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The Bacon Boom Was Not an Accident
- WellDressed 12y ago"That year (2008), according to the website Babycenter, 11 out of every million babies born in America were named Bacon." ಠ_ಠ
- dllthomas 12y agoMaybe some of them as a tribute to Francis Bacon? Yeah, who'm I kidding...
- mzs 12y agoNot sure about that, there should have been about 50 if so and from the readme provided by the census "To safeguard privacy, we restrict our list of names to those with at least 5 occurrences." usa$ grep -i bacon yob????.txt | wc 0 0 0
- sp332 12y agoShouldn't your search also find the 29,000 people with the last name of Bacon? https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=bacon&a=*C.bacon-_*Surname-&a=*DPClash.ExpandedFoodE.bacon-_*PreparedCuredPorkBacon.dflt-&a=*EAC.ExpandedFood.PreparedCuredPorkBacon-_**a.PreparedCuredPorkBacon-.dflt- https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=bacon&a=*C.bacon-_*Sur...
- mzs 12y agoNo, it does not include that: usa$ head -5 yob2008.txt Emma,F,18791 Isabella,F,18598 Emily,F,17419 Olivia,F,17066 Ava,F,17024 The USA Census Bureau released names.zip and namesbystate.zip back in May and they include README files of how they were anonymized.
- IvyMike 12y agoReading about the Pork Marketing Board, I can't help but be reminded of the Celery sketch on Portlandia, where the Produce Sales Board tracks the marketing of various produces. Bacon plays a key role. [10:49 video] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQX44THWIyc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQX44THWIyc
- kaonashi 12y agoCelery just needs more of a root-focus.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- beachstartup 12y agoone of the great things about bacon in the US is the huge variety available. at my local market they have the following types always available: * cured, thin cut * cured, thick cut * smoked, with 3 or 4 types of wood * uncured, thick and thin and smoked * cured with lower sodium * flavored with some kind of liquid smoke type stuff * pre-cooked also i've seen bacon clubs (like they do with wine) popup on the internet lately. so great.
- philk10 12y agoSadly, English style back bacon is really hard to find over here :(
- justincormack 12y agoIt is fairly easy to make if you can get the right part of the pig. Takes about a week.
- cschmidt 12y agoI've always wanted to try Zingerman's bacon of the month club: http://www.zingermans.com/Product.aspx?ProductID=G-bac-3 http://www.zingermans.com/Product.aspx?ProductID=G-bac-3 From a great deli in Ann Arbor, MI
- dllthomas 12y ago"From a great deli in Ann Arbor, MI" In my experience, Zingerman's is overpriced and overrated. That isn't to say bad by any means, it probably still makes the cut for "great", but honestly I had better experiences at Bread Basket for much cheaper (with the caveats that this was years ago, and I've every expectation it'll vary depending on what you're getting).
- kevind23 12y agoand yet these are all from the belly of the pig, right? streaky bacon? it's hard to find the other kinds in the US (especially back bacon)
- 12y ago
- smacktoward 12y agoWhat's interesting about this story is that it starts out seemingly like it's going to be about devious marketers devising a way to turn a product nobody wanted into a hot seller strictly through marketing, in much the same way that clever marketing turned the universally reviled Patagonian toothfish into a big seller by bestowing upon it the more upscale name "Chilean sea bass" (see http://priceonomics.com/the-invention-of-the-chilean-sea-bass/ http://priceonomics.com/the-invention-of-the-chilean-sea-bas...). But then you get into the meat of it (sorry) and find that the root of the turnaround is an actual technical accomplishment -- a method to cook and distribute pre-cooked bacon that wouldn't rob the bacon of its flavor: > The early 1990s was a time of great advancements in precooked bacon technology. Pork producers, food labs, and agricultural schools such as Iowa State University began investing substantially in precooked R&D. Hormel and Swift worked on microwaveable precooked slices for home consumers, while Chicago’s OSI and the now-defunct Wilson Foods poured their efforts into bacon spirals that would fit perfectly atop a hamburger. These technical innovations turned out to be the key, because the pork marketers were pitching bacon to fast-food chains as a "flavor enhancer," but the chains that tried it mostly came away dissatisfied: the hassle of adding bacon-cooking to their highly regimented kitchens created expense and added time to the burger-assembly process, while existing methods for pre-cooking bacon yielded a tasteless product. Pre-cooked bacon with taste intact (that came in shapes ready to plop on top of a hamburger patty, no less) took all that friction away. My only regret is that the whole thing is written from the perspective of the Pork Marketing Board, which funded the research into pre-cooking bacon, but doesn't really tell you much about the research itself. That seems like it'd be an interesting story, for those of a technical bent; here's a problem, how do you solve it?
- ggchappell 12y agoAgreed. Food science is an amazing field that has been making huge advances in recent decades. But where can you find anything written about the actual research, outside of highly technical journals?
- ChuckMcM 12y agoExactly, pre-cooked bacon was the thing. And it is a thing, at least in my house where it is trivial to put some chopped pre-cooked bacon onto the pan next some stir fried green beans and spinach and poof really tasty side dish.
