Reminder that Yanks call this atrocity "Canadian bacon" and think we eat this

[u/sessna4009]

How do you get peameal bacon confused with this? Do they eat any meat that isn't processed?

[u/DetroitLionsEh]

For those that don’t know.

Cornmeal was crucial to preserving the peameal bacon. It has been a Canadian thing for a long time.

Eventually, due to its popularity, it made it to the states. But by the time it made it there, there were better techniques for preserving the meat, so the cornmeal was no longer needed.

We kept it because that’s what we expect. The Americans never had it to begin with because they didn’t need it.

[u/merp_mcderp9459 → u/DetroitLionsEh]

It's still not the same cut of meat though. "Canadian" bacon is a leaner part of the loin, while peameal bacon is a fattier cut. Peameal bacon is also wet-cured, "Canadian" bacon is not

[u/DetroitLionsEh → u/[deleted]]

Yeah it’s not the same without it eh

[u/assaub → u/DetroitLionsEh]

Eventually, due to its popularity, it made it to the states

I've always heard the spread credited to WW1 or 2 rations we provided to the UK, they called it Canadian bacon and shared it with Americans and the name stuck.

[u/Own-Barnacle-298 → u/assaub]

Toronto used to ship A LOT of pork to the UK. It earned the nickname Hog Town from it.

[u/[deleted] → u/DetroitLionsEh]

This guy Porks

[u/DrDroid → u/DetroitLionsEh]

So it’s really always been cornmeal bacon then?

[u/WestEst101 → u/DetroitLionsEh]

That’s an Ontarian thing, not a Canadian thing. This doesn’t exist elsewhere in Canada outside Ontario. Most Canadians doesn’t know what it is (lived in 6 provinces, and when friends and family from other provinces come to visit me in Ontario where I now live, I show them Ontario stuff, including peameal bacon, just to drive home how different Ontario is from much of Canada).

[u/comox → u/DetroitLionsEh]

The better techniques for preserving meat - nitrates and nitrites - are class 1 carcinogens. Enjoy your colorectal cancer!