Bacon is a type of salt-cured pork
Bacon is also used for barding and larding roasts, especially game, including venison and pheasant, and may also be used to insulate or flavour roast joints by being layered onto the meat. The word is derived from the Proto-Germanic bakkon, meaning .[Online Etymological Dictionary: bacon (n.)]
Meat from other animals, such as beef, lamb, chicken, goat meat, or turkey meat, may also be cut, cured, or otherwise prepared to resemble bacon, and may even be referred to as, for example, "turkey bacon".
Curing and smoking
Before the advent of cheap and widespread artificial refrigeration in the modern era, the curing of meat was necessary for its safe long-term preservation. However, both the flavour imparted to the meat in doing so and the extended
shelf life it offered had become much prized, and although curing is in general no longer necessary in the developed world, it continues in wide use.
Bacon is cured through either a process of injecting it with or soaking it in brine, known as wet curing, or rubbed with salt, known as dry curing.
Bacon is distinguished from other salt-cured pork by differences in the cuts of meat used and in the brine or dry packing. Historically, the terms ham and bacon referred to different cuts of meat that were brined or packed identically, often together in the same barrel. Today, ham is defined as coming from the hind portion of the pig and brine specifically for curing ham includes a greater amount of sugar, while bacon is less sweet, though ingredients such as brown sugar or maple syrup are used for flavour. Bacon is similar to salt pork, which in modern times is often prepared from similar cuts, but salt pork is never smoked, and has a much higher salt content.
For safety, bacon may be treated to prevent trichinosis,
Cuts
Bacon type differs depending on the primal cut of
pork from which it is prepared,
which reflects local preference.
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Side bacon, sometimes known as "streaky bacon", comes from the pork belly.
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Pancetta is an Italian form of side bacon, sold smoked or unsmoked ( aqua). It is generally rolled up into cylinders after curing. Pancetta is known for having a strong flavour,
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Back bacon contains meat from the Pork loin and belly in the middle of the pig.
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Collar bacon is taken from the back of a pig near the head.
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Cottage bacon is made from the lean meat from a boneless pork shoulder that is typically tied into an oval shape.
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Jowl bacon is cured and smoked cheeks of pork.
The inclusion of skin with a cut of bacon, known as the "bacon rind",
Around the world
Australia and New Zealand
The most common form sold is
middle bacon, which includes some of the streaky, fatty section of side bacon along with a portion of the loin of back bacon. In response to increasing consumer diet-consciousness, some
supermarkets also offer the loin section only. This is sold as
short cut bacon and is usually priced slightly higher than middle bacon. Both varieties are usually available with the rind removed.
Canada
In Canada, the term
bacon on its own typically refers to side bacon.
[ Canadian Oxford Dictionary, 2nd ed. (2004).] Canadian-style back bacon is a lean cut from the eye of the pork loin with little surrounding fat.
is an unsmoked back bacon, wet-cured and coated in fine-ground cornmeal (historically, it was rolled in ground, dried
peas);
it is popular in
southern Ontario. Bacon is often eaten in breakfasts, such as with cooked eggs or pancakes.
Maple syrup is often used as a flavouring while curing bacon in Canada.
Germany
Some of the meanings of bacon overlap with the German-language term
Speck. Germans use the term
bacon explicitly for Frühstücksspeck ('breakfast Speck') which are cured or smoked pork slices. Traditional German
favour ham over bacon; however, Wammerl (grilled pork belly) remains popular in Bavaria.
Small bacon cubes (called Grieben or Grammerln in Austria and southern Germany) have been a rather important ingredient of various southern German dishes. They are used for adding flavour to soups and salads and for Speck dumplings and various noodle and potato dishes. Instead of preparing them at home from larger slices, they have been sold ready made as recently as Baconwürfel ("bacon cubes") in German retail stores.
Japan
In Japan, bacon (ベーコン)
is pronounced bēkon. It is cured and smoked belly meat as in the US, and is sold in either regular or half-length sizes. Bacon in Japan is different from that in the US in that the meat is not sold raw, but is processed, precooked and has a ham-like consistency when cooked.
Uncured, sliced pork belly, known as bara (バラ), is very popular in Japan and is used in a variety of dishes (e.g. yakitori and yakiniku).
