Our Bacon IS Streaky, and We Like It Anyway...So Much
Wanting to seem abreast of current food events, I thought I'd chime in on America's sweetheart: Bacon. Though, looking at past posts on the topic, it seems more apt to call bacon our passionately explosive love interest rather than a mere sweetheart. Ok. Fine. It's just that they laughed at me in an Edinburgh hotel one morning when I asked for bacon and they gave me a wallet-thick slab of ham. The server was already exasperated because I had asked for my egg yolks to be cooked through, and when he delivered the plate, he announced (in the most beautiful brogue) "Here's your cremated egg." He pronounced it like "Krematid" with rolling Rs, and I loved him and his voice and accent so much, I felt apologetic about how I liked my food. I'd follow a Scotsman anywhere, and I always order my eggs "Krematid" now. When I pointed out to him that I ordered bacon, not ham, I got a raucus snarl. "You mean STREAKY bacon!" (rolling those Rs...STRRRRReaky). I just didn't know how to answer him. Did I mean streaky bacon?
Yes, I did. I hadn't realized that we are pitied in the UK for our paltry servings of pig over on our side of the pond. In an England hotel, I was told that U.S. bacon, "streaky" bacon, is what poor people make do with eating.
Gosh.
It's true that it takes about 26 pieces for me to feel satiated from it, but I had just not seen this whole thing from the mother country's perspective before. When I went to do my research for our blog's overly educated readers of bacon news, I came first thing across the most beautiful British poem titled "Streaky Bacon." Perhaps because one of our poorest, actress Julia Louis Dreyfus, is gracing a recent cover of Shape Magazine in a bikini and confessing to a reporter that "My biggest food vice is bacon...In fact, I don't keep bacon in my house--that would be way too tempting," I feel compelled to print this poem.
Streaky Bacon
by Herbert Lomas
Suddenly I couldn’t remember the name of
streaky bacon. Gammon, yes, back bacon, ham,
but at the point where streaky bacon
should be there was a black hole
like the centre of the galaxy, and my brain
was being sucked into its seductive gravity.
I decided to read a bit and come back
for the streaky bacon, but now
I was outside my brain, looking at its
irresponsible darkness. It was America’s fault.
In the USA they only have one kind of bacon.
It’s half an inch of fat with a cotton-thin red edge
and they don’t call it streaky because it isn’t.
I took down the Encyclopaedia Britannica.
Bacon comes from German bachen, ‘wild pig’.
It’s a side of swine after removing the spare ribs,
pickling or smoking, has an extremely high
fat content and is not particularly nutritious -
American bacon by weight contains only 8.5 per cent
protein - but the article didn’t mention streaky bacon.
I turned to my hostess, but she said. ‘We only have
one kind of bacon. Canadian bacon, though,
is more lean.’ So I said, ‘In England we have lots -
back bacon, gammon, ham and - oh! - streaky...’
Suddenly the earth was flat, the sun was moving
left to right across the sky, our world was
the centre of a universe that has no centre,
the black hole had stopped swallowing the galaxy,
and death, though probably not far off,
probably wasn’t coming to Florida today.
This poem appears on the Poetry Library Southbank Centre website at poetrymagazines.org.uk.
The image of Crispy Bacon comes from Blogchef.net
--Sweet B
paul on March 13, 2009 at 04:20 PM
Enough of the bacon posts already!!!
Sarah on March 16, 2009 at 03:13 AM
I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don't know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.
Sarah
http://grillsblog.com
Joseph on March 16, 2009 at 12:34 PM
More bacon posts please! It is the food of Gods. Loveitloveitloveit. It's high time bacon got the attention it deserves!
Jim on March 16, 2009 at 01:19 PM
Mmmmmmmmm, bacon...
I love bacon.
Bacon and eggs... yum!
BLT sandwiches are sufficient justification for planting tomatoes in the garden.
My daughter does not eat bacon (poor child -- she claims she would be a complete vegetarian except that chicken tastes so good) but she will fix her boyfriend a steak with onion and bacon on top and will also make him potato salad with sliced hard-boiled eggs, pepperoncini, and (of course) bacon on top.
Very nice entry, thanks, crispy and crunchy and salty...
mpw280 on March 16, 2009 at 02:13 PM
I found English bacon, streaky or not, substandard fare. If it was Danish in origin it smelled and tasted like the fish meal they feed to the pigs, and was especially substandard. The smoking process really makes American bacon what it is, especially when it is thick cut. Since I will be in England in two weeks I will get a new comparison from when I was there 12 years ago and see if it has gotten better or is as I remember it was.
Robbins Mitchell on March 16, 2009 at 02:52 PM
mmmmmm bacon wrapped hot dogs topped with chili on a bun slathered with Cheez Whiz...food of the gods....usually in the UK when they mention bacon it is what is generally known as 'army bacon' which is a small bit of lean meat surrounded by fat...utterly declasse' if you ask me...give me some hickory smoked thick cut Blue Ribbon brand bacon anytime
Lois Grobb on March 16, 2009 at 02:58 PM
Delightful ! I too love bacon, so very, very much, and simply chortled over the 26 piece satiated point...I may hate myself afterwards, but...there it is. Meat candy, indeed...
musical mountaineer on March 16, 2009 at 03:09 PM
"...I cannot and will not eat cushion of bacon. If I cannot get streaky bacon, I will do without anything."
George Grossmith, The Diary of a Nobody, Ch. 17.
rondog on March 16, 2009 at 03:50 PM
Not true - I have flown several times from London and Amsterdam and the only food I can handle in Great Britain (other than fish and chips) is (1) bacon sandwiches in Heathrow and the Breakfast on the BMI planes - it was total streaky bacon on top of eggs and some sort of fried potatoes - very greasy - just like I eat everyday in the USA - and everyone else on the plane gobbled it up too..
LP on March 16, 2009 at 06:47 PM
I have to laugh at your attempts to get 'American style' cooking in England - my first time in Scotland I asked for "Scrambled eggs, please. Dry. Overcooked," I explained at the blank look. I'd been to Scandinavia and France and knew European eggs were served runny as all getout. It was early in the morning, at the beginning of a blizzard, and the hotel manager was taking my order. My traveling companion and I watched the manager go into the kitchen, and subsequently came, "HOW DOES ONE OVER COOK EGGS!?" came from behind closed doors. And yes, we too got 'ham'. But mmm, bacon.
FrancisT on March 17, 2009 at 01:15 AM
Robbins Mitchell:
usually in the UK when they mention bacon it is what is generally known as 'army bacon' which is a small bit of lean meat surrounded by fat...utterly declasse' if you ask me...
So when I used to live in the US (California) finding bacon in the supermarket that wasn't about 90% fat was a challenge. Even the UK's streaky bacon has a greater percentage of meat than that. Proper British or Irish bacon (back bacon) has relatively little fat. Think pork chop only thinner or ham if you like (except that it doesn't taste like ham or pork chop)
Getting properly smoked british bacon is a challenge, usually they seem to cure with salt and a bit of "smoke additive" but going to a butcher instead of a supermarket helps.
Aaron Perlut on March 31, 2009 at 02:51 PM
you should check out the Bacon Institute. Bills itself as the MySpace of bacon lovers: http://www.baconinstitute.com