The Succulent Succession of Swine Side: A Brief History of Bacon

Although not the most popular animal in the US, the pig remains a "wonderful, magical animal" and has become a staple of the American diet (and internet memes - some more NSFW than others). It is, in fact, even more popular in Europe. Of course, if you happen to eat the pig it becomes pork - like transubstantiation. Pork just happens to encompass a wide swatch of carnivore favorites, including ham, fatback, soki, porkchops, and - arguably most important of all - bacon. While consumption of pork in general hasn't changed much in the last 50 years, bacon has become more popular than ever.

Depending on how you define bacon, of course.


Defining Deliciousness

Bacon in the US comes from the pig belly, which gives it the distinctive parallel stripes of light fat and darker meat (coincidentally, 80s movies often mention pork belly futures, which seems like an outlandish trading commodity, but is actually a means of alleviating risk for meat packers by helping to stabilize the price). In other parts of the world this bacon takes up the name American bacon or breakfast bacon. The USDA even appetizingly defines bacon as the "the cured belly of a swine carcass." But this is a bit backwards, as etymologically bacon comes from the Old French and Germanic words for "back."

In order to preserve the meat and give it its distinctive flavor, it has to be cured - usually by sitting in a smoke house or in a barrel with a heavy brine. Curing defines bacon, but location on the pig is also important (in fact, the only thing initially separating ham from bacon was that ham came from the legs and bacon came from almost anywhere else). Bacon in general often refers to any portion of meat (non-organ) cuts rear of the front legs and excluding the rear legs. Although modern consensus limits bacon to the belly, sides below (or behind, if you don't want anthropomorphic pigs) the ribs, and the fatty portion of the back.

As noted, American-style or streaky bacon comes from the belly. The back portion is usually called Canadian (or Irish) bacon in the US (when it's not ham) and tends to have much less fat. Side bacon represents a mix of the fatty and meaty American and Canadian associations. The Kevin Bacon tends to have a lot of Golden Globes and SAG awards and isn't considered very edible. These distinctions between different cuts of bacon - and even the difference between ham and bacon - have not existed for long.


A Brief History of Deliciousness

Pigs were one of the earliest domesticated animals. Human diets have included various types of pork for quite a while. Chinese historians often claim the first ancestor of bacon in the form of pickled pork bellies around 1500 BC. While whole animals became the focus of feasts and banquets, armies used cured cuts of meat as a marching staple. Unlike the American association with long strips of smoked pig belly, most early forms of "bacon" likely came in chunks and were heavily salted to prevent decomposition and to remain edible.

The Romans issued soldiers rations with pork (about 2lbs of grain and 1lb of meat when possible, augmented with what was available nearby). They distinguished pig by two types: perna (hind-quarter/ham) and petaso (fore-quarter/shoulder bacon). Soldiers were often given petaso (often just called bacon in English); a contubernium (squad of eight) had its own frying pan to bake bread and fry meats.

During their occupation of Britain they brought numerous Roman foods to the Celtic populace - including soldiers' bacon. Subsequent generations of immigrant Angles and Saxons enjoyed using bacon grease (and pork) in their cooking. Distinguishing bacon from other type of pork has happened in numerous countries recently, but for much of the last few centuries the culinary distinction existed primarily in the Anglosphere.

But the Roman invention of specifying different parts of pork mostly disappeared after the empire collapsed. In the centuries afterward etymological ancestors of bacon simply defined cuts of meat. By the 12th century in England bacon was being used to refer to cuts of meat from the back - initially adopted as a synonym of flicche or flitch (this corresponds to adopting an abundance of Old French words as the Normans came in).

Subsequently, the famous story of the Dunmow flitch has helped solidify bacon's place in history. Supposedly the tale spawned the phrase "bring home the bacon" because a married couple could bring home a flitch of hog (i.e. side of bacon) if they had not quarreled for twelve months and a day. Supposedly the custom was so widespread that Chaucer referenced it. Bacoun (Middle English compared to Old French bacon above) soon referred to any cut of pork.

By the 1600s, bacon referred to a cut of pig meat cured as a single piece (back when slices (or rashers if you're British) were called flitches). By the 1750s bacon was synonymous with the cured side or back of a pig (close to the current general definition now). Northern England (not Scotland) had pickled pork - a close equivalent to modern bacon. By the late 1700s, ranchers and industrialists bred pigs to emphasize particular portions and flavors of the meat (even breeding them for bacon that could more easily be cured).

Although most bacon was heavily salted or smoked in a chimney, more refined curing processes began to develop. Wiltshire curing, one of the oldest styles of modern bacon, developed in the 1860s. As ice became more common, ice houses developed. The cold temperature let butchers cure meat over longer periods of time, requiring less salt - allowing for sweeter, more flavorful bacon.


Now let's see some petaso lingerie.