British bacons and sausages

All my experience of American cooking is is restaurants and hotels.

I expect home cooking differs from restaurants in the US as much as it does here.

Re the streaky bacon at breakfast - I wondered how it was so flat when it should be curly, only recently I saw that the cooks in a diner put a metal plate with a handle on top of the rashers to keep them flat as they fried on a hot plate.

Some time ago, on a different forum, Americans were poo-poohing Ian Fleming's description of James Bond having three rashers of bacon at breakfast that covered his plate. Fleming was thinking of back-bacon, the American were thinking of streaky bacon.

We Canadians have both - the back bacon is even called Canadian bacon in the US, although we don't call it that, we just call it back bacon. In fact when I first came across it when having breakfast at a US restaurant they asked me if I wanted regular or Canadian bacon and I had to ask what they were talking about.

Re the streaky bacon at breakfast - I wondered how it was so flat when it should be curly, only recently I saw that the cooks in a diner put a metal plate with a handle on top of the rashers to keep them flat as they fried on a hot plate.

Yes, I own one of those. They're very useful for getting the bacon to cook evenly. No good if you're using a wok, though.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

We Canadians have both - the back bacon is even called Canadian bacon in the US, although we don't call it that, we just call it back bacon. In fact when I first came across it when having breakfast at a US restaurant they asked me if I wanted regular or Canadian bacon and I had to ask what they were talking about.

This is not quite correct. At least not in 2022. 'Canadian bacon' here is at best a piece of cured loin trimmed of all fat. But it's rarely that, usually it's a round tube of overprocessed chopped/pressed/formed pork, sold whole not sliced, no different from most supermarket ham--just without the awful fake smoke flavor. Your back bacon will be sliced from the loin but untrimmed and with some of the tail that goes into the belly meat, and won't have nearly as much preservative. In short, yours will taste better.

[Jenise]

We Canadians have both - the back bacon is even called Canadian bacon in the US, although we don't call it that, we just call it back bacon. In fact when I first came across it when having breakfast at a US restaurant they asked me if I wanted regular or Canadian bacon and I had to ask what they were talking about.

This is not quite correct. At least not in 2022. 'Canadian bacon' here is at best a piece of cured loin trimmed of all fat. But it's rarely that, usually it's a round tube of overprocessed chopped/pressed/formed pork, sold whole not sliced, no different from most supermarket ham--just without the awful fake smoke flavor. Your back bacon will be sliced from the loin but untrimmed and with some of the tail that goes into the belly meat, and won't have nearly as much preservative. In short, yours will taste better.

For many months I've been cooking bacon in a skillet that has a tablespoon or two of water in it until the water evaporates while frying. Works well. Comes out chewy crispy.

Interesting idea! I suppose the steam goes into the meat.

I would think the reason for doing so it to help render the fat. When you render duck fat you usually put in some water to pre-charge the process

Re the streaky bacon at breakfast - I wondered how it was so flat when it should be curly, only recently I saw that the cooks in a diner put a metal plate with a handle on top of the rashers to keep them flat as they fried on a hot plate.

Yes, I own one of those. They're very useful for getting the bacon to cook evenly. No good if you're using a wok, though.

-Paul W.

They're good for a lot of things. I like to use mine making grilled cheese, tuna melts, etc. Not that I aim for flattened sandwiches, I just want better contact with the pan.

I'd not buy streaky bacon, only time I have it is in the USA where at breakfast it's cooked till it's so crisp it shatters into pieces when a fork goes in it. However, that does get a lot of fat out and I'd rather have that than white fat in the bacon.

This is a pet peeve of mine. Bacon that shatters when you bite it. If I wanted bacon bits, I'd buy them premade. You can't tell the difference between the two.

[Jenise]

This is a pet peeve of mine. Bacon that shatters when you bite it. If I wanted bacon bits, I'd buy them premade. You can't tell the difference between the two.

You made me laugh--agreed.

'Canadian bacon' here is at best a piece of cured loin trimmed of all fat.

That is what I see in NYC. It's good and rather lean.

[Jenise]

And then there's Pea Meal Bacon, a specialty of Ontario I believe.