What happens to all the good bacon in the USA?

Factual Questions
1

I was buying some bacon tonight and bought this kind of thing. Each piece of bacon is a hunk of meat about the size of your palm with a tail of alternating strips of fat and meat. I wanted the tail bits to flavour fried mushrooms but then gave them to a friend for her dogs.

I gather from other threads that this bit of bacon (the tail) is what is normally served in the US. Well where does the bit that I kept for sandwiches/breakfasts go? Who gets the big piece of meat at the end of the streaky bacon.

In Australia you can get bacon cuts that are 97% meat with the minimum fat possible.

2

The US types cook the living crap out of bacon, don’t ask. Far beyond what we’d regard as crispy. Most of the fat is rendered.

But I’d also be interested to know what they do with the “eye”.

3

I have never seen bacon like that in the US. My guess is that that parts is what gets used for things like bacon bits, or packed “bacon ends”, which is basically raw bacon bits sold for less than regular bacon.

And while some Americans cook the ever living crap out of their bacon, there are some of us who like it very close to raw. Crispy bacon is only good on BLT, and even then, I still don’t like it as crispy as most do.

4

I think we in the US make bacon from the belly of the hog, rather than the back, which is what you may be used to. The British term is “streaky” bacon. I don’t know if they use that term in Australia. “Back” bacon may be what you’re looking for, if you want a leaner bacon in the US.

5

The big end looks like what we cut thick for end cut pork chops. Yours are just sliced thin and have the bacon hanging on.

6

“streaky” bacon is most common in North America, I think – such that it’s simply known as “bacon.” You can however get back bacon, or peameal bacon (which I think is just back bacon rolled in corn meal) which is far leaner and much more akin to the “eye” in the OP.

Personally, I like my (streaky) bacon neither raw nor crispy, but rather that narrow border between, when both fat and meat have a similar consistency – chewy, but neither crisp nor rubbery. That makes for the best all-round bacon whether with eggs or on a sandwich.

7

The bit for sandwiches and breakfasts is the tail. We call the round part “Canadian bacon” and sometimes eat that. Although it’s not nearly as tasty and you don’t get all the delicious grease on the bottom of the pan to cook your eggs in.

8

Streaky American style bacon is from the belly of the pig. The sort of bacon you have is also called Back Bacon and is a different cut. I would guess that in the US that part is used for some other cut altogether.

9

Agreed - looks like “Canadian” bacon to me. I’ve seen it most often used as a sort of ham subsititute, especially on things like eggs Benedict, etc.

Even streaky bacon here isn’t quite the same as my idea of “American” bacon - it never fries up nice and crispy the way American does. And man, do I ever miss it…