Bacon is the "meat of life." Without bacon, life on earth as we know it could not exist?

What Lordy was referring to in his praise of bacon is the traditional British bacon rasher. American-style bacon is made from the lean meat of the pork belly, all fat included. Canadian bacon is made from the back loin, with most of the fat trimmer off, as well as the lean and fat strips from the side above the ribs. British bacon rashers are made from the back loin, with the fat "cap" still attached, and the fat and lean strips from above the ribs still attached. I love it all.

There ain't no such thing as bad bacon.

This is the back loin cut from which bacon rashers are sliced:



Usually, the fat "cap" above the loin is left on. Canadian bacon is made from the same back loin, but the lean and fat meat on the left, where the cut attaches to the ribs, is removed.

the rashers we ate in UK and Ireland were more like thin cuts of a Smithfield ham. They were a bit too salty for me.

Pork on your fork in "Aussie Land" is meant to be the meat to eat, low in fat, Cholesterol "heart tick approval"....

As for "life on earth as we know it, could not exist"

Not without these babies..



Had a better photo but the OP removed it, prawns wrapped in bacon...

A good pea-meal roast such as one can buy in Ontario is like fine ham. It's pickled, but it is much less salty than bacon rashers.

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FS, try to scare up a piccy of those prawns (scallops, too) wrapped in bacon . . . that's one of my favorites.

Splutter!......

Having spent a good three years of my middle teens carrying, busting down, jointing up and slicing sides of bacon, I think that I may be a monor authority on the matter.

Using UK terminology. Terms in other countries may differ. Any similarity to other terms is purely coincidental. No pigs were harmed in the making of this post.

An average "side" of good quality Danish bacon weighs 56lbs and consists, when cut into three separate sections, starting at the head end, of......

First 'third'....
Hock, shoulder and knuckle.....all used for joints as opposed to slicing.

The middle 'third' consists of .......when split in half lengthways, of.....

Top back,
Back
Oyster and
Long back ....all for rashers and on the thick meaty half....

Long back, in my opinion, is the best rasher to be had, but is rare as only about two pounds can be had from each side of bacon.


Long Back Bacon.

Mmmmmmmm.....


The standard British breakfast or sandwich rasher is Back Bacon.
At my peak, and in competition with two colleagues, I bust down, jointed and rashered a whole side in ten minutes.
Christmas trade created a massive demand for Gammon ham, and it was common for us (three) to process two hundred of the things in the two or three days before Christmas Eve.

The last thing I wanted to eat for the next week or so was a pile of ham.

It is now all processed and done before reaching the supermarkets, which is probably more economically viable, but takes half the fun out of the whole thing.

I recently encountered a hand driven bacon slicer in a Farmshop, and got chatting to the guy who was serving.
He let me have a go for old times sake, and, just like riding a bike, I got straight back into it. He admitted to hardly ever using it, because it was blunt.
I then showed him how the whole thing came apart and pointed out the sharpening grinders behind the back plate. He'd seen them when cleaning the thing, but had nevef worked out how to move them so they made contact with the blade.
I flicked the switch at the back and had it razor sharp in about a minute....

He now nods to me when I go in there, and wants me to show his lad how to bone out a side, as he wants to get proper 'carcass' bacon in, as opposed to 'primal' joints (vacuum packed, ready boned).
I wouldn't mind giving it a go, as in a weird way, I really enjoyed doing that stuff when I was young and spotty.


Anyway, onto the other half of the middle.....



Streaky (What you caol belly)
....... and flank.

The flank is the final six or so inches at the rear leg end, and is 90% fat.
This is usually chopped up or sliced, and used for basting or flavouring.

The rear leg is the only part of the side that is allowed to be called Gammon.
The Gammon consists of gammon knuckle, a prime gammon joint, and a 'Corner Gammon' joint (triangular in shape), and it is the rear leg that is always used for the top quality hams around the world.
Gammon can always be rashered, but fills the plate on its own and is not for the faint hearted.

Technically, in the UK and possibly other countries, the rear leg is the only part that can be called ham. All other joints are bacon joints as opposed to ham joints.
Nobody takes any notice of this though, and the rule is now probably long forgotten. But technically......

So.....over here, it is ALL bacon (apart from the Gammon), and only has a different first name.

Back bacon, streaky bacon, bacon joints.....Hock, Shoulder, etc....

I'm hungry now.

