Comments on: Review of What the English Call Bacon

By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 19:12:00 +0000

It’s all about what you grew up with. I grew up in Australia with back and middle (similar) bacon. When I moved to the US I was horrified with the bacon here. When you’re used to back bacon you don’t think it’s like ham at all. This is like comparing some old lady’s boiled sweets to some amazing confection from a high end chocolatier just because they are both made primarily out of sugar.

I don’t enjoy the taste or texture of American bacon at all. It’s either cooked so crisply that it shatters into a thousand pieces if you touch it with a fork or it’s tough like strips of denim.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 13:01:00 +0000

I have to say I hate American bread, very sugary, just not the same. Been in the US for 20 years and won’t eat the bread though I have found sugar free wheat bread by natures own that I will eat, and it will be a bacon sarnie with brown sauce….mmmmmm

By: Johndoe

Johndoe — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 03:55:00 +0000

You complete tw@t…

By: Tom

Tom — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 06:30:00 +0000

“BTW: The tea party was over taxation, not culinary preference.”

Looks like you completely missed the point.

By: Buttie

Buttie — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 02:56:00 +0000

Our American bacon is terrible in comparison to British bacon. Once I tried it i never looked back! Too many Americans get in automatic defence mode, just admit our bacon isn’t that great.

By: Bill

Bill — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 17:19:00 +0000

English bacon rules. American bacon is 40-50% fat. God’s own sandwich is English bacon on a buttered roll with HP (brown) sauce.
P.S. I bet you ate at McDonalds in England, didn’t you?

By: bacon knight

bacon knight — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 20:40:27 +0000

Anne,
You’re right a lot of American food is processed with tons of sugar and salt. If you want food that isn’t you have to pay a little more.
I very much enjoyed British food, it was like good home cooking. Steak and kidney pudding was amazing but sadly you don’t find that on many menus here. In the states we look at things like sausage and mash as unhealthy but have no problem pound down countless tons of deep fried potatoes.
Yes a lot of bacon here is nothing but fat. That’s because it is cheaper for restaurants to use subpar bacon and sadly we just accept it. There are some high quality bacons that have just the right amount of fat, but once again its going to cost you.
On of our missions here at Mr. Baconpants is to build awareness of the higher quality bacon and to refuse to eat the burnt thin strips of fat some places call bacon, I’m looking at you burger king.
Thanks for posting if you have anymore experiences with bacon, good or bad, let us know.

By: anne

anne — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 03:46:16 +0000

As A Brit living In the US I have to say I am very disappointed in the food, I buy fresh meat and veg and cook English things like shepherds pie yorkshire puddings etc my husband loves it. We go to store that sells food from other countries, there we buy Heinze baked beans, Branston pickle, oxo cubes and some other things. It costs a lot but American beans are horrible and always have something in them.
The bread here is sweet.far to sweet I have to use marmalade to take away the taste, although that is sweet it has a sharpeness to it. NOW THE BACON….its horrid..its all fat and YES you do have to cook it to a crisp to get rid of the fat, I rarely eat it. American cheese is like processed cheese and its orange, I buy swiss cheese to get a nicer taste. They seem to smoke everything here or put sugar or something it.there is no such thing as just food as is.

Apart from the disappointing food….America is great…!!!

By: tony p

tony p — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 22:15:58 +0000

My mouth waters just looking at the picture. English bacon is vastly superior to American bacon.

By: Carmel

Carmel — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 21:42:38 +0000

Dear Sean

I’m sorry you didn’t like our bacon. Clearly you need to develop better taste buds. Our bacon is lush. You can only eat yours when it is burnt to a crisp as it is virtually all fat. Now eating fat has its place (if you come back ask for a bag of pork scratching) but you can’t beat a nice piece of smoked bacon. And no it doesn’t taste like ham at all, which is best boilet (in coke) and then roasted) yum. Oh and Liz when you say that most places here use streaky bacon for BLT’s that is simply not true. There may be a small amount of fat on the bacon but not to the extent you get it in the US. I would agree though that mayonaise does taste good on BLT’s

Does anyone know why bacon smells so good??

Carmel

By: Stan

Stan — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 21:50:39 +0000

In the upper midwest we have lots of hogs and great “streaky bacon”. Most of our groceries also feature Canadian Bacon, which looks and sounds like the bacon of Britton.

By: Steve

Steve — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 14:49:00 +0000

I’m sorry for the experience you had. However, it is always proper to know the terms the locals call things. Back bacon IS bacon in the UK and streaky bacon is what the UK calls our bacon. I personally prefer theirs and wish I could find it locallly. UK culture is different than ours. We are an I WANT IT MY WAY society. Maybe we should learn to have it their way when we are in their country. BTW: The tea party was over taxation, not culinary preference. Next time you go, maybe you should seek out a Buger King and have it your way.

Cheers.

By: Des

Des — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 14:37:56 +0000

If you are a brit looking for Back Bacon, then try Fresh and Easy… they are located in CA and AZ but are expanding.

There website is http://www.freshandeasy.com/

By: Des

Des — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 14:36:31 +0000

Actually the wierdest thing about cheap/average priced american bread is how long it stays fresh without going moldy… bread in the US can last 2-3 weeks, bread in the UK is likely to last 5 days in comparison.

By: Ed

Ed — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 01:46:04 +0000

Hey,

I’m from the UK, but am traveling the states at the moment and have to say that I much prefer our British bacon. American bacon is far more fatty-looking and you get way less bacon for your buck compared to back home.

Bread is a weird one here too. It’s all very sugary tasting. Some other things I’ve noticed include:

American biscuit = British scone (but a savory version)
American zucchini = British courgette
American cilantro = British coriander

That’s all!

Ed.

By: Liz

Liz — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 12:09:54 +0000

Thankfully, we Brits aren’t stuck in a world of back bacon – next time you’re over here, ask for streaky bacon instead, which is the good stuff. (Most BLTs here use streaky – I’m sorry you happened upon an aberrant version.)

If you find yourself in a British supermarket, keep an eye out for dry-cured smoked streaky (available pretty much everywhere), or my favourite, a wet-cured treacle one from Waitrose. Lots of butchers cure their own too; the situation is not as dire as you think!

One difference I have noticed is that bacon in the US is more likely to be cooked to a crisp. Here in the UK, we seem to tend towards a crisp edge, but don’t crisp the whole slice. It’s still wonderful stuff.

By: British Bacon eater

British Bacon eater — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 21:25:48 +0000

British Bacon is the same as Danish and Irish. I guess you might compare it to Ham, but for us in the UK its very different. Ham in the Uk is quite thin compared to the UK version of Bacon and we wouldn’t fry our version of Ham. I am looking forward to trying some proper american bacon on my trip over.

By: Aaron

Aaron — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:49:03 +0000

wow… ya’ll should do some research and let us know what other countries have real bacon or ham. It’d make an awesome bacon travel guide.

By: Reise Kroatien

Reise Kroatien — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 02:19:36 +0000

I suppose that had been a disappointing experience on England bacon. Good that the trip was good in general!

By: PocketBacon

PocketBacon — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 19:07:36 +0000

You need what the Brits call ‘streaky bacon’.