Bacon: A Culinary Comeback

Bacon is having a culinary renaissance, becoming not just retro-chic, but trendy and cutting-edge "hot" (For many of us, it never stopped being popular!). There are now bacon cookies, bacon-flavored vodka and even ice cream. There are blogs, clubs, T-shirts and other aspects of American culture devoted to all things bacon.

Food and cooking shows began showcasing bacon, as did chefs and fast-food chains. There are mail-order and online bacon companies, where different varieties are readily available to pursue bacon on a higher level (cob-smoked, apple-cinnamon, 10-clove garlic and jalapeno, among many others).

Why the resurgence? It's one of the all-time classic comfort foods and something that everyone's familiar with, for most of us grew up eating it. There's that sweet and salty combination of flavors. And it wasn't usually eaten every day, just one a week, so it became an exciting treat to look forward to ((for me, bacon means "Sunday morning"). It's also easily affordable and accessible, but can be eaten at all times of the day.

Recently bacon has become the salty yin to the sweet yang of cupcakes, ice cream, chocolate pastries and bread puddings.

This concept first sounds very unusual, but actually when you're eating bacon and waffles (or pancakes) with syrup (or jam or jelly), at some point, don't you tend to mix everything together or eat it all together anyway? (and it's mighty tasty!).

Types of Bacon

(American) Bacon-Sold sliced and packaged in grocery stores, this smoked and cured pork belly is "bacon" as we know it in the U.S. This is known as "streaky bacon" throughout much of the world.

Fatback-Fresh, uncured and unsmoked fat from a pig's back, used for flavoring and making lard. Many people add this to beans or greens.

Salt Pork-This is also called white bacon or streak-o-lean. It's cured, unsmoked fat from the pork belly that may include some lean meat, and used mainly for flavoring (can be added to beans or greens) or rendering into crisp cracklings (pork rinds!).

Canadian bacon-Cured and lightly smoked pre-cooked eye of pork loin that resembles ham more then bacon. What Americans call "Canadian", they call "back bacon."

Peameal bacon is the real Canadian bacon. Cut from the eye of pork lion, it's sweet-pickle-cured, unsmoked and coated in a pea meal or yellow cornmeal. It's available in slabs or slices.

Guanciale: Dry-cured and smoked pork jowl and cheek, this is popular in southern Italy. It's used mainly in cooking.

Pancetta: This is the most common type of bacon in Italy. It's dry-cured, unsmoked, spiced and dry-aged pork belly, which is typically rolled. When it's smoked, it's often available unrolled in slices similar to American bacon, and is known as pancetta affumicata.