Why isn't German bacon like British bacon?

Why do British people have to transport good old British (Danish) bacon to Germany for a real "Bacon butty"?
Why cant the Gerries make it properly? Have they never had a bacon sarnie?

You are going to get bombarded with replis from Big mik Bacon Monsters unters now..

The right piece of Meat cut the right way is just perfect..

all good butchers will have this Joint.. its just a case of asking.!

This is what my butcher Cuts for me! and its in stock all the time!

Sorry to be pedantic but there's no such thing as good Danish bacon (available to the masses anyway), same way as there's almost no such thing as good packaged bacon anywhere. The only half decent packaged bacon I ever had was some from Prince Charles's estate, I forget what it was called, but it was only just OK. 99% of packaged bacon is full of chemicals and salt water to preserve it, and as a convenient side effect bump its weight up for no extra cost. It's shit as all this water leaks out when the bacon is fried.

Apparently Germans have never had a bacon sandwich as they cut their pigs up differently and bacon as we know it just doesn't exist. The back bacon piece is cured differently and although it's possible to find it it doesn't taste the same when fried. You have two choices - find a friendly butcher, explain what you want, and get him to cure you the whole piece like they do speck here, or find a good butcher and get him to cut you speck like you would have bacon. It's a bit heavily smoked, but apart from that pretty good.

Edit: I stand corrected: SpiderPig - what do you ask for to get that? I've been through many town centre butchers and not found anything approaching that!

gotta be honest though... Miks bacon is dead good! In for another 2kg next weekend!

Try Frühstücksspeck



or durchwachsener Speck

and a heart attack with every bite!

Because Germany is a different country with a different culinary culture. You may as well ask why the Limeys don't have Leberkäse. I, for one, consider British bacon too thick and too greasy but that's because I was brought up on thin, crisp bacon strips. Diversity is the spice of life, dig in.

Sorry Miwild, but you're missing the point - that shite is NOT bacon

I think I prefer that thin crispy stuff you can get here and across the pond. Canadian Bacon we used to call it? Goes better with scrambled egg 'cos you can break off small bits.

Must admit I bring bacon back every time I'm in England as it's much better than the stuff here...

Canadian bacon is what the americans call Back bacon, which is what we also eat.

It's not shite. It might be different to what you are used to, but that doesn't make it bad quality.

The point is simply that people like to eat what they're used to eating, so if they've grown up on British or Danish bacon then nothing here is able to compete, regardless of how good it tastes or how high the quality is from a neutral perspective. Witness the scores of expats walking past Germany's fantastic tea shops in search of their foul PG Tips, or past the baker's in search of their plastic sandwich bread.

I speak from a relatively neutral perspective on the bacon subject, since I'm not much of a meat-eater, and I have to say that I find the idea of complaining about pork products in Germany pretty laughable.

Me too. Trouble is it does not keep very long - at least not with my family around.

I like both the Germish and the English style bacon...both tasty. The German stuff doesn't give the same satisfaction to eat tho, not enough meat to it.
edit: Mik's stuff is just the schiznitt, that's the bacon of all bacon.

I too bring back bacon, and any uk visiters bring it out too. I often am able to freeze it, and have anice bacon butty of a saturday morning, or english brekkie on a sunday.

See some posts says about Mik's...whats this? Are you able to buy similar bacon?
Is there a link if so?
thanks in advance.

Deb, Mik Dickinson's British-style bacon.

I too bring back bacon from England, mainly because I don't like smoked meat, or rather it doesn't like me. The stuff in that picture looks good but it's going to be smoked and the prospect of getting a repeat tasting every half hour somehow puts me off!
I can't even eat smoky bacon crisps!

Thanks Keydeck.

Ah man, I absolutely adore Smith's Bacon Fries. The snack that keeps on giving

nm, I need a morning beer. All I have is this thin bacon that is useless...*sigh*

...and keydeck, those are disgusting.

but what to ask for? How will i get the right cut from the metzgerei?

