Let’s be right out front with this. We are getting pretty sick of British and Irish backpackers who insist on telling us how “bad” our bacon is, compared to the bacon they get back home.
As usual, they don’t know what they are talking about (no more than they know anything about good food!)
To be fair, the most commonly eaten bacon in Canada is pretty mediocre – okay, it’s pretty bad. Sort of like the majority of bread eaten here. Sliced, white, full of preservatives, and short on nutrition.
That’s because in our multi-cultural society we get food from all around the world. So there is really no such thing as “Canadian” food.
But there is such a thing as Canadian Bacon!
The majority of the bacon you buy pre-packaged in grocery stores is of the American variety. It is paper thin, fatty, expensive; but, quite tasty. But it is not “Canadian Bacon”. In fact, it is actually American style “pork belly” bacon.
Toronto has been known as “Hogtown” since before the mid 1800′s. That was merely one of the sobriquets given to the city and it has stuck to this day, intended as a bit of an insult.
But that’s not how the city got the name. Since the early 19th Century, Toronto was the leading pork producer in North America and supplied the majority of “salt pork” products to the United Kingdom.
The “bacon” so beloved by people of Britian and Ireland is actually more like ham. It was first produced right here in Toronto and the Americans still refer to it as “Canadian Bacon”.
We simply call it “Back Bacon” or “Peameal Bacon”. Only the Irish consistently do bacon the way we do it here and do a pretty good job of it too.
Visit Toronto’s historic St. Lawrence Market for quality meats and vegetables. You will find quite a few stalls selling back bacon/peameal bacon sandwiches.
Now that is Canadian Bacon, eh?
On the left is “pork belly” – what you’ve likely been eating.
This is Canadian Bacon!