Great Britain and Ireland
Back bacon is the most common form in
Great Britain and
Ireland, and is the usual meaning of the plain term
bacon. A thin slice of bacon is known as a
rasher; about 70% of bacon is sold as rashers.
Heavily trimmed back cuts which consist of just the eye of meat, known as a
medallion, are also available. All types may be unsmoked or smoked. The side cut normal in America is known as "streaky bacon",
[ "The Full English Breakfast Hops the Pond". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 21 February 2018] and there is also a long cut, curving round on itself, known as "middle bacon", which is back bacon at one end, and streaky at the other, as well as less common cuts.
[ "What's the difference between the different bacon cuts?", 14 July 2017, www.puddledub.co.uk/blog.] Bacon is also sold and served as joints, usually boiled, broiled or roast,
[ "What are Bacon Joints?", Wiltshire Bacon Co.] or in thicker slices called chops or steaks. These are usually eaten as part of other meals.
Bacon may be cured in several ways, and may be smoked or unsmoked; unsmoked bacon is known as "green bacon".
Bacon is often served with eggs and sausages as part of a full English breakfast.
United States
The term
bacon on its own generally refers to side bacon, which is the most popular type of bacon sold in the US. Back bacon is known as "Canadian bacon" or "Canadian-style bacon", and is usually sold pre-cooked and thick-sliced.
American bacons include varieties smoked with
hickory,
mesquite or
apple tree and flavourings such as
maple,
brown sugar,
honey, or
molasses.
[R. W. Apple Jr. The Smoky Trail To a Great Bacon 16 February 2000 The New York Times] A side of unsliced bacon is known as "slab bacon".
USDA regulations only recognise bacon as "cured" if it has been treated with synthetic nitrites or nitrates (e.g. sodium nitrate or potassium nitrate). This means that bacon cured with nitrites derived from celery or beets (which has the same chemical outcome) must be labelled "uncured" and include a notice such as "no nitrates or nitrites added except for that naturally occurring in celery". There is also bacon for sale uncured with any nitrites from any sources.
History
Salted pork belly first appeared in China. In
Middle English the term bacon or bacoun referred to all pork in general.
Before the Industrial Revolution, bacon was generally produced on local farms and in domestic kitchens. In the 1770s, John Harris opened the world's first commercial bacon processing plant in Calne, Wiltshire.
Bacon mania
The United States and Canada have seen an increase in the popularity of bacon and bacon-related recipes, dubbed "
bacon mania". The sale of bacon in the US has increased significantly since 2011. Sales climbed 9.5% in 2013, making it an all-time high of nearly $4 billion in US. In a survey conducted by Smithfield, 65% of Americans would support bacon as their "national food".
Dishes such as
bacon explosion, chicken fried bacon, and chocolate-covered bacon have been popularised over the Internet,
as has the use of candied bacon. Recipes spread quickly through both countries' national media, culinary
, and
YouTube.
Celebrity chef
Bobby Flay has endorsed a "Bacon of the Month" club online, in print,
and on national
television.
, a 2002 book by Sara Perry, is a cookbook in which all dishes contain bacon.
Commentators explain this surging interest in bacon by reference to what they deem American culture. Sarah Hepola, in a 2008 article in Salon.com, suggests a number of reasons, one of them being that eating bacon in the modern, health-conscious world is an act of rebellion: "Loving bacon is like shoving a middle finger in the face of all that is healthy and holy while an unfiltered cigarette smoulders between your lips."
Alison Cook, writing in the Houston Chronicle, argues the case of bacon's American citizenship by referring to historical and geographical uses of bacon.
As of December 2016, the U.S. national frozen pork belly inventory totaled , the lowest level in 50 years.
Bacon dishes
Bacon dishes include bacon and eggs,
BLT sandwiches,
Cobb salad, and various bacon-wrapped foods, such as
,
shrimp,
and
asparagus. Recently invented bacon dishes include chicken fried bacon, chocolate covered bacon,
bacon jerky, bacon ice cream and the
bacon explosion. Tatws Pum Munud is a traditional Welsh stew, made with sliced potatoes, vegetables and smoked bacon.
Bacon jam and bacon marmalade are also commercially available.
Streaky bacon is more commonly used as a topping in the US on such items as pizza, salads, sandwiches, hamburgers, baked potatoes, hot dogs, and soups. In the US, sliced smoked back bacon is used less frequently than the streaky variety, but can sometimes be found on pizza, salads, and omelettes.
