What is the difference between British and American bacon?

[gfweb]

Host's note: this discussion developed and was split from a post in Create my meal - the Challenge. Some of the replies refer back to that topic.

 

 

@Bhukhhad  why not cure your own Brit Bacon?  Not at all hard to do.

 

Or go to these guys  http://www.balsonbutchers.com/

Edited August 16, 2016 by Smithy
Added host's note (log)

[Bhukhhad]

On August 15, 2016 at 1:24 AM, sartoric said:

I started this thread, but don't feel the need to own it. I'm happy for others to jump in, post a list and get suggestions.

I can't see any reason why we can't have simultaneous challenges going.... what do other participants think ?

 

On August 15, 2016 at 0:06 AM, Thanks for the Crepes said:

 

I like this topic too! It's a lot of fun. Can't offer any information as to sourcing British bacon rashers, because I'm not sure what they are even after visiting gfweb's link.

 

I can tell you what's next. The OP, sartoric, is up next, and she's going to do a shop on Tuesday and post her list of ingredients after she does.

 

As to @gfweb's suggestion to just jump in and post your own list of ingredients, I did make a suggestion about that upthread, and the OP did "Like" my post but never gave a specific green light on it, so I am not sure that is within her rules. It would be great with me if it was, because I saw it as a way to move the thread forward at a faster pace and allow more people with interesting ingredients on hand and a willingness to cook soon to participate. I also think it might work better with the creative spirits who populate the forum.

 

It's @sartoric's thread, though, so she will have to be the one who makes the call.

@Thanks for the crepes

Now this is going to be a LOT of fun. Woman from India trying to explain to person from EGullet Forums about British Bacon Rashers.....We must find laughter in everything! That is a MUST 
So here goes: 
British Bacon Rasher is a bigger cut of meat, from the back to the abdomen. Also the curing has no SWEET it is only savory. Plus it is not smoke cured, but salt cured. Those who are raised on american bacon find it too salty. But then the scrambled eggs and tomatoes will not have salt so the entire dish will be salty enough. Anyway, it it deliciously salty. :). And having grown up vegetarian, I don't have a clue why I adore it so much. But I do. Go Figure. 
After extensive tasting and cognitive recall of long term memory comparisons, I have stopped trying to have american bacon any more. Sorry you pig lovers, I am saying something you won't like. But you have no clue about the taste of British Bacon Rashers. I will have to ask that person who said curing ones own was easy, but I don't even want to try. Its my little piece of joy. I am not changing it. Maybe once in five years is when I get a proper tuck of a good bacon egg and tomato breakfast. But thats good enough for me.  And I am delighted that they sent me the link to order online. I am going to do it. hehehehe! 
What foodies we are...!

Bhukhhad! 

 

 

 

Edited August 16, 2016 by Bhukhhad (log)

[Thanks for the Crepes]

I read this article, and have a much better understanding of what British bacon rashers are. There is even a recipe to make it, and it sounds very doable in a home kitchen. I would just have to search out pink curing salt and persuade a butcher to cut me a piece of loin with fat cap and belly attached. It probably won't happen, but it's certainly not impossible to make it yourself in America.

 

37 minutes ago, Bhukhhad said:

You folks tell me, is it so old fashioned that no one can understand it? 
Or will I have to stand there and explain my cake...????? 

 

It seems perfectly clear to me. They are adding to their family and you are wishing them all the joy that comes with a new baby. I like it. 

[sartoric]

@Bhukhhad, I'm sure you won't need to explain your cake message.

It's perhaps not traditional, but easily understood and a lovely gift.

 

To go back to bacon....here's our generic supermarket variety about $10 per kilo. 

For scale, the cleaver measures 29 cm (11 inches). 

Almost everything is better with bacon !

 

 

[Okanagancook]

That bacon looks like the loin with the belly attached.  The loin seems a little small compared to the belly though.  Looks fantastic.  Is it smoked?

[Bhukhhad]

2 hours ago, Thanks for the Crepes said:

I read this article, and have a much better understanding of what British bacon rashers are. There is even a recipe to make it, and it sounds very doable in a home kitchen. I would just have to search out pink curing salt and persuade a butcher to cut me a piece of loin with fat cap and belly attached. It probably won't happen, but it's certainly not impossible to make it yourself in America.

 

 

It seems perfectly clear to me. They are adding to their family and you are wishing them all the joy that comes with a new baby. I like it. 

Dear TftC

Its an awesome article! You found it! I perfectly describes the brit bacon. And if it has juniper berries in the brine.....well they got that one right from the start! 

Bhukhhad

 

[sartoric]

1 hour ago, Okanagancook said:

That bacon looks like the loin with the belly attached.  The loin seems a little small compared to the belly though.  Looks fantastic.  Is it smoked?

No, it's not smoked, it's salt cured. I can get all sorts of artisan bacon if I'm prepared to drive a few extra kilometres, this is the lazy supermarket variety

[Thanks for the Crepes]

3 hours ago, sartoric said:

@Bhukhhad, I'm sure you won't need to explain your cake message.

It's perhaps not traditional, but easily understood and a lovely gift.

 

To go back to bacon....here's our generic supermarket variety about $10 per kilo. 

For scale, the cleaver measures 29 cm (11 inches). 

Almost everything is better with bacon !

 

 

 

That Aussie bacon looks a lot like what I can get here in the supermarket under the Hormel Black Label Brand. That brand seems to be a mite leaner than other brands, and is a favorite of mine. It's smoked, like almost all pork products called "bacon" here in the US. The Brits would call it "streaky bacon", I believe, from my newfound knowledge.

