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Why Spain, the Country With the World’s Best Ham, Makes Such Terrible Bacon
daily beast ^
Posted on 01/13/2022 11:53:50 AM PST by mylife
n the Notes app on my phone, I keep a list called “Ingredients to Buy in the U.S.” Horseradish, cake flour, molasses, Chex Mix—I can’t find certain American foods in Madrid, so I lug them back with me, weight allowances be damned. But customs always swipes my most prized Proustian treasure, one that’s absent, astoundingly, in the Iberian Peninsula: good bacon. Smoky, crispy, sizzling slices of American-style bacon.
Bacon is Spain’s biggest culinary disappointment. Flabby, elastic, and chronically undercooked, it’s always too thick or too thin, too salty or too bland. It boasts neither the heady campfire scent of American bacon nor a whit of its tantalizing crispness. Bite into Spanish bacon, and it often bites you back, with nubbins of untrimmed cartilage cracking audibly between your teeth. The more bacon I spat into napkins in Spain, the more puzzled I became. Surely the culture that gave us chorizo and torreznos and exquisite Ibérico ham could make great bacon. So why was it nowhere to be found?
As I started digging for answers, I couldn’t help wondering, AITA? We food writers are an insufferable, persnickety lot; it’s how we make our living. Yet apparently misery loves company as much as Americans in Madrid love to whine about Spanish bacon. “It’s the color for me,” lamented my Ohioan friend Marlee, her nose wrinkling in disgust. “Too pink. It’s creepy.” Her roommate Regina, from Long Island, was quick to pile on: “As far as I’m concerned, there is no bacon in Madrid,” to which Melissa, from Queens, replied, “There was bacon on the table this morning. I gave mine away.”
(Excerpt) Read more at thedailybeast.com ...
TOPICS: Chit/Chat; Food; Miscellaneous; Travel
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That will not do pig!!
1
posted on
01/13/2022 11:53:50 AM PST
by
mylife
2
posted on
01/13/2022 11:56:34 AM PST
by
mylife
(You believe that ? You don't believe me? Unbelievable!)
To: mylife
There’s a meme in this somewhere: “It was all lank and rank and greasy and flabby, like...Spanish bacon.” (Sorry, in poor taste!)
3
posted on
01/13/2022 11:56:37 AM PST
by
Scarlett156
(Don't take it personally. I just get bored really easily. )
To: mylife
Don’t they know how to smoke meat?
4
posted on
01/13/2022 11:56:59 AM PST
by
Carriage Hill
(A society grows great when old men plant trees, in whose shade they know they will never sit.)
To: carriage_hill
5
posted on
01/13/2022 11:59:38 AM PST
by
mylife
(You believe that ? You don't believe me? Unbelievable!)
To: mylife
To: mylife
Could be worse: Could be Canadian.
7
posted on
01/13/2022 12:00:31 PM PST
by
dangus
To: carriage_hill; All
The Spanish who went to the Caribbean in the 1600s-1700s knew how to do it. Th term “buccaneer” basically means bacon maker ! I guess grilling & barbecue was something pirates did when they weren't sailing around robbing ships and saying “Arrg” !
8
posted on
01/13/2022 12:03:15 PM PST
by
Reily
To: dangus
9
posted on
01/13/2022 12:03:31 PM PST
by
mylife
(You believe that ? You don't believe me? Unbelievable!)
To: BBQToadRibs2
10
posted on
01/13/2022 12:05:16 PM PST
by
mylife
(You believe that ? You don't believe me? Unbelievable!)
To: Reily
Nar matey. It’s the sea (C) we love.
To: mylife
The premise is wrong in the first place ...
Polish hams are the best!
12
posted on
01/13/2022 12:07:01 PM PST
by
BlueLancer
(Orchides Forum Trahite - Cordes Et Mentes Veniant)
To: mylife
Back in the 80s, when I lived in NJ and worked in Midtown, I used to buy whole Parma Hams & Parmigiano Reggiano Cheese wheels from an importer/distributor friend. Best of the best.
13
posted on
01/13/2022 12:08:52 PM PST
by
Carriage Hill
(A society grows great when old men plant trees, in whose shade they know they will never sit.)
To: Reily
The Spanish who went to the Caribbean in the 1600s-1700s knew how to do it. Th term “buccaneer” basically means bacon maker ! I guess grilling & barbecue was something pirates did when they weren't sailing around robbing ships and saying “Arrg” ! The term buccaneer was taken from the Spanish bucanero and derives from the Caribbean Arawak word buccan, a wooden frame on which Tainos and Caribs slowly roasted or smoked meat, commonly manatee.
-Wikipedia
Manatee bacon... mmmm...
Regards,
14
posted on
01/13/2022 12:09:05 PM PST
by
alexander_busek
(Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.)
To: Scarlett156
"It was all lank and rank and greasy and flabby, like...Spanish bacon." I think you accidentally describe the aging process of man
15
posted on
01/13/2022 12:09:31 PM PST
by
WMarshal
("Those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither.")
To: alexander_busek
Manatee. It’s what’s for dinner!
16
posted on
01/13/2022 12:10:21 PM PST
by
WMarshal
("Those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither.")
To: BlueLancer
17
posted on
01/13/2022 12:12:35 PM PST
by
mylife
(You believe that ? You don't believe me? Unbelievable!)
To: mylife
We found out the hard way that we couldn’t bring the jamon we bought in Spain back home, had to eat it on the plane.
18
posted on
01/13/2022 12:14:51 PM PST
by
dfwgator
(Endut! Hoch Hech!)
To: mylife
19
posted on
01/13/2022 12:15:05 PM PST
by
dfwgator
(Endut! Hoch Hech!)
To: dfwgator
20
posted on
01/13/2022 12:45:09 PM PST
by
mylife
(You believe that ? You don't believe me? Unbelievable!)
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