Bacon is not as old as time, but it’s old enough to carry some interesting history. What is bacon anyway? It’s salted pork belly, and pork belly has been eaten since thousands of years ago.
The ancient Chinese ate it, the meat was popular with the Romans, then it took over the Anglo-Saxons, and eventually the entire world. Americans particularly seem to have created an entire culture around bacon.
The perfect marriage – Americans and bacon
Not only is bacon and eggs the American breakfast, and not only do Americans eat 18 pounds of bacon a year, but bacon is the theme of so many events happening throughout the country.
- There is Zingerman’s Camp Bacon, which is a camp where people go to taste bacon, learn about bacon, and talk about bacon.
- There is Burke’s Bacon Bar, which is a bacon-themed bar in Chicago that serves all sorts of sandwiches made with all sorts of bacon.
- There is the International Bacon Film Festival where people get to watch short videos about bacon made by filmmakers around the world who are definitely not vegan. But…
- There is this bacon-flavored spread called Baconnaise, so at least the vegetarians can rejoice because the food is made with vegetable oil instead of animal fat, although it does have eggs.
- Then we have bacon-flavored personal care products and cosmetics: bacon flavor lip balm, bacon flavor soap, bacon scent air fresheners, and who knows what else people have been using bacon for.
It’s safe to say that yes, it’s all about the bacon. And, Burger King? People are asking for the return of the Bacon Sundae.
Back to when bacon was only food
Before bacon became the main ingredient of the American breakfast, the world had English bacon, which is to say that although historians testify to salted and cured pork having been cooked in many different countries over the course of time, when speaking of craftily sliced and cooked bacon it’s to England we have to look.
Bacon today is always made from the belly of the pig, but people in Europe years and years ago called bacon any piece of pork meat that they salted and cured. It’s only the English that have always prepared bacon from pork belly.
Bacon was prepared differently before the industrial revolution and mostly produced on local farms. It was only after the nineteenth century that big producers breeding pigs appeared along with industrial innovations.
People bred pigs for bacon, and every household would have its own recipe that was passed down from generation to generation. Many families sold their bacon to butchers working in cities, and these would again improve curing and smoking to accommodate the various needs and preferences of people.
There were so many varieties of bacon, and a lot of them were sold in towns and cities, which further popularized the food and led to the commercialization of bacon.
One thing has not changed, however. When it comes to good bacon, the secret is to raise good breed pigs.