 

I knew we would all be learning a lot from this thread! Thanks for starting it sartoric. BTW the cost is pretty equivalent here, if USD convert straightly to Aussie dollars. I try to find it on sale, for about $3.50 USD a pound or $7.70 USD a kilo. 

[huiray]

When I was growing up "bacon" to me ALWAYS meant the stuff with a large sort-of-circular piece of meat at one end and some narrow fat-streaked meat at the other end. That is, British-style "bacon". With or without the rind on top. But then, I grew up in a British-influenced place.  When I was in the UK "bacon" still meant the one I described, naturally. I encountered what was (IIRC) called "streaky bacon" here and there, what I later learned was the default meaning of "bacon" in the USA, which I also learned later was made from pork belly. During my youth and while in the UK "bacon and eggs" ALWAYS meant the kind of bacon with the loin piece at one end together with fried eggs, usually in what is known here in the USA as "sunny-side-up". It wasn't until I crossed the Atlantic that I learned that "bacon" was this strange stuff with streaky layered fat and lean, no largish blob of not-fat-streaked lean at one end, and that MOST of the folks here had never seen or heard of "bacon" with this blob of non-fat-streaked lean at one end.

 

ETA: Then, when I lived in Canada for a few years, I learned about "Canadian bacon" and "pea meal bacon" (although purists would fulminate about those terms) and was an observer of purchases of whole pieces of such by the sister of my companion at the time, from pubs and other places which appeared to be places which made really good versions of said meat products; and eater of dishes made with those large chunks of meat. :-) 

Edited August 16, 2016 by huiray (log)

[huiray]

15 hours ago, Thanks for the Crepes said:

 

That Aussie bacon looks a lot like what I can get here in the supermarket under the Hormel Black Label Brand. That brand seems to be a mite leaner than other brands, and is a favorite of mine. It's smoked, like almost all pork products called "bacon" here in the US. The Brits would call it "streaky bacon", I believe, from my newfound knowledge.

 

I knew we would all be learning a lot from this thread! Thanks for starting it sartoric. BTW the cost is pretty equivalent here, if USD convert straightly to Aussie dollars. I try to find it on sale, for about $3.50 USD a pound or $7.70 USD a kilo. 

 

Here's an annotated version of sartoric's picture showing my understanding of "streaky bacon" and "bacon" in the context of my post above:

 

 

[Tere]

yeah, that looks about right.

 

I've done a bit of wet curing in my time when living in Japan (the pork shabu shabu cut is basically the same cut as British bacon) but never really was happy with the outcome. But it's worth a go if you really have cravings. Nothing was inedible :).

 

My resolution was streaky bacon as Japan knew that as a concept and I actually quite like streaky bacon, and for a meal a week (cooked breakfast) it was close enough

[huiray]

1 hour ago, Tere said:

yeah, that looks about right.

 

Heh. I'll go a little further and add to my annotations of that photo ---

 

 

Haha. Thanks to sartoric for the original. :-)

 

 

And...here's the Google image set for "peameal bacon".  

Edited August 17, 2016 by huiray (log)

[huiray]

The dominance of pork belly as the basis of "bacon" in the USA is such that even in my favorite charcuterie (Goose the Market) here in Indy, a place which carries a wide range of foodstuffs from hither and yon as well as the excellent stuff produced by their sister-shop Smoking Goose, my asking about bacon where there is this "largish blob of not-fat-streaked lean at one end" is met with either blank stares or incomprehension or the occasional murmur of something like having heard of this "thing".

[JoNorvelleWalker]

In my experience bacon in Britain comes in cans from Denmark and has chunks of cartilage for texture.  Mind you, this was in the 1960's.

 

 

[liuzhou]

22 minutes ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

In my experience bacon in Britain comes in cans from Denmark and has chunks of cartilage for texture.  Mind you, this was in the 1960's.

 

 

 

Even in the 60s I don't remember that. But you know what they say - If you remember the 60s, you weren't there!

I don't think I've ever seen bacon in a can.

Edited August 17, 2016 by liuzhou (log)

[JoNorvelleWalker]

1 hour ago, liuzhou said:

 

Even in the 60s I don't remember that. But you know what they say - If you remember the 60s, you weren't there!

I don't think I've ever seen bacon in a can.

 

 

I don't mind the can.  It was the chunks of cartilage that turned me off.  More specifically this was in Oxford in 1969.

 

[liuzhou]

7 minutes ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

I don't mind the can.  It was the chunks of cartilage that turned me off.  More specifically this was in Oxford in 1969.

 

Well, I grew up in the UK in the 50s and 60s and we always ate proper bacon - no cans, no cartilage. And I don't think we were particularly posh.

 

I remember my mother insisting on Ayrshire bacon. No substitutes were tolerable.

 

Although, today I prefer a dry cure.

Edited August 17, 2016 by liuzhou (log)

[Anna N]

4 hours ago, liuzhou said:

 

Even in the 60s I don't remember that. But you know what they say - If you remember the 60s, you weren't there!

I don't think I've ever seen bacon in a can.

 

Oh yes canned Danish bacon  but for me it was before the 60s!  

[rotuts]

canned bacon / ham is ( was ) very common in parts of Europe.

 

no refrigeration needed.

 

in the USA  that pig in a can  became Spam.

[liuzhou]

1 minute ago, rotuts said:

canned bacon / ham is ( was ) very common in parts of Europe.

 

no refrigeration needed.

 

in the USA  that pig in a can  became Spam.

 

We had Spam in the UK, too. Wouldn't call it "bacon" though.

 

The canned bacon was a wartime thing, when the UK was blockaded and there was strict rationing.

[Lindsey]

I have to add that half of the bacon sold in UK is smoked or comes under that name