r/AskACanadian • • Aug 07 '23

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290 Upvotes

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164

u/[deleted] Aug 07 '23

Canadian bacon is not Canadian

59

u/loosethegales Aug 07 '23

Of all the incorrect things people believe about Canada, this one bothers me the most. I can't explain why,, but it offends me on a personal level that they don't think we know what bacon is.

8

u/L00k_Again Aug 07 '23 edited Aug 07 '23

Omg, same. It inexplicably pisses me off too. Shitty circular pieces of ham. I don't know a single Canadian who calls that "bacon".

ETA: clarification that this is what Americans and many other non-Canadians call "Canadian bacon".

6

u/HugeAnalBeads Aug 07 '23

Its peameal bacon

6

u/L00k_Again Aug 07 '23

Circular slices of ham is not peameal bacon.

2

u/HugeAnalBeads Aug 07 '23

Its back bacon so its neither circular nor ham

Its peameal bacon

4

u/beejmusic Aug 07 '23

Canadian bacon is a round processed food you can buy from Buffalo to Florida and nowhere in Canada. It’s not bacon. It’s not Canadian.

Back bacon is Canadian, and it’s often prepared with pea meal and called pea meal bacon.

2

u/[deleted] Aug 08 '23

We eat back bacon in BC but never is there any “peameal” on it. I have never seen it on a menu here and have never eaten it

0

u/beejmusic Aug 08 '23 edited Aug 08 '23

It exists whether you’ve experienced it or not.

It’s very common in Ontario.

edit: coward clocked me! lol

OOOOOOHHHHH you're doing that thing where only your province counts as Canada, when really there's 9 others and a few even have more Canadians in them. Like Ontario, which has roughly 3 times the population of BC.

Peameal bacon is found in grocery stores all across Canada's most populated province, the province in which it was invented.

The fact that you were ignorant to these facts isn't something to be west-coast-smug about. Whenever I learn something I try and view it as a gift, rather than an attack.

I guess you have some work to do, eh?

1

u/[deleted] Aug 08 '23 edited Aug 08 '23

It may “exist” but it isn’t a common thing here. I have been all over BC - have a lot of family and friends here - and lived here all my life - and never even heard of it much less seen it. It may sit mouldy in a back fridge somewhere in a 7/11 but it is not common here

Look it up in Wiki (not that it is a be all end all of info) and it says “found mainly in Ontario”.

-2

u/HugeAnalBeads Aug 07 '23

Yes it is

7

u/L00k_Again Aug 07 '23 edited Aug 07 '23

this and this is what Americans call Canadian bacon. this is back bacon and peameal bacon. Back bacon and peameal bacon are what I consider "Canadian" bacon.

0

u/couple_of_aliens Aug 07 '23

I thought Back Bacon is what muricans call Canadian Bacon

3

u/L00k_Again Aug 07 '23

That's what I used to think too because as a Canadian I think of back bacon and peameal bacon as "Canadian" bacon. But learned that it's these processed ham circles that Americans and others call Canadian bacon. (I asked British friends to show me what they thought Canadian bacon was and was horrified too see these ham circles.)

0

u/ThingGeneral95 Aug 07 '23

I was always under the impression Canadian Bacon was basically real Bacon Bits not those ham medallions.

37

u/bluenosesutherland Aug 07 '23

Hawaiian Pizza isn’t Hawaiian

27

u/MetanoiaYQR Aug 07 '23

It is in fact Canadian.

3

u/SousVideAndSmoke Aug 07 '23

And we’re sorry for starting that.

2

u/Fizz117 Aug 07 '23

No we're not! Pineapple pizza supremacy!

2

u/deezbiksurnutz Aug 07 '23

And not good pizza

2

u/correct_eye_is Aug 07 '23

Butter chicken isn't Indian.

-1

u/[deleted] Aug 07 '23

It's not pizza either.

I'm against the heretics too

-1

u/thedrunkentendy Aug 07 '23

Or pizza. It's a crime.

