[Sca-cooks] Real bacon

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

Also sprach Jessica Tiffin:
>At 07:09 PM 10/5/04, Master Adamantius wrote:
>>I'd suspect that the
>>really industrial/commercial stuff has more sugar in the cure, which,
>>when combined with the added water, leads to a greater amount of
>>sticky, burny juices in the bottom of your pan, the kind of thing
>>that can make it tough to fry eggs in the same pan ;-).
>
>Well, I can throw into the mix the experience of a friend of mine 
>(i.e. a fellow South African) who spent 6 months in the US and 
>returned frothing in frustration because, according to her, all 
>American bacon is _sweet_.  South African bacon, you may gather from 
>this, is not sweet at all, but salty and tangy, often smoked.  I 
>don't know where UK bacon fits into the whole thing, but I suspect 
>we may follow that tradition rather than the US one.

I don't think it's a unilateral sweetness, but overall, there's 
probably more sugar in cures. The same goes for the cures in hams, 
fish, etc. Not without exception, but as an ongoing trend.

>(Oh, and she also wanted to know what's with the USA and the total 
>lack of custard.  As in pre-made custard for having with apple pie. 
>We can buy it by the carton here - sweet and slightly plastic and 
>not a patch on the real thing, but with its own obnoxious charm. 
>Did San Francisco simply have a dearth when she was living there, or 
>are Americans simply not custard-conscious??)
>
>yrs in comparative culinary anthropology,
>JdH

I think we'd be inclined to use whipped cream or ice cream in place 
of some of the custard use you speak of: where children in UK-based 
cultures speak of cake and custard, we speak of ice cream and cake. 
However, we do occasionally make real custard, from milk and/or cream 
and eggs or yolks. I can actually buy Bird's Custard down the street 
my my home, but never bothered. It seems to be largely like a thinner 
version of My-T-Fine pudding, and might have enjoyed a greater vogue 
in the US in the 50's and 60's, were it properly marketed.

Adamantius
-- 
"As long as but a hundred of us remain  alive, never will we on any 
conditions be brought under English rule.  It is in truth not for 
glory, nor riches, nor honours that we are  fighting, but for freedom 
-- for that alone, which no honest man gives  up but with life 
itself."
	-- The Declaration of Arbroath, 1320

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