Baraka_Guru

I’ve noticed that Canadian bacon (aka back bacon, peameal bacon) receives a lot of flack on TFP (mentioning no names…gucci), and it always seems to boggle my mind.

First, it is important to note that, in case you haven’t noticed, bacon has achieved a status of worship amongst many members. This is understandable. Bacon is a great foodstuff.

But it is perhaps this status that could explain such negative reactions to such a thing as Canadian bacon. Something so celebrated should not have its image sullied by impostors or imitators, right?

Well, maybe, maybe not.

I think much of the issue revolves around a misunderstanding of what Canadian bacon is and its role in the diet of many a Canuck. It is my purpose here to clarify and to enlighten my dear readers about what is indeed an important, nay integral, foodstuff of my culture.

Canadian bacon, or back bacon/peameal bacon, is essentially made from the same portion of the pig that traditional bacon is made from. The loin (i.e. the back) is the section of the pig from which much bacon is derived, but the sides may also be used.

Probably where most of the confusion rests is in labeling. What is known as “Canadian bacon” in the U.S. may vary from what we know as “peameal bacon” in Canada. Canadian bacon sold in the U.S. (or just “back bacon” in Canada) is cured similar to that of conventional bacon, with the exception of more sugar being used, giving it a slightly sweeter flavour.

Smoked Back Bacon


Peameal bacon, however, is cured in a sweet brine and made with a cornmeal crust, giving it a distinctive sweet and salty taste.

Peameal Bacon


Regardless of the process, Canadian/back/peameal bacon is more akin to ham than conventional bacon due to its being a leaner cut. Conventional bacon has fat that is clearly visible and rather prominent throughout the cut, whereas back bacon looks much like ham. This distinction will explain the quite different flavor and texture differences between the two.

A common misconception surrounding Canadian bacon is that it is “Canada’s version of bacon.” This isn’t the entire picture. The two are rather different cuts of meat and should be treated as such. Conventional bacon can be left tender and fatty or it can be crisped up to varying, and even extreme, degrees. Canadian bacon, on the other hand, is meant to be cooked and left tender. Crispness may form around the edges, especially where peameal bacon is concerned, but the meat is meant to be more akin to ham. One way of describing Canadian bacon is: ham that tastes like bacon.

Canadians do not view back bacon as simply “bacon.” We view it as “back bacon” or “peameal bacon.” Many Canadians, if not most, actually prefer conventional bacon for various reasons. We also produce, process, and consume a lot of conventional bacon ourselves. Back bacon is something special. It is a celebration of a very delicious cut of pork. Let me tell you, there are few more pleasurable experiences than shopping at the historic St. Lawrence Market near Toronto’s waterfront, with fresh peameal bacon sandwich in hand: little garnishing is needed, as the meat is tender and flavourful, and, of course, delightfully stacked. It is the closest thing you can get to a "bacon hamburger."



What is confusing to this Canadian is why there is such a lashing-out from Americans regarding Canadian bacon. What is even more confusing is that this lashing-out, more often than not, is typically coming from self-proclaimed lovers of bacon. What is confusing, ultimately, is why a self-proclaimed lover of bacon would shun not a substitute for conventional bacon but rather a further exploration of the wider fantastic world of bacon.

I leave this question to you American bacon “lovers” who would criticize, shun, or otherwise disparage Canadian bacon:

Do you love bacon, or do you not?

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Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
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snowy

I love bacon!!! I love Canadian bacon because for this GERD sufferer, it's lower in fat and easier to eat. If a breakfast establishment gives me the choice of Canadian bacon, I take it. As much as I do love conventional bacon, some days the consequences of eating some are too great.

And I want that sandwich.

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Cynthetiq

sorry Canadian bacon and English bacon (rashers) fall into NOT bacon category. Same thing goes for the European beikon and others spelled like it.

I'll say that it's a pork product, but it is not the same as American bacon. Not even close.

When we travel and have morning breakfast with "bacon" and I get those rashers or beikon, it's really not the same thing at all. I cannot wait to get home and have real slices of American bacon.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say the same thing about pizza outside of NYC. :P

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Baraka_Guru

Well, if you want to play that game, Cyn, the word "bacon" is from Middle English, but it comes from Old French, and is related to "back": meaning the back of the pig.

So "bacon" can refer to cured meats from the pig back, which is what back bacon is.

Just because Americans have popularized the fattiest cut of the pig back, it doesn't give them exclusive use of the word "bacon."

And of course it's not the same thing. It's not trying to be. That's the point.

__________________
Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot

Daniel_

Simple Rule (in England):

A rasher of mostly meat with a fatty edge = Bacon

A strip of half meat half fat = Streaky Bacon

American Bacon is (in my own experience) cut so thin as to be almost flavourless and cured less than I like.

