The Bacon Boon – Why Americans Want to Wear Bacon

Whether it’s bacon belts, bacon earrings, or bacon undergarments, there’s no denying that Americans have become entrenched in a bacon culture. And here’s why…

When you do a Google Image search for “bacon clothes” you turn up 1.2 million images. Upon doing the same search on Flickr (a photo sharing site), you pull up 368 images, which is a small number in comparison, but proof none the less that bacon fashion is on the rise.

Whether it’s bacon belts, bacon earrings, or bacon undergarments, there’s no denying that Americans have become entrenched in a bacon culture. And here’s why…

Bacon satisfies the most serious of salt cravings.
Bacon comes from the pork belly. Before it becomes “bacon,” the meat rests in a salt and sugar brine and then it’s smoked.  This results in that salty, smoky flavor that satisfies the most serious of salt cravings (a potato chip might come in a close second).

Bacon tastes good and we will buy it.
It’s called marketing, folks. The advertisers know our tastes. They have mountains of data on it.
In other words, if they put bacon in the advertisements, in the weekly circulars, and on the menu, we consumers will eventually bite (pardon the pun). Here’s your proof: According to Pork Magazine there has been a 26.5% increase in menu items that include bacon since 2005, and a recent poll found that 73% of US households purchased refrigerated bacon from June 2008 through June 2009.

Wow, that’s a lot of bacon.

Bacon has a long history.
The Chinese salted pork bellies as early as 1500 BC, which makes bacon one of the oldest varieties of processed meats. Cultures all over the world were known to eat some version of bacon. For example, the Romans ate bacon with wine and pepper sauce and impoverished Europeans of the 17th and 18th century relied on bacon and bread as the mainstay of their diets.

In early colonial America, farmers typically owned four or five pigs, which were slaughtered on site for salt pork and bacon. As time went on, farmers sent their pigs to slaughterhouses in major cities and the consumption of pork began to spread.

Cincinnati was the first U.S. city to slaughter pigs commercially, which resulted in the nickname
Porkopolis. According to the National Pork Board, Cincinnati packed ore pork than any other Midwestern state.

Bacon has a sense of humor.
In the words of Homer Simpson: “Mmm. . .bacon.”  Homer’s not alone; many famous comics have had their time making us laugh over bacon. For example, Jim Gaffigan says, “If it weren’t for bacon, we wouldn’t even know what a water chestnut is.”

It’s funny, because it’s true.

Bacon makes everything taste better.
It’s not just water chestnuts that benefit from bacon. I beg anyone to find a bacon combo that wouldn’t work for the taste buds. Bacon and eggs, bacon on sandwiches, bacon on salad, bacon in soup, bacon wrapped around chicken or beef or shrimp or. . .just about any meat.

I’ll even assure you that bacon makes chocolate taste better. Yes, you heard me right. Chocolate infused with bacon tastes delicious.

There’s nothing else like bacon.
You wouldn’t dream of making a chicken-flavored martini or a beef-inspired ice cream, but a bacon martini and bacon ice cream just might make your day.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Sara Lancaster cooks and writes for the Saucy Dipper, a blog devoted to sauces, dips, and bacon. She believes everything tastes better with bacon and invites her readers to share their bacon recipes during the upcoming Saucy Dipper Dipstock event.