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Main Dish Recipes
Recipes for bacon and kale savory bread pudding, bacon-and-spinach-stuffed pork tenderloin, Bolognese with a hint of bacon, bacon-wrapped salmon pinwheels with parsley sauce, and bacon-wrapped turkey roast
BY PATRICIA LEHNHARDT
Recipes for beef, beer and bacon stew; cream of bacon soup; and bacon & black bean soup
BY SEPTEMBER MORN
Recipes for bacon and tomato pasta, chicken breasts with bacon and mushrooms, and bacon and veggie frittata
BY AMY GRISAK
Recipes for buttermilk cornbread with caramelized onions and bacon, Asian succotash, bacon-y braised Brussels sprouts, and bacon-fat seared cabbage with caraway and lemon
BY NICHOLAS YOUNGINER AND KEVIN FOGLE
Recipes for spinach salad with bacon, strawberries, feta and honeyed pecans; mixed green salad with bacon, walnuts, pears and blue cheese; bacon and grilled peach salad; and bacon and shrimp kale salad
BY FIONA GREEN
Recipes for spiced apple & candied maple bacon galette; bacon blondies; bacon, cranberry and pecan chocolate bark; and dried cherry and bacon bread pudding
BY ASHLEY ENGLISH
Recipes for bacon, bacon, bacon bloody Mary; bacon hot chocolate with bacon marshmallows; bacon caramel milkshake; and orange bacon bourbon cocktail
BY PATRICIA LEHNHARDT
Check out some surprising uses for bacon drippings!
BY JENNIFER DODD
More than a recent trend, this meat transcends time and continents.
BY SAMANTHA JOHNSON
once upon a time, bacon wasn’t an integral part of international cuisine. During those barren days many centuries ago, the irresistible delight of bacon didn’t exist as we know it today and that perfect pair “bacon ’n eggs” consisted of nothing but... eggs!
But from whence did the glorious idea of bacon originate? In what burst of brilliance did the concept of a cured pork product occur? Let’s explore the history of our favorite meat product.
The Early Days of Bacon
According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the word “bacon” dates to the 14th century and can be defined as “meat from the back and sides of a pig.” It is said to be an Old French word derived from the Proto-Germanic “bakkon” meaning “back meat.” The related word “flitch” refers to a “side of bacon” and is said to date from 13th century Middle English, which indicates that the consumption of bacon in Europe predates the 13th century.
But long before the word “bacon” existed, the Chinese were curing and preserving pork as early as 1500 B.C., while another precursor to bacon — a dish called petaso — was regularly eaten in the Roman Empire. “Thousands of years ago, bacon came about as a food simply as a survival tactic,” says Heather Lauer, author of “Bacon: A Love Story” (William Morrow). “People needed the ability to preserve meat and out of that was born the best meat ever.”
Bacon drips with history and has been eaten by different cultures through many centuries.
According to Alan Davidson’s “Oxford Companion to Food” (Oxford University Press), the word “bacon” was originally a generic term for any type of pork. By the 17th century, the word was reserved for its current (and more specific) definition.
As early interest in bacon grew, so did the focus on raising pigs with the characteristics to produce the best bacon. In Joseph Harris’ 1883 book “Harris on the Pig” (reprinted by Lyons Press in 1999), he notes that the cross of the Berkshire pig with the Tamworth pig produces “the most profitable bacon pigs in the kingdom, [with] the Berkshire blood giving an extraordinary tendency to feed, and securing the early maturity in which alone the Tamworth breed is deficient.” (Elsewhere in his book, Harris adds that “A wellcooked cheek of bacon, with roast chicken, is a dish for an epicure.”)
Lauer notes that as other methods for preserving food became available in modern times, the relevance of bacon became driven more by flavor. “It just tastes good and it binds us together as a culture in a lot of ways,” she says, “whether simply as a breakfast food or more unusually through the various ways in which it has become a ‘trend’ in recent years. It’s unlikely that the people who originally figured out how to cure bacon could have imagined someone would one day dip it in chocolate!”
TRUE OR FALSE: It’s recorded that people have I been raising pigs in China as a food source since 7000 B.C.
ANSWER: True. The oldest known recipe for pork, suckling pig stuffed with dates, comes from 500 B.C. China.
Bringin’ Home the Bacon
For centuries, the relative ease of pig-keeping meant that farmers had the opportunity to use bacon as an inexpensive way to feed their families, and in the United States during the 1800s and early 1900s, pork (including bacon) outranked beef as the most commonly eaten meat. Raising, processing and preserving one’s own bacon was as economical as it was nourishing.
The first commercial bacon-processing facility was established by John Harris in 18th century England, and commercially produced bacon began to take off in the United States during the early 20th century. Advertisements from the era indicate a movement that encouraged housewives to cook with commercially produced bacon. “An easy economy — a side of Premium bacon,” boasts one 1922 ad from Swift’s Premium Hams and Bacon, while a 1930 ad references the “evenly proportioned” balance of “fat and lean” along with the “sanitary wrappings” in which the bacon was sold.
Despite its worldwide popularity and its long and impressive history, the appearance, flavor and style of modern-day bacon varies by geographic location. “The bacon that we know in the United States is actually quite different from the bacon you find in England and other parts of the world,” Lauer says. “American bacon comes from the belly, but in other countries it’s usually from the loin or sometimes also the shoulder. Loin bacon is much leaner, but it’s still that tasty combination of sweet and salty flavors that