What is it with you Americans and bacon?

I have been meaning to ask you this for AGES, but keep forgetting.  What is the deal with you Americans and bacon? I keep seeing blog posts and twitter updates talking about bacon and how lovely it is. It is almost as if it is either a special treat, or something you aren't supposed to eat or ... I am not sure what actually. It has intrigued me for a while.  Because here bacon is something you have with your eggs and that's it.  Nothing to get excited about. I see Heather from Dooce mentions it sometimes. About loving bacon.  And Stephania from City Mama also mentioned in a tweet the other day.  "at MOMocrats brunch. mmmm bacon" What's the deal with bacon? Enquiring mind wants to know.

Edited to add: Funnily enough, just bought bacon at the shop. I never eat the stuff as I am not a big meat eater. But Marko and Rose eat it. This is what our bacon looks like (before we cut the fat off) Oh and we don't often make our bacon crispy, it is mostly soft.

PS Your bacon must be VERY very good in order to justify bacon flavoured ice cream.

Edited to add again:  What a brilliant article!  A commenter linked to this brilliant Salon article that explains America's love of bacon. So funny. I had no idea it was such a big thing there.  Fascinating actually. Such an interesting insight into your culture. Very well written article.

PPS I can't believe I have done an entire blog post about bacon. I've never even thought about the stuff before. See! You're never too old to learn.

Comments

[Jul]

Hmmmn... in addition to being the tastiest of the cured pork products, it's also something of a cultural touchstone. It's fatty and decadent and often overused (one of our fast food chains has a sandwich festooned with six [!!!] strips o' the stuff). However, it's also oh-so delicious. As far as items which sum up the best/worst of America go, it's either that or Wal-Mart Supercenters (and I'll take the former... dipped in maple syrup, ideally).

[Sara]

I'm American and I don't get it either. Yuck.

[Tripsmom]

Apparenty - and I have no problem being corrected - USA bacon is thin strips, and crispy, crispy. Not like what they serve here in RSA (especially in hotels) - large moist soggy bacon.

[Sue O'Lear]

Well, besided being amazingly delicious, it is also incredibly bad for you, right? I mean, I know in America we know NOTHING about moderation, and I know in America we are the most obnoxious about KNOWING about health, but in fact are the fattest nation in the world. BUT, between the nitrates, the fat, the sodium - well, there's just nothing in it that's good for you. Eating something with no nutritional value whatsoever - eating something based on it's wonderfully yummy taste alone - well, it's DECADENT.

So, that is what I think is up with Americans and Bacon.

[Sakoro]

South African bacon is slightly different than American bacon-- in fact Americans call it "Canadian bacon".

American bacon is from the pork belly, a different, much fattier part of the pig. You can see all of the ripples of fat and it's super greasy. Definately not something you should eat every morning if you don't want to die of a heart attack. Here's a photo from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Bacongrease.jpg

[giddy]

We Americans definitely have lots of jokes about bacon, and how everything is better with bacon on it/in it. (We'll joke about sprinkling bacon bits on our ice cream--which of course no one ever does.....but it does sound kind of good!) (Although I HAVE had a chocolate bar with bacon in it. Not as good as a plain chocolate bar with a strip of bacon on top might have been, but interesting......)
I agree that we have sort of made bacon the pinnacle of bad-for-you deliciousness, and that's why you hear about it all the time. Strangely enough, my favorite bacon product isn't American, though; it's Lithuanian. Yeast rolls stuffed with bacon-onion filling. Bacon buns, we call them. We then proceed to tell non-Lithuanian guests that they are dry and unpleasant, so maybe they'll leave them alone and we can have them all to ourselves! But invariably they notice our moans of gustatory pleasure and the secret is out.

This weekend I visited my MIL & FIL out in the country, and they took my kids to go visit a neighbor who's raising 2 pigs. Named Pork Chop and Bacon. Heh.

[Judy]

I agree - our "bacon" is different from what you probably perceive as bacon. We use it for so many other things - cooking it with green beans, wrapping it around chicken breasts (or shrimp or jalapeno peppers stuffed with cream cheese - excuse me while I wipe away the drool), crumbling it to put on top of baked potatoes or salads...

[Miss W]

American and not a fan (I don't eat pork). However, I do like the flavors they smoke the bacon with -- for those flavors alone, I eat vegetarian bacon (mmmm....soy!). BUT, bacon is used in oh so many things -- wrapping shrimp or scallops, my husband layers it over the top of the thanksgiving tukey while it bakes...

And to the previous commenter, in re.: bacon ice cream. It exists. I've seen it. At an ice cream parlor that also has made "sweet corn" ice cream among others. Sadly, I didn't get there with any pork eating friends in time to find out if it was any good.

[Em]

Must I defend the bacon love? LOL!

For me, as a lazy American, its a treat because its messy and dangerous to cook so I rarely have it. I'm also a salt addict and there is nothing so salty as bacon.

There. I can't speak for all Americans but that is why I love bacon (when I love bacon).

