bacon done near-crispy, with the fat attached, is pretty much peak bacon.
That’s what we call peameal bacon. Or, back bacon occasionally.
Makes perfect sense. It’s kinda like how no one says “Chinese food” in China. It’s just…food.
thinly sliced cut of cured/smoked pork, pan/griddle fried until some degree of crispy.
done.
Sorry, but there is no requirement for bacon to be “crispy” - I much prefer a meaty thick-cut piece of back or middle bacon fried soft, for the perfect bacon roll (with HP Sauce, natch).
The crisp wafers of streaky bacon that I get in America is a betrayal of cured pork products.
Personal preference and all that, but two or three rashers, a fried egg with a runny yolk, and a dab of Colman’s mustard, is the perfect bacon roll.
They have their place.
For the Merricuns, please define “rasher.”
Except, I could take a thinly sliced piece of country ham, and fry it but it would in no way be a form of bacon.
Wikipedia indicates that, in the UK and Ireland, a rasher is “a thin slice of bacon.”
Slice?
Communist.
I can find back bacon at the local Vons, so we always have it on hand when the need for a proper fry-up or EBCB arises. But Neuske’s is a perfectly cromulent substitute for colonials.
That’s yokes not yolks, comrade.
The traditional method of making bacon in Britain is to cure, and optionally smoke, an entire side of pork. This naturally means that the cut is irrelevant in defining bacon – it’s the method of preservation that’s important. The exception, in British usage, is the hind leg: if cured as part of the rest of the carcass, it’s gammon; if cured separately, it’s ham. (Traditionally, that is: nowadays, the distinction seems to be that gammon is sold cured, but uncooked, while ham is sold cured and cooked.)
I don’t know why Americans chose to only make bacon from belly pork, but they’re missing out on some tasty culinary options, if you ask me, which you didn’t, but I’m telling you anyway.
Streaky bacon and back bacon are both bacon, aren’t they? That’s why they’ve both got “bacon” in the name.
Except that what Americans seem to call Canadian bacon looks pretty much like ham to me.