I have put an order in with Mik Dickinson for this month, from what I am told his bacon is pretty good

Sh*t, why oh why did I read this, I now have the most awful craving for a bacon butty and i'm stuck at work, I do have a nice red leicester sarny & a mixed bag of walkers, but that just isn't going to cut it now...I hate you all

Yesterday I was sat at my desk in the office chatting to a friend in the UK who wanted to cut the chat short because the bacon butty van had just arrived in his company's car park. What a total bastard.

The bacon is important... but it's the bread and the Daddies sauce that make the real difference.

Now this is definitely heading for Adult Chat.

Bunny.

It's delicious.

Going to make myself a bacon sarnie, as I have 2 english packs in the fridge, as my mum is visiting for the kids hols...MMM but has to be with Heinz ketchup.
...mmmmmmmmmmm...I can already taste it...xx

all good butchers will have this Joint.. its just a case of asking.!

but what to ask for? How will i get the right cut from the metzgerei?

bitte!

Burn the heretic!

Mmmm, real bacon But I often like some with a bit more fat so I can save it for frying eggs when I don't feel like cooking bacon first.

Ok, I know what I'm eatting Sunday morning

Eeeew yuck thanks you have put me off now

mmm...my jumbo bacon buttie from the greasy spoon for £1.50 this morning was as delicious as the other ones that I ate every other morning this week here in england!! As for germany... Sucks that a country that practically lives off pork neglected to discover the best possible way to serve it

Looks just like Germish bacon wrapped up in fancier package to me.

na, my wife buys that crap bacon from Aldi. Can't get any fat out of it at all. Doesn't taste very good either. It's good for throwing in the microwave, but not for pan frying.

Come here so I can slap you limp-wristedly across the face with my white leather glove. NO bacon, irrespective of quality or nationality deserves to be cooked in the microwave!

I know that! But German women have their own ideas about how to cook their food. I will not eat bacon from the microwave. Pan fried only, thank you. Put my bacon in the microwave, there'd be a hell of a mess.

So peeps here are looking for soft white bread, back bacon and Daddies sauce then huh?

Better chance of locating a virgin in Essex.

In my opinion "Parma ham" or "Serrano ham" is the best possible way to serve pork.

Buy chunk of pig. Google "curing mix for bacon". Make curing mix. Dump pork in a curing mixture. Leave for a while. Cut into whatever thickness you want.
Smoking it will be a problem for many, but most "english" bacon is sold unsmoked anyway.

Not even cooking.


Pata negra rules the world of pork. Fact. Not up for debate, just fact.

That serrano stuff looks raw to me

this posh stuff is all very nice and stuff, nay, even delicious, and all those pigs must be happy stuffing their little faces on acorns...however, I dont think there's hardly another food I can think of that makes me salivate just thinking about it like a bacon sarnie does. A perfect bacon sandwich is a religious experience lol

Same here. Only I don't even have the red leicester sarny and crisps

I just want to echo this one too...it's mean telling us that its just a case of asking but then not telling us what for!

According to this useful website...

Just search for bacon at wikipedia and switch to German to find what to order at your local butcher.
Then click on the "curing" link.

"The presence of nitrates and nitrites in food is controversial due to the development of nitrosamines when the food, primarily bacon, is cooked at high temperatures"

I prefer Parma or Serrano ham. Even if it may look raw to some TT.

At the risk of being labelled a heathen - am I the only person in the world that things Parma Ham tastes like salty plastic? It even cuts and chews like piece of stringy plastic.

My favorite is Südtiroler Bauernspeck (from Alto Adige), too good to be fried in the pan.

You can also buy packets of Tulip streaky bacon from most supermarkets. But I usually get the scissors out and remove every last piece of rind - and then I like my bacon "cremated" before I touch it, which I guess kind of defeats the purpose.