This website is all about bacon. If you are a bacon lover, you’ve come to the right place.
porcine love
bacon, lettuce, and tomato
When good ideas go bad
Bakon, bacon-flavored vodka
… Although, it does sound like fun to garnish one’s bacon vodka martini with a hard-boiled egg (skewered on one of those little plastic swords).
History of bacon
Until well into the sixteenth century, bacon or bacoun was a Middle English term used to refer to all pork in general. The term bacon comes from various Germanic and French dialects. It derives from the French bako, Common Germanic bakkon and Old Teutonic backe, all of which refer to the back. There are breeds of pigs particularly grown for bacon, notably the Yorkshire and Tamworth.
What is bacon?
Here is what the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary says about bacon:
Definition of BACON
- a side of a pig cured and smoked
- money; specifically : money gained through employment or legislation —usually used in the phrase bring home the bacon
Origin of BACON
- Middle English, from Anglo-French, of Germanic origin; akin to Old High German bahho side of bacon, bah back
- — First Known Use: 14th century —
We will concern ourselves with definition #1 predominantly.
According to Wikipedia:
Bacon is a cured meat prepared from a pig. It is first cured using large quantities of salt, either in a brine or in a dry packing; the result is fresh bacon (also known as green bacon). Fresh bacon may then be further dried for weeks or months in cold air, boiled, or smoked. Fresh and dried bacon must be cooked before eating. Boiled bacon is ready to eat, as is some smoked bacon, but may be cooked further before eating.
Bacon is prepared from several different cuts of meat. It is usually made from side and back cuts of pork, except in the United States, where it is almost always prepared from pork belly (typically referred to as “streaky”, “fatty”, or “American style” outside of the US and Canada). The side cut has more meat and less fat than the belly. Bacon may be prepared from either of two distinct back cuts: fatback, which is almost pure fat, and pork loin, which is very lean. Bacon-cured pork loin is known as back bacon.
Bacon may be eaten smoked, boiled, fried, baked, or grilled, or used as a minor ingredient to flavor dishes. Bacon is also used for barding and larding roasts, especially game, e.g. venison, pheasant. The word is derived from the Old High German bacho, meaning “buttock”, “ham” or “side of bacon”, and cognate with the Old French bacon.
In continental Europe, this part of the pig is usually not smoked like bacon is in the United States; it is used primarily in cubes (lardons) as a cooking ingredient, valued both as a source of fat and for its flavor. In Italy, this is called pancetta and is usually cooked in small cubes or served uncooked and thinly sliced as part of an antipasto.