[Beth]

My husband and I are vegetarians and don't serve meat to our children in our home. When we are out, we let them have meat if they choose to, and bacon is the one item that they are completely obsessed with. They'd pass up just about anything else for a strip or two of bacon! I'm not a regular watcher of The Simpsons, but isn't "mmmmm bacon" a Homer Simpson quote?

[Wyliekat]

Yeah, I hate that we get blamed for the fatty, soggy bacon (Canadians). Me, I like the thin and crispy stuff, same as the next person. And it's salty, horribly bad for you, oh-so-wrong . . . but it's great in sandwiches, on pizza, with breakfast, in a car, on a plane, with or without Sam I Am.

[Rosie]

thin, crispy, salth strips of bacon. Yum. It's very terrible for you, but it is so good that in the moment you wouldn't mind dying if death tasted like bacon.

We only eat it once a month on blts and then again as part of Christmas breakfast.

Mmmmm. Bacon.

Canadian "bacon" is not bacon.

[Becky]

Just had to add - they totally DO have bacon flavored ice cream! I've never tried it (ewww, can't even imagine...) but it does exist!

And regarding your last post - so sorry Kate is still feeling miserable! Poor thing - I hope the pain managment works out a little better today.
:) Becky
http://www.stinkylemsky.typepad.com/

[Dani]

You know about the Forbidden Fruit, right? Well, bacon is the Forbidden Meat. ;)

With the cholesterol, fat & sodium in bacon it's yumminess makes it all the more enticing.

We LOVE what we're not supposed to have.

Me? I'm all about the bacon cheeseburger. :)

[polly]

I'm American and I have no idea! I did not realize we were so obsessed with bacon. But our bacon is different from the bacon my English sister in law eats/serves. It is flavorful. But I'm not too into it. We eat very little meat here.

Quite un-American actually.

[Egg Donor (ret.)]

I'm also an American Vegetarian and I eat soy bacon on my lunchtime sandwiches every day. I was not a big real-bacon fan, but the soy stuff is great. I do see why meat eaters love the real stuff - it's crispy and very flavorful and full of fat (which I don't like on most anything, but I see why people do).

http://www.seeveggiesdifferently.com/product_detail.aspx?id=352

[gretchen]

I was watching a show on the Food Network last night and one of the cocktails featured was bourbon and bacon drippings. The guy who tried it loved it.

American bacon is thin and crispy, like a pig cracker. I'm not a huge fan, but there are times and places when only bacon will do.

[Egg Donor (ret.)]

I'm also an American Vegetarian and I eat soy bacon on my lunchtime sandwiches every day. I was not a big real-bacon fan, but the soy stuff is great. I do see why meat eaters love the real stuff - it's crispy and very flavorful and full of fat ( I don't like the full-of-fat in most anything, but I see why people do).

http://www.seeveggiesdifferently.com/product_detail.aspx?id=352

[Christine]

Mmmmm....bacon.

It's everything bad for you...salty, full of saturated fat. It's also crispy and sizzly (is that a word?) and in a country that has just begun to list calorie counts on restaurant menus (New York City with other cities soon on the way), it's a bit of decadence that says "screw you and your calorie counting, bring on the lard!"

What poor timing for this conversation...I only packed a salad for lunch. It pales in comparison to a bacon cheeseburger. ;)

Reminds me of this Beggin' Strips commercial! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvxgM3lr-mg

[jen w]

I'm american and bacon is ok, I can take it or leave it. We do not eat it much around here. I hate cooking it (tons of grease everywhere) and if I do buy it, I get the microwave type. The only thing I have to say I really like are BLT sandwiches but only make those a few times a year. I really don't know anyone who just is in love with it, maybe it's regional! It is really bad for you, and anyone who is health conscious really won't eat much of it!

[Liz]

Mmmm... bacon!

Salon has a lovely article that explains the American obsession with bacon: http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2008/07/07/bacon_mania/index.html

[Liz]

Well, darnit, I think the whole Salon link didn't show in my previous post:

http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2008/07/07/
bacon_mania/index.html

[Tine]

I've never been to SA (sadly), but spent a semester in London. If SA bacon is like English bacon (and I bet it is), then it's quite different from American bacon.

I'm more or less vegetarian, but I simply cannot give up bacon. Even though it's horrifyingly bad for me. It's just sooooo yummy and salty and crispy.

Mmmm....bacon....

[Gina]

Ok, Im a S'effrican but here is my 2 cents...

As a 'good' Jew, I dont eat pork or mix meat and milk or even eat shellfish, but once in a while (really really) when we go out for breakfast, I will eat the bacon that comes with Pauls meal (he usually orders his meal with no bacon), I always ask for extra crispy and I relish every moment. Its bad for me, its oily and greasy and my arteries cry when they see it coming and of course its completely forbidden but it is so yummy and such a treat I cant help myself...

[victoria]

I couldn't eat it after reading an account by a slaughterhouse worker in the book "Skinny Bitch" that pigs are intelligent, friendly animals who sometimes come up to him and snuffle him (not unlike a dog would) before he kills them by ramming a spike into their brains through their eyes. Bacon? No, thank you.