Bacon is a meat product prepared from pork and usually cured. Let’s see some amazing facts about our favourite food!
1.Bacon is cured through either a process of injecting with or soaking in brine or using plain salt (dry curing)
2. In America, bacon is usually cured and smoked, and different flavours can be achieved by using various types of wood, or rarely corn cobs; peat is sometimes used in the United Kingdom.
3. This process can take up to eighteen hours, depending on the intensity of the flavour desired.
4. The Virginia Housewife (1824), thought to be one of the earliest American cookbooks, gives no indication that bacon is ever not smoked, though it gives no advice on flavouring, noting only that care should be taken lest the fire get too hot.
5. In early American history, the preparation and smoking of bacon (like the making of sausage) seems to have been a gender-neutral process, one of the few food-preparation processes not divided by gender.
6. In the United Kingdom and Ireland, smoked and unsmoked varieties are equally common, unsmoked being referred to as green bacon.
7. The term streaky bacon refers to belly bacon, due to the prominence of the bands of fat
8. Bacon is often served with eggs and sausages as part of a full breakfast.
9. Historically, the skin left on the cut is known as ‘bacon rind’, but rindless bacon is also common throughout the English-speaking world. The meat may be bought smoked or unsmoked.
10. The most common form sold is ‘middle bacon’, which includes the more of the streaky, fatty section of side bacon along with a portion of the loin of back bacon. In response to increasing consumer diet-consciousness, some supermarkets also offer the loin section only. This is sold as ‘short cut bacon’ and is usually priced slightly higher than middle bacon. Both varieties are usually available with the rind removed
11. In Canada the term ‘bacon’ on its own typically refers to side bacon.
12. ‘Back bacon’ refers to either smoked or unsmoked bacon cut from the boneless eye of pork loin, this is called ‘Canadian bacon’ in the United States when cut into a thick medallion shape.
13. Peameal bacon is back bacon, brined and coated in fine cornmeal (historically, it was rolled in a meal made from ground dried peas).
14. Some of the meanings of bacon overlap with the German language term Speck. Germans use the term bacon explicitly for Frühstücksspeck (‘breakfast Speck’) which are cured or smoked pork slices.
15. Traditional German cold cuts favor ham over bacon, however “Wammerl” (grilled pork belly) remains popular in Bavaria.
16. The United States and Canada have seen an increase in the popularity of bacon and bacon related recipes, dubbed “bacon mania”. The sale of bacon in the US has increased significantly since 2011.
17. Sales climbed 9.5% in 2013, making it an all-time high of nearly $4 billion in US. In a survey conducted by Smithfield, 65% of Americans would support bacon as their “national food”.
18. Dishes such as bacon explosion, chicken fried bacon, and chocolate-covered bacon have been popularised over the internet, as has using candied bacon. Recipes spread quickly through both countries’ national media, culinary blogs, and YouTube.
19. Restaurants have organised and are organising bacon and beer tasting nights, The New York Times reported on bacon infused with Irish whiskey used for Saint Patrick’s Day cocktails, and celebrity chef Bobby Flay has endorsed a “Bacon of the Month” club online, in print,and on national television.
20. Commentators explain this surging interest in bacon by reference to what they deem American cultural characteristics.
21. Alison Cook, writing in the Houston Chronicle, argues the case of bacon’s American citizenship by referring to historical and geographical uses of bacon. Early American literature echoes the sentiment—in Ebenezer Cooke’s 1708 poem The Sot-Weed Factor, a satire of life in early colonial America, the narrator already complains that practically all the food in America was bacon-infused.
22. One 20-gram (0.7 oz) rasher of cooked streaky bacon contains 5.4 grams (0.2 oz or 27 %) of fat, and 4.4 grams (0.2 oz or 22 %) of protein.
23. Four pieces of bacon can also contain up to 800 mg of sodium, which is roughly equivalent to 1.92 grams of salt. The fat and protein content varies depending on the cut and cooking method.
24. 68% of the food energy of bacons come from fat, almost half of which are saturated.
25. Each ounce of bacon contains 30 milligrams of cholesterol (0.1%).
26. The word is derived from the Old High German bacho, meaning “buttock”, “ham” or “side of bacon”, and cognate with the Old French bacon.
27. Although bacon made of pig meat is most popular, chicken, lamb, goat, beef and turkey can be used to make its great replacements.
28. Most salable bacon flavored products are bacon toothpaste, bacon peanut brittle, bacon dental floss, bacon popcorn, bacon vodka, bacon mints, etc.
29. Pig farming is a huge industry in China. Almost half of the world’s pigs come from the China.
30. September 3rd is the International Bacon Day!
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