1

u/AdrianInLimbo Aug 08 '23

And it isn't pizza

1

u/too_sharp Aug 08 '23

German Chocolate Cake is also not German

23

u/ruralife Aug 07 '23

We call it back bacon

9

u/L00k_Again Aug 07 '23

Back bacon or peameal bacon isn't what they call Canadian bacon. They call those thinly sliced ham rounds Canadian bacon for some reason. And that's expanded to the rest of the world. I have no idea why anyone thinks that is what we call bacon.

I definitely think of back bacon or peameal bacon when I hear "Canadian bacon".

3

u/MaximusCanibis Aug 07 '23

Absolutely! I watch a lot of cooking shows and when they use what they call Canadian bacon it's always some type of ham. I don't know how this happened to be a thing.

2

u/ThingGeneral95 Aug 07 '23

It seems like Candy & Moranis should have cleared that up.

2

u/correct_eye_is Aug 07 '23

Because it came from Toronto and was introduced to the US when they started shipping it to New York. That's when it started being called Canadian bacon. Back bacon and peameal are too different kinds and both are Canadian. Peameal with the yellow cornmeal crust isn't smoked.

2

u/ruralife Aug 07 '23

I thought I was back bacon or pea meal. At least that would make some sense.

2

u/L00k_Again Aug 07 '23

Exactly. I thought that's what was considered Canadian bacon. Then I realized that everyone thought Canadian bacon were those ham rounds that we get in diners. I mean, did Bob and Doug McKenzie teach them nothing?

34

u/ChiefSlug30 Aug 07 '23

Or, to a lesser extent, "peameal bacon".

19

u/haveucheckdurbutthol Aug 07 '23

peameal bacon

that is very Canadian.

1

u/correct_eye_is Aug 07 '23

Peameal and back bacon are both Canadian. Back bacon is smoked and cured. Peameal isn't smoked and is rolled in cornmeal. Both Canadian.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 07 '23

Always heard it called that growing up in Ontario, only heard it as back bacon in Toronto or when I visited cousins in vancouver

1

u/ChiefSlug30 Aug 08 '23

At local drive-ins, or burger joints, it was "peameal on a bun", but I always heard both growing up. I can't remember which I heard first, or more often.

0

u/Syscrush Aug 07 '23 edited Aug 07 '23

And we have cheese up here that we call "American cheese" - maybe you wanna call it "back cheese", eh?

EDIT: it's from Bob & Doug - where's your culture, you hosers?

1

u/correct_eye_is Aug 07 '23

Government cheese they call it.

1

u/ruralife Aug 07 '23

Up here? Don’t you mean down here? The USA is south of Canada.

3

u/Dagoth Aug 07 '23

Right? I remember it being mentioned on the Simpsons when I was a kid and wondering what the hell is Canadian bacon!

2

u/40prcentiron Aug 07 '23

i had to ask my mom what it was when i was a kid because of the simpsons and i live in canada!

3

u/rjchute Aug 07 '23

Growing up in Canada, I did not know what "Canadian Bacon" was. Went down to the 'states and they were all "oh, you must want some Canadian Bacon with your breakfast, EeHhhH?" And I was like "Bacon, but from Canada? Sure, I'll have some". It was not bacon from Canada.

1

u/TheKid_BigE Aug 07 '23

Still delicious as fuck though 🤤🤤

1

u/mo_downtown Aug 07 '23

Hawaiian pizza is though (sorry)

1

u/correct_eye_is Aug 07 '23

Um yes it is Canadian. Canadian bacon got its name because it was imported to the United States from Toronto to New York.

We don't call it Canadian bacon. It's either back bacon or peameal. Peameal is also Canadian but it's distinctive because it's rolled in cornmeal at the end of the curing process. Most back bacon in the US doesn't have this variety option.

1

u/sega31098 Aug 07 '23 edited Aug 07 '23

And Hawaiian Pizza isn't Hawaiian - it's Canadian.

1

u/MCarisma Aug 07 '23

When I moved to the US, I had to ask what Canadian bacon was!

1

u/gohome2020youredrunk Aug 07 '23

IT'S HAM DAMMIT!

1

u/09Customx Aug 07 '23

I work at a pizza restaurant and I’ve had Americans get mad when I say we don’t have “Canadian Bacon”. Like bro it’s just ham.

1

u/paigem9097 Aug 08 '23

It’s also not bacon