As the concept is from middle English (as pointed out above), surely the ORIGINAL idea of bacon must be the English one. The NEW idea of bacon (that it should be flavourless fatty pap cut so thin as to be usable as tracing paper) has as much traction in this country as NEW COKE in yours.

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fresnelly

Sadly most British tourists probably experience American style bacon solely at chain hotels in Florida that only serve the cheapest instria-quality meat, luke warm in steamy all-u-can-eat buffet trays.

Buffet trays are the ultimate betrayer of bacon.

Full disclosure: I don't really like back/peameal bacon. I much prefer the smokey, thick cut strip of the good stuff from a quality butcher.

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Cynthetiq

no, that stuff that Daniel is talking about is also not bacon. Those thinly sliced things are disgusting.

Good bacon is hard to find, even in America as many places use food service cuts of bacon, so thin you can see right through it.

My wife hates ham. Jamon is ham in Spanish, but she loves Jamon Serrano. She thought she wouldn't like it because it's Jamon. She doesn't like Jamon Ingles.

Call it by the proper designation, which is my intention BG, American bacon versus Candadian Bacon versus English Bacon etc.

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Leto

@ Daniel_, I really don't see how strip bacon (so-called American bacon) can be referred to as flavourless. I find the smokey crispiness to be far more tastey than the back bacon that BG has so aptly explained.

I think that a lot of confusion lies in the fact that large contingent (the majority?) of members on this forum are Americans and for some reason, back bacon has been branded as "Canadian Bacon" in the US. It makes me wonder what Americans called back bacon, or peameal, before this nick name was adopted.

As an anecdote around the confusion, I was in a hotel in New Jersey, lovely town of Teaneck, once upon a time. I ordered room service and just for kicks, chose a pizza with Canadian Bacon on it. Partly because I love bacon on pizza, and partly because I was curious as to what this 'Canadian Bacon' was.

Imagine my surprise and chagrine when the pizza arrived, and i found it covered in the very same ham slices that I was used to getting on my McDonald's Egg McMuffin. Now I know that ham slices are different from bacon (although BG's etymology of bacon is welcomed!) and I know that what i received was a pizza with ham slices not bacon on it. I also know that in Canada we do not refer to ham slices or peameal or back bacon as Canadian Bacon.

All Hail Bacon.

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Baraka_Guru

Anyone who's serious enough about their bacon will slice it themselves.

This is partly my intent as well. I'm suggesting that Canadian bacon is, indeed, different than American bacon. In my lifetime, I've eaten far more pounds of American bacon than I have Canadian bacon. They are different products.

For example:

Q: What would I prefer to place next to my poached eggs and toast?

A: American bacon

Q: What would I prefer to criss-cross my hamburger with?

A: American bacon

Q: What would I prefer to crumble over my Caesar salad?

A: American bacon

Q: What would I prefer to make a sandwich out of, using a freshly baked kaiser or biscuit, topped only with a bit of melted cheese (if anything)?

A: Peameal bacon

Q: What would I prefer to chop up and use as a garnish in pea soup?

A: Back bacon

Q: What would I prefer to top my pizza with?

A: Peameal bacon, back bacon, American bacon, any damn bacon, dammit!

__________________
Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot

World's King

It's ham. Get over it.

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aberkok

I know you posted this thread because of my Cure Light Wounds joke last night. The jig is up.

And my response to this thread is: NO!

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Baraka_Guru

Au contraire. Ham is taken from the pig's thigh. Wow, I'm shocked, King, because either a) you should really know this, or b) you're trying to cloud people's perceptions of pork products.

What next? Is sirloin brisket?

I see what you mean, though. Back bacon is "hamlike," especially when you compare it to conventional bacon. But it's an odd comparison, because you could also argue that conventional bacon is barely even meat: it's fat, used merely for flavouring dishes. That sort of thing.

Eat meat or GTFO, vegan.

__________________
Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot

Cynthetiq

I won't slice my own American bacon any more than I would slice my own Jamon Serrano. There's a skill that is required to make it an even and proper cut to enjoy throughout the entire slice.

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Baraka_Guru

Or you could find a proper butcher.

But, using and keeping a sharp knife is a skill one can learn with practice.

__________________
Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot

Cynthetiq

sure, but I'm here to eat bacon, not cut it and not cook it. disposing of the oil not to mention getting the oil on your ceiling sucks. I'll leave that to the professionals.

Same goes for Jamon Serrano, I'm here to eat the pork products.

I want to stay on the consumer end, no interest in going up the stream at all. Making the knife comment can easily lead to the "cure and smoke your own" path. No interest in that at all.

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Baraka_Guru

Fair enough. You seem hard-pressed to find good bacon, is all.

And I didn't see the knife comment as a slippery slope fallacy.

__________________
Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot

Daniel_

Leto: my point was not that streaky bacon is flavourless (because it's not), but that in my experience eating and shopping in the US a couple of times it is often cut so thin as to be too thin to taste of anything much.

