British Bacon ?

alan halvorson · 01-26-2006, 04:35 PM

My newspaper ran an article about a local teacher who had furthered her skills in Great Britain. She remarked that "British bacon is awesome!" but didn't elaborate.

I like bacon but I've never had any that I could describe as awesome. So what's better/different about British bacon?

Mark Sherman · 01-26-2006, 05:07 PM

http://www.foodsubs.com/MeatcureBacon.html

MMMMMMM Thats one thing I missed when I came back from England and Scotland. Oh yeah you gotta get the HP brown sauce to go along with it YUMMY. The sausages are Just the best as well.I looked forward to getting up and heading down for an "ENGLISH" Breakfast.

Eggs

Sausages

Bacon

Mushrooms

All covered in brown sauce.

http://www.hpfoods.com/brands/hpsauce/

JeremyErwin · 01-26-2006, 05:08 PM

I've only been to Britain twice, and the second time round, I was unable to order "Full English Breakfasts"-- they seem to have gone by the wayside. But British Bacon seemed to be bit meatier--less fat, perhaps, and not at all crispy.

MarkHastings · 01-26-2006, 07:27 PM

Quote:

So what's better/different about British bacon?

British Pigs

andrew markworthy · 01-27-2006, 02:01 AM

We Brits love bacon, it's as simple as that. Ironically, the common or garden stuff you find in our supermarkets is usually from Denmark. The really good stuff (and it costs a lot) is not partiuclarly fatty or salty and doesn't shrivel up when cooked. Brits vary over how crispy they like their bacon, but on the softish side tends to be the default option. In addition to bacon in rashers, a bacon joint is a reasonably popular cut of meat (it's typically boiled or roasted and then served with potatoes and veg as a main meal).

Quote:

I was unable to order "Full English Breakfasts"-- they seem to have gone by the wayside.

It depends what sort of hotel you stay in. Most traditional and bigger hotels still serve it. A 'full English' is *very* rarely eaten in Brit homes. It used to be - when mom stayed at home all day and had the time and men had more labour-intensive jobs and needed a calorific start to the day. Now cereal and a cup of tea or coffee are the norm. A full English is something a Brit has as a treat when staying in an hotel. On a point of correction, a full English is rather more elaborate than the list above. It consists of:

Eggs - choice of fried or scrambled
sausage
bacon
fried bread
mushrooms
grilled tomatoes
sliced grilled black [i.e. blood] pudding
baked beans
hash browns

[the latter two are fairly recent innovations]

A 'Welsh breakfast' is the same but with laverbread (i.e. a type of cooked seaweed) as well.

However, on *no* account should you cover it in brown sauce - eeuurgh. I suppose one sees that sort of thing in transport caffs, but not in the sort of hotel where one is accustomed to staying.

And of course in an hotel in addition to the above you can also usually have cereal, fruit juice, and of course toast and either jam or marmalade.

If I'm staying in an hotel I might have that lot if I know I'm likely to miss lunch but otherwise, no way. The thing I'd really like for breakfast is eggs benedict but that particular dish is unknown in the UK.

Quote:

British Pigs

Now just watch it - you're not too old to be spanked.

**HTF Ads**

Dennis*G · 01-27-2006, 07:56 AM

OK, from that foodsubs link, are we talking about streaky bacon that is good or Canadian type bacon that is so good in Britan?

JeremyErwin · 01-27-2006, 08:15 AM

Quote:

Next is the bacon - oh the bacon! Say goodbye to full rasher Irish or Wiltshire bacon, and say farewell to gammon rashers. Here their 'bacon' is our 'streaky'! Yes, our basic, cheap cut, belly bacon is elevated to the grand status of 'bacon' here. They know nothing of full rasher bacon (not since the late 1800's) or of gammon. In New York there are a few places where 'Country Bacon' can be bought which is a kind of small gammon rasher. But your supermarkets here sell 98% streaky and 2% (I checked with Safeway) Canadian 'back' which is nothing more than the smoked pork tenderloin then sliced into tiny little rounds. Good, but not proper bacon.

Quote:

WHERE'S THE BACON? THE REAL BACON?
Yes, bacon, REAL bacon, doesn't exist in North America. There's 'streaky' (fat belly) and there's good but over-rated 'Canada Back' which is the tenderloin of pork, flavoured, and cut into round pieces, that spit when you cook them in the frying pan. But where's the bacon - I mean the REAL bacon? It's like this. Americans like to suck the grissle off pork bones, and they love to eat eat pork chops. All that uncured pork! So a side of pork gets cut up into chops (there goes our full rasher bacon) and the rib bones are extracted and sold as 'spare-ribs' for the populace to barbecue. What's left is the fat streaky belly bacon, which they call 'bacon' and most of it isn't even cured, smoked, or dried. So, you'll never ever see 'real' bacon here. Only streaky & sliced-up semi-smoked tenderloin.
Britmail@aol.com subject: Bacon

source

Quote:

Most bacon consumed in the UK is back bacon (also called short back bacon). The cut comes from the loin in the middle of the back of the animal. It is a lean meaty cut of bacon, with relatively less fat compared to other cuts.
Back bacon is known as Canadian bacon in the United States but not in Canada, where it is simply called back bacon. In Canada it is traditionally unsmoked back bacon that has been sweet pickle cured and coated in yellow cornmeal. This variation is also known as peameal bacon, because in times past a mixture of ground yellow peas was used for coating to improve curing and shelf-life. The "Canadian" bacon sold in the United States is plain lean back bacon.

source

MarkHastings · 01-27-2006, 08:56 AM

Quote:

Now just watch it - you're not too old to be spanked

Actually, as tongue-in-cheek as my comment was, there was a bit of seriousness in it as well.

I assume that pig diets are different in Great Britain as opposed to America, hence the pig will taste differently. Again, that's only an assumption, but my assumtion is based on other facts. Kind of like how wine tastes different from region to region because of the environment in which the grapes grow. I'm sure that can be also translated to the way meat tastes from country to country.

Dennis*G · 01-27-2006, 11:00 AM

Thanks for those links Jeremy. I now know more about bacon then I ever thought possible.

Mark, you are probably correct, especially as more American farms goto these super farms and keep all the animals trapped up in small spaces. In the past 5 years we have definitely been able to tell the difference in our pork products, and that isn't a good thing.