- rpenm 12y agoObviously The Pork Board would wish to claim credit for the shift in demand for bacon. Lobbyists and advertisers will tend to portray themselves as essential to the industries that support them. It is more likely that "the bacon boom" was a market phenomenon driven by lots of small cultural and technological shifts, not social engineering. The article is undermined by its title and reliance on Pork Board anecdotes.
- ErikRogneby 12y agoI attribute the rise in bacon consumption to _why. Long live crunchy bacon! http://mislav.uniqpath.com/poignant-guide/book/chapter-3.html http://mislav.uniqpath.com/poignant-guide/book/chapter-3.htm...
- pchristensen 12y agos/crunchy/chunky/g
- ErikRogneby 12y agoHah! You are right! I could have swore I wrote chunky. Some kind of synaptic auto-correct routine running in my brain...
- GuiA 12y agoNon US based HNers might be confused; bacon really is a big deal in the US. Restaurants put it in salads, sandwiches, and pretty much anything they can- I've had bacon ice cream once (weirdly it was pretty tasty). Some macho people proudly eat pounds of it, claiming that it is a manly/american food- see for example this youtube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8u8Z3bUQfs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8u8Z3bUQfs . In stores, you can find as many items with bacon texture on them as you can find items with prints of the US flag. "Bacon bowls" are a thing. It's really more than just a food in the US- people are obsessed with it. If you spend time on reddit, you can get a glimpse of that through the ever recurring bacon posts in the mainstream subreddits.
- fibbery 12y agoIt's not just the United States. According to my Swedish friend bacon-mania is the same there.
- smacktoward 12y agoAs an American myself, I can explain: this is mostly just because we are really, really stupid. I mean, seriously.
- worklogin 12y agoThere must be multiple "yous" to reference your profile, because in one thread you have some insightful content, and then this.
- sudowhodoido 12y agoThis has been the case in the UK for many years as well. One of my earliest memories at the tender age of 3 (very early 1980s) was wearing one of those blue anoraks with a fuzzy collar and being wheeled to the greasy caf'[1] in a buggy and fed bacon, beans, chips (French fries) and tea. This was in Islington in London. I can't think of a single week I haven't eaten bacon since. That's just normal here. No crazy or macho rubbish. Food staple. And as I've had this argument before (on reddit...), to the Americans, we don't eat that shitty Canadian bacon or the streaky stuff you get in the US here. We use the latter to add flavour to other foods and eat the nice lean back bacon: http://www.clancysofchester.co.uk/back%20bacon.jpg http://www.clancysofchester.co.uk/back%20bacon.jpg . The streaky stuff is kind of horrible and clogs up your arteries. [1] Not café. Caf' innit (local dialect)
- gopalv 12y agoI think Edward Bernays goes fairly un-credited in the article. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Bernays#Techniques http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Bernays#Techniques The idea that it is "breakfast meat" is probably his making. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLudEZpMjKU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLudEZpMjKU
- gojomo 12y agoLeft unmentioned, but a major factor in my personal bacon consumption and observation of others': the rise of low-carb, rather than low-fat, diets.
- Fuzzwah 12y agoAs an Australian living the in the US, I _really_ miss Aussie "full rasher" bacon and am somewhat amazed that it hasn't become a thing over here in bacon crazy land. https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=australian+full+rasher+bacon https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=australian+full+ras...
- ShaneOG 12y agoYes! I'm from Ireland and we have the same. I live in Brazil now and it has been heavily influenced by the US trend of streaky bacon :(
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- snori74 12y agoMy guess is that there's similar stories to be told about coffee and chocolate - both of which now have fanatical followings. I'm sure they've been been told, but I have not yet read them. On a related note, This American Life recently did an interesting item on the birth of the artisnal toast - well worth a listen.
- scott_s 12y agoIndeed, and it can be found here: http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/520/no-place-like-home?act=3 http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/520/n... The "artisinal toast" aspect is the least interesting. It's an amazing story about a person dealing with their own mental illness, with some good startup advice mixed in at the end. "Just get some cups. Brew some coffee. When you run out cups, close the door, and go get more cups."
- snori74 12y agoMy guess is that there's similar stories to be told about coffee and chocolate - both of which now have fanatical followings. I'm sure they've been been told, but I have not yet read them. On a related note, This American Life recently did an interesting item on the birth of the artisnal toast - well worth a listen.
- LordHumungous 12y agoBacon jumped the shark when they started putting it on desserts.
- jobu 12y agoSide note: bacon wrapped shark is pretty tasty: http://finsmediagroup.com/bacon-wrapped-sharkscallop-kebabs-w-jack-daniels-glaze/ http://finsmediagroup.com/bacon-wrapped-sharkscallop-kebabs-...
- ens 12y agoIt's a baconspiracy!