S'cuse the typos, as it's difficult to concentrate while slobbering.

Saw a terrific, bright red tomato in the market the other day (about three weeks ago)...and developed an instant craving for a BLT. Made it using regular toasted white bread...with lots of mayo. It was heavenly...and was the first BLT I had in probably 20 years. I've had two others since.

When I make pancakes...I make bacon...and I put plenty in baked beans also. Usually I fry it, but my sister-in-law had some for a brunch which she made using the microwave. If you've never made the bacon using the microwave...I recommend it. Makes perfect bacon.

Anyways...

...I notice that SPAM was left out of your meat Atomic Numbers. I've never, ever had SPAM...but surely it exists.

Ah there is another recipe you guys may like, shredded pastry wrapped around prawns with a small slice of cucumber and a slice of cooked bacon on top BUT..

We then have bacon wrapped around rockmelon



This may be better Set



OR



How is that? Prawns wrapped in bacon 8 via photo bucket, bacon wrapped in prawns 1000?

I'll have an order of each one of those.

wow! a jalapeno popper wrapped in bacon

that would be amazing with an ice cold cider or a beer

yummmmmm

Not only is it bacon, it's the only bacon.

Nope.

Had it.

Don't care for the Irish/British bacon - way too salty for me and doesn't have the right texture. It's more like meat than bacon. I do like peameal bacon, which is much the same texture as the Irish/British stuff, but much tastier - and I tend to call it peameal rather than bacon, so no one tries to serve me peameal in a BLT or club sandwich.

Izzy, it sounds like what they call bacon is the fatty stuff we wrap the chicken or turkey in for flavour.

British bacon isn't the best though. Proper Danish bacon kernockers the spots off other stuff.

I had a delivery of Polish bacon once, which was so watery we had to let it drain before it was firm enough to work with. It smelt like fish, and when we tested it by cooking it on the saran wrap hotplate, it tasted like fish.

It turned out (no resl surprise) that the pigs were raised on fish slops.
It didn't catch on.

The besterest bacon I have EVER tasted was from a large slab that was given to a friend of ours in Suffolk, who worked as a Secretsry in Adnam's Brewery. The staff always got a hunk of bacon for Xmas.

The pigs were fed mainly on the beer making leftovers, and they led a very happy, sedate life, half pissed most of the time and dozing in a quiet suffolk field.
She brought it to me and I processed it in our kitchen. The rashers had to be hand sliced (no machine) so they were slightly on the rustic side, but boy did it have flavour.

When I was in Vancouver, I must admit to liking the bacon (streaky) served at breakfast, but then again, there's no really bad bacon, as such.

Except Polish.

"It's more like meat than bacon. ........"


Erm......... er.......<scratches head>

Hang on a mo, ebeth.....does it have Linda McCartney or the word "veggie" on your "bacon" packet?

Streaky bacon is the cheapest bacon for a reason.

Each to their own, I'll stick with proper bacon thank you.

Not wishing to change the subject, but I've just been out there in the 29c sun, painting brilliant white gloss paint onto wooden window frames.

I've finally finished and came in for a beer and a gobfull of peanuts, and nearly choked.
I must take my glasses with me when shopping. I thought they were ordinary.

However, if you ever want a chilli fix, try these.....



I had to have a second gobfull though.

HAR! HAAAR!


Nice!

Its an American continental thing. I think Canada and US appreciate the subtle flavors present in good smokes or sugar cured bacon. SALT is not overpowering as it is in Brit/Irish bacon.

Im gonna try thiss peameal stuff that Set and beth are always praising. next trip to the "island" (Manan) in Sept , I am gonna search the lower quarter of New Brunswick for the stuff.

When salt is considered a spice, I seek the door.

The wrst bacon and eggs I ever had were at the Dublin Hotel in , of course, Dublin. They make eggs the night before, the toast wont even melt butter, the butter is too salty, they cover a tomato with breadcrumbs and fry it and pay it on your plate even if you tell em to keep the damn things off.and then there are the various sausages, many of which are edible and a few (like the bleached white ones) are as tasteless as a cardboard box.) AND nobody over there seems to know what coffee is.

Gimme Rapa bacon or Kunzler or Oscar Meyer or other localbrands .

My favourite are the cheese and onion flavour coated ones. I can only get them at Tesco though, which is a bit out of the way.

Well, overnight I see this has exploded into the Bacon War of 2014.

Found Soul, all your dishes look wonderful.