Bacon is also used as an accent in dishes, such as bacon-topped meatloaf,
Bacon bits are crumbled bacon in condiment form, typically commercially prepared and preserved for long shelf life.
Bacon fat
Bacon fat liquefies and becomes
when it is heated. Once cool, it firms into a form of
lard. Bacon fat is flavourful and is used for various cooking purposes. Traditionally, bacon grease is saved in British and southern US cuisine, and used as a base for cooking and as an all-purpose flavouring, for everything from
gravy to
cornbread to
salad dressing.
In Germany, Griebenschmalz is a popular spread made from bacon lard.
Bacon is often used for a cooking technique called barding consisting of laying or wrapping strips of bacon or other fats over a roast to provide additional fat to a lean piece of meat. It is often used for roast game birds, and is a traditional method of preparing beef filet mignon, which is wrapped in strips of bacon before cooking. The bacon itself may afterwards be discarded or served to eat, like Pork rind. It may also be cut into .
One teaspoon () of bacon grease has 38 calories (40 kJ/g).
Nutrients
One 10 g slice of cooked side bacon contains 4.5 g of fat, 3.0 g of protein, and 205 mg of sodium.
The fat, protein, and sodium content varies depending on the cut and cooking method.
68% of the food energy of bacon comes from fat, almost half of which is saturated.
Health concerns
Studies have consistently found the consumption of processed meat to be linked to increased
Mortality rate, and to an increased risk of developing a number of serious health conditions including
cancer, cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes.
As bacon is very high in salt, it comes with all the negative health effects associated with high salt intake.
Bacon can contain nitrites, which can form carcinogenic nitroso-compounds such as , nitrosyl-heme and . In the United States, sodium nitrite cannot exceed certain levels in bacon. Vitamin C (ascorbate) or sodium erythorbate can be added to bacon, which greatly reduces the formation of nitrosamines but has no effect on and nitrosyl-heme.
According to the World Health Organization in 2015, regular consumption of processed meats such as bacon increases the likelihood of developing colorectal cancers by 18%.
Alternatives
Several alternatives to and substitutes for bacon have been developed for those who cannot or prefer not to eat standard pork bacon, including beef, chicken, turkey, bison, soy, and coconut bacon.
Turkey bacon
Turkey bacon is consumed by some as an alternative to pork bacon for health benefits, religious laws, or other concerns.
It is lower in fat and food energy than bacon,
but is used similarly.
The meat for turkey bacon comes from the whole turkey, which is chopped and reformed into strips to resemble bacon, and can be cured or uncured, or smoked.
Macon
"Macon" is produced by curing cuts of mutton in a manner similar to the production of pork bacon.
Historically produced in
Scotland, it was introduced across Britain during World War II as a consequence of rationing.
[ Footnote in Time magazine mentions wartime use.] It is today available as an alternative to bacon, produced for the Muslim market and sold at
halal butchers; it is largely similar in appearance to pork bacon except for the darker colour.
Vegetarian bacon
Vegetarian bacon, also referred to as
facon,
veggie bacon, or
vacon, is a vegetarian "bacon" made from plant matter.
It has no cholesterol, is low in fat, and contains large amounts of protein and fibre.
Two slices contain about .
Vegetarian bacon is usually made from marinated strips of textured soy protein or
tempeh (fermented soybeans).
Bacon-flavoured products
The popularity of bacon in the United States has given rise to a number of commercial products that promise to add bacon flavouring without the labour involved in cooking it.
Bacon bits
Bacon bits are a frequently used topping on
salad or potatoes, and a common element of
.
They are usually salted. Bacon bits are made from small, crumbled pieces of bacon;
in commercial plants they are cooked in continuous
microwave ovens. Similar products are made from ham or turkey, and vegetarian substitutes are made from textured vegetable protein, artificially flavoured to resemble bacon.
Other bacon-flavoured products
There is also a wide range of other bacon-flavoured products, including a bacon-flavoured salt (
Bacon Salt),
(a bacon-flavoured mayonnaise),
(a tinned meat, similar to Spam) and bacon ice cream.
See also
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List of bacon dishes
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List of bacon substitutes
Further reading
External links