Cut well, streaky is nearly as good as back, and in some recipes it is better.

__________________

╔═════════════════════════════════════════╗
Overhead, the Albatross hangs motionless upon the air,
And deep beneath the rolling waves,
In labyrinths of Coral Caves,
The Echo of a distant time
Comes willowing across the sand;
And everthing is Green and Submarine
╚═════════════════════════════════════════╝

Cynthetiq

not a fallacy.. more like a snobbery that some seem to have for more "refined" goods. There's been recent bacon snobbery afoot with artisan bacon out in San Francisco.

Artisan bacon goes the local route - SFGate

but there is good bacon here in NYC, as there is the industrial food service thin as paper slices. Just have to know where to go.

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ratbastid

Anyone who says Canadian bacon is better than other kinds doesn't know what he's talking abooot.

Baraka_Guru

Yeah, Cyn, there is a "too far" with most things.

I'm reminded of how I read somewhere that most people can't discern differences in quality and nuances with most wines priced above $20... therefore, most people should be spending only $10 or $20 on wine. Unless, of course, they're trying to impress people.

I'm also reminded of a restaurant here somewhere that apparently flies in fresh French bread daily for those who want "authentic French bread." Yes, because no one here knows how to bake bread very well, you know.

And artisan bacon? Wow, who knew?

__________________
Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot

fresnelly

If you're in Toronto, (hint, hint) I highly recommend making the trek out to Fresh From The Farm for their heavy smoked thick bacon. By the slab or by the slice!

Fresh From The Farm

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MSD

I always assumed the term "Canadian Bacon" was bullshit because all my life I'd never had meat labeled as such that was anything but round ham. I had real Canadian Bacon a few years ago and realized instantly that I'd been hoodwinked.
Some day, you're going to come up to Stamford and I'll showing you two of our local pizza places. I know coal oven pizza is all but gone in NYC, but we just had a place open up in November and they've made pizza cooking into an art form; I can barely consider it the same type of food as other pizza I've had. Then on to Colony Grill for pepperoni and hot oil pizza, which was introduced to me personally by William F. Buckley, Jr.

m0rpheus

I agree with all of those except beside eggs and toast. I want both! (oh and the pea soup one but thats because I hate pea soup)

There's actually a place near my work that makes a backbacon sandwich that is without a doubt the best item of take-out food I have ever had in my life.

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raptor9k

It's all about the thick cut pepper bacon for me. Most of the Canadian bacon I come into contact with is on pizza from chain stores and it mostly just tastes like ham.

Lindy

I don't dislike Canadian Bacon. If someone served it to me for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, I would not go running from the room. But what I've had would be hard to distinguish from one of the many varieties of ham, which next to mutton is probably my least favorite meat.
I think that some of it is in the name. Some folks like Cyn said, just don't consider it bacon even if they like it. I's not bacon to them.
My brother really likes that Greek meat sauce that they serve over pasta in Cincinnati, Ohio, but he will NEVER admit that it's chili. Or chilli, or chile.

I grew up on a farm/ranch where we did some of our own butchering, and even had a little smokehouse (about the size of a closet) where we smoke our own sausage, ham, fish, and the occasional whole or split turkey. I always assumed that Canadian Bacon was just cured/smoked pork tenderloin, because, well, that's what it looks like to me, and indeed, that's what it is. The loin is back meat, (fits right in with back bacon) from right along the hog's spine. The tenderloin is the "eye" of the loin, and when cured (nitrates and/or salt) and lightly smoked become what is called Canadian Style Bacon in the USA. American style bacon is from farther down the side, or from the belly of the hog. My GrandDad always called it smoked side.
As an aside, bacon American style is also not as bad for you as the numbers might indicate, because the USDA rules call for measuring/analyzing the whole piece of bacon. So, while the tables show an ounce of bacon having 12 grams of fat and 151 calories, most of that fat is rendered off, and drained rather than eaten, which cuts out about half of the fat.
In answer to your question B_G, love good bacon, but as others have said the really thin stuff is worthless. On the road the other day I had a Burger King Bacon Double Cheeseburger, and I swear, the paper wrapping the sandwich was thicker than the bacon.

Lindy
on the road in KCMO

genuinegirly

This thread makes me smile. I was oblivious to such a debate.
Since I have nothing to add to the discussion, here's a Canadian pig.

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Lindy

Look at that! Maple (leaf) Smoked Bacon!

Lindy

Leto

hahaha... very good Lindy...

__________________
You said you didn't give a fuck about hockey
And I never saw someone say that before
You held my hand and we walked home the long way
You were loosening my grip on Bobby Orr

http://dune.wikia.com/wiki/Leto_Atreides_I

Glory's Sun

Q.F.T.

'nuff said.

/debate