National Bacon Day

The story

Bacon is pork belly or back that has been cured with salt, often smoked, and then sliced and cooked until crisp. People have preserved pork with salt for thousands of years; the ancient Romans ate a salted cut called petaso, and the word "bacon" comes from Old High German and Old French terms for the back or ham. In medieval England, bacon was a staple for farming families who raised their own pigs.

American-style bacon is usually cut from the belly, giving long streaky strips with layers of fat and meat. In the 1920s, public relations pioneer Edward Bernays helped popularize bacon and eggs as the classic American breakfast, and pre-sliced, packaged bacon became widely available around the same time.

Today bacon goes far beyond the breakfast plate. It tops burgers, wraps scallops and dates, stars in the BLT, gets crumbled over salads and baked potatoes, and even shows up in candy, cocktails, and ice cream. Canadian bacon, pancetta, and thick-cut slab bacon each offer a different take on the cured cut.

On National Bacon Day, cook up a batch for breakfast, build a BLT, or try a sweet and savory bacon recipe.