"Vintage" foods that are still with us today.

[Feraud]

I am a bit confused..is the choice bacon cut in discussion from the back of the pig? That would make it a loin cut.
Isn't this cut available in the states?

 

[LizzieMaine]

How far back does the fried breakfast as we know it extend? Early 20th, or is it Victorian?

I'm always intrigued to find out when things first became popular - traditional English-style fish and chips, for instance, go back to Victorian times, much earlier than I would have thought.

I've seen Victorian cookbooks with recipies for complicated omelets and other such heavy breakfast fare, so I'd say early-mid 19th Century would be a good guess for when the idea caught on. It *wasn't* as far back as colonial times, though -- we were all taught in school about "hasty pudding" and similar starchy stuff being the breakfast of choice in that era.

Around here in northern New England the heavy fried British-style breakfast was seen as the best possible way to ward off the cold on winter mornings, especially since most homes here didn't have central heating until the 1950s. All those calories helped keep the body temp up!

 

[Miss 1929]

I'll submit a proper classic food...Hangtown Fry! Eggs scrambled up with bacon and oysters. Said to be concocted in Hangtown for a miner who had struck it rich and wanted a meal made with the most expensive ingredients. (Back then, eggs were over a dollar each.)
"Bacon - the Gateway Meat"

I grew up in Hangtown! Now known as Placerville, they decided to prissify the name at one point. Never could quite bring myself to try the Fry though.

I just read this thread while eating my favorite breakfast - an onion bagel with cream cheese and bacon (Nature's Candy). Not kosher but awfully tasty.

 

[warbird]

I am a bit confused..is the choice bacon cut in discussion from the back of the pig? That would make it a loin cut.
Isn't this cut available in the states?

Yes. In the south we have that meat in several forms. It is isn't called bacon, but it is cured just the same. Many areas here make it their own version of country ham, southern ham, etc.

They also have it uncured, which we do as well, uncured ham cuts. Same stuff different names.

 

[dhermann1]

Victorian

This is sort of on the parallel topic that seems to have emerged of breakfasts in general. About 30 years ago my mother's adoptive cousin (he had been adopted in 1922 by my mother's two maiden aunts, both born in the 1870's) visited us soon after retiring. We were sitting around reminiscing, and he suddenly burst out laughing (affectionately) about what a ritual the aunties made out of breakfast. Just as formal as a 12 course dinner, with napkin rings, soft boiled eggs in egg cups, etc., and of course grace said before eating. I remember this myself from the early 50's. They were very Victorian ladies indeed. So Victorian makes sense.
(I've actually told this story here before, but it seemed relevant.)

 

[dhermann1]

OK, so how does bacon differ from fat back, and the Italian product, prosciutto?

 

[warbird]

OK, so how does bacon differ from fat back, and the Italian product, prosciutto?

Prosciutto and capicola (gabagool), is just the Italian version of bacon. Cured, but using different spices resulting in a different taste than our traditional bacon. Also their bacon is cured but usually not smoked.

Fatback comes from guess where, yes the back of the pig.

It was commonly used to make lard. Very popular in soul food cooking. It won't make greens healthier, but dang they taste good.

 

[Miss Neecerie]

everything you want to know

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacon

 

[rumblefish]

OK, so how does bacon differ from fat back, and the Italian product, prosciutto?

Prosciutto is a salt and pepper cured ham like the Spanish Serrano, and it's unsmoked. Similar to what Warbird mentioned above, Country Ham.

 

[rumblefish]

...and Pancetta is like Italian bacon, sugar/salt cured, but unsmoked and rolled.

 

[rumblefish]

capicola (gabagool).

lol lol lol
You must be Italian.

 

[warbird]

capicola (gabagool).

lol lol lol
You must be Italian.

lol I married a Sicilian.

She was born near Babylon, NY, not too far from you I estimate. HEr dad is retired NYPD and lives down here now. I have southernized them, the poor things. She is actually half Sicilian, half English. Her mother being born in London and most of that side of the family is still across the pond.

 

[warbird]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacon

That is mostly correct, however they did not take into account southern hams which are in different areas by different the very same thing as the English bacon. I have had both. It's the same thing you just have to know what to ask for where.

 

[Miss Neecerie]

That is mostly correct, however they did not take into account southern hams which are in different areas by different the very same thing as the English bacon. I have had both. It's the same thing you just have to know what to ask for where.

alas...I live about as close to the South...as I do to England....so same level of unreachable bacon-ness...

le sigh

 

[warbird]

alas...I live about as close to the South...as I do to England....so same level of unreachable bacon-ness...

le sigh

Hmm we shall have to try and get some to you. Next time I head to CA I shall pack ham and Krispy Kremes. :eusa_clap

 

[flat-top]

Prosciutto and capicola (gabagool)

As a full blooded Bronx Italian, it makes me very happy to see the word "gabagool" on the Lounge.

 

[Miss Neecerie]

Hmm we shall have to try and get some to you. Next time I head to CA I shall pack ham and Krispy Kremes. :eusa_clap

We have Krispy Kremes here....

 

[scotrace]

We have Krispy Kremes here....

Braggart.

 

[warbird]

We have Krispy Kremes here....

Oh good. I used to see people get on the plane headed west with boxes of Krispy Kremes. I can't recall seeing them out there. Then again I'm not usually looking for them either.

 

[Rachael]

Oh good. I used to see people get on the plane headed west with boxes of Krispy Kremes. I can't recall seeing them out there. Then again I'm not usually looking for them either.

We just got our first Krispy Kreme here in Oregon a few years ago. They had to dispatch extra police patrols to control the traffic. Personally, I prefer my local bakery, but they are yummy.