CarneAtlas

Back bacon

Pork · Loin
GrillSmokeCure
Also called
🇺🇸Canadian bacon🇩🇪Kassler🇺🇸Pork loin roast
Raw Back bacon — Pork Loin cut

PookieFugglestein, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons — Sides_of_raw_bacon,_England.JPG

British (and Irish) bacon, made from the pork loin with a strip of attached belly — the rounded lean eye on a rasher of back bacon is the loin, the fatty streaky edge running along it is the belly. The dominant bacon style in the UK and Ireland: leaner than American streaky (which is belly only), fattier than Canadian bacon (which is loin only). Sold as rashers (slices) for breakfast — the canonical "bacon butty" or "full English" component. Available smoked or unsmoked, dry-cured (best, more expensive) or wet-cured (cheaper, more water content). Specific British regional variants include *middle bacon* (longer rasher continuing into the belly) and *Wiltshire bacon* (specific cure protocol).

Names by country

CountryNameNotes
🇺🇸United StatesCanadian baconThe American name for the British loin-cut rasher; leaner than US streaky bacon
🇬🇧United KingdomBack baconprimaryCured pork loin with attached belly strip; the dominant British bacon style. Sometimes "middle bacon" for the longer-cut version that continues further into the belly.
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Similar cuts

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Classic recipe

Bacon Sandwich (with the Right Bread)8 min

Britain's national breakfast in two slices of bread. Back bacon — a single thick rasher of cured loin with a tail of bel…

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Steak searing in a cast-iron skillet beside an unbranded knife

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