- modzu 12y agoI suspect that in the not too distant future, we will look back at ourselves eating this highly intelligent and emotional animal with disgust. Why do we call it "bacon" instead of "pig belly"? To keep consumers from remembering that it was ever an independent, conscious creature. The amount of marketing that goes into this narrow vision of "mm smoky salty tasty" B.S without thinking with your brain about what it actually IS, really is a tragedy
- russgray 12y agoDunno about that. Here in the UK you can buy a product clearly labelled as pork belly, and it's not the same as bacon. It isn't cured, and is cut much thicker with more fat. It's great.
- emodendroket 12y agoThat isn't just the UK.
- jkaunisv1 12y agoYour point still stands, but to be fair we do that with almost all meats we consume. Pork instead of pig, veal instead of baby cow, beef instead of adult cow, etc. Chicken is the only one that comes to mind that we call it as we see it. I'm curious what we'll end up calling ants and grasshoppers when we start eating them en masse. I think you also need to accept that most people don't care that it was a living, intelligent, conscious creature. I know plenty of people who will vocally celebrate a meal with bacon (or steak or whatnot) with a blatant reference to the animal that died to be on the plate. I hope this attitude changes in our time, but it is the current reality.
- dllthomas 12y agoNot just chicken but most birds (goose, turkey, duckling, pheasant...). Also, lamb. My understanding is that the difference is because at one point in England the nobility (who ate the animals) spoke something closer to French while the peasants (who raised the animals) spoke something closer to German. So we get beef on our plate but a cow in the field, pork versus pig or swine. It wasn't to distance the food from the animal, but the lower classes from the aristocracy. Whether it now serves that role is another question.
- edpichler 12y agoIncredible, a product that nobody wanted became a success. I wonder how much products failed because people haven't found their real function. They did just some adjustments on bacon and it became a success as a flavor enhancer.
- irrelative 12y agoA very similar thing happened with chicken wings - they used to be discarded, and now they cost more per pound than any other chicken part.
- edpichler 12y agoWell remembered. I also heard a history about chicken legs years ago. I also worked on a firm, in Brazil, that make a ERP software for Chicken producers. Some of our clients told me all chicken legs was separated and send to Asia (I think it was Japan), where it is a really appreciated product.
- myself248 12y agoI'd like to posit a far more insidious impetus: Xenophobia. Yes, most of the people on the bacon bandwagon just enjoy the stuff. It's tasty, and bacon-flavored ice-cream is a great joke. But there's also a vein of white-supremacy, anti-semitic, anti-muslim sentiment in America, and some of the people enthusiastically pushing to put pork in everything under the sun might be doing so because they know it'll make others uncomfortable. A subtle way to assert that "they don't belong here, in the land of bacon", basically. Is it a tiny minority? I certainly hope so. But I think there's a larger overlap, of people who don't think of themselves as actively racist, but who just go along with the bacon-everywhere mantra because they don't mind rubbing it in. Imagine if your favorite restaurant had a barbecue special every friday, and that coincidentally meant there were no catholics around the place. Okay, no big deal, just eat somewhere else. Now imagine if every restaurant in town adopted this schedule, leaving catholics feeling pretty unwelcome. A lot of us non-catholics would never notice, and probably just go along with it, hey, tasty food on fridays, right? Until someone mentioned it... I think that's where we might be on the bacon thing. Folks affected by it are a minority, and hesitant to say anything for fear of sounding whiny and further marginalizing themselves for their beliefs. And it's tasty enough that most folks going along with it might not realize they're playing into an agenda. And it would be impossible to prove that such an agenda even existed. Which I can't prove. But I do know that the bacon-fever makes some of my friends and coworkers feel just a little uncomfortable, a little unwelcome here. Food for thought.
- Chevalier 12y agoSpeaking as someone you might consider xenophobic -- in that I think the set of opinions that constitute Islam are pretty awful, particularly in regard to apostates, women, and homosexuals -- I've never considered bacon to be an avenue to white supremacy. Then again, I'm not white. There are significant ethical hurdles to eating bacon, but Islamophobia isn't one of them.
- myself248 12y agoOh, good. I'd like to think I'm imagining this. You give me hope. :)
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- drivingmenuts 12y agoI'm wondering just how much manipulation of social media was done to push bacon to where it is now (ie., how many bloggers were paid to astroturf).
- shire 12y agoWow I didn't know it was such a big deal like that. I always wondered why Religious people are against Pork and most Holy books forbid eating pig? Yet is so popular to eat? Confused on that.
- aaron-lebo 12y agoMost Christian denominations have no rules or biases against eating pork, so there is still a rather large market for it (not even counting those who are non-religious or non-observant).
- jestar_jokin 12y agoPork can easily carry diseases that humans are susceptible to. Not such an issue these days with modern food processing. Bacon and other processed/preserved meats are loaded up with sodium nitrite, which also helps.
- shire 12y agoI myself have never had Pork. Just Chicken and Beef. A study by the Cancer Research Center of Hawaii and the University of Southern California suggests a link between eating processed (sodium nirite) meats and cancer risk
- EvenThisAcronym 12y agoAn entire article about the rise to popularity of bacon and not a single mention of the Atkins Diet or Epic Meal Time.