Is Bacon the Olive Oil of North America?

I KNOW IT MIGHT SOUND STRANGE AT FIRST, BUT I’VE COME TO BELIEVE, WITH AN EVER-GREATER DEGREE OF CONVICTION, that bacon is to North American cooking and culture what olive oil is to the people of the Mediterranean. I know the analogy is not perfect—any food historian can tell you that while olive oil has been in the Mediterranean since time immemorial, bacon is a relatively recent addition to American cooking. Hogs, after all, most likely landed in Florida with the Hernando de Soto expedition in 1539.

Still, the more I think about the idea—and the more I read, cook and talk with other people—the more the comparison seems to carry weight. Still skeptical? Here, I present to you ten pretty darned solid reasons why I think that bacon is the olive oil of North America:

1. People really, really love the stuff.
When it comes to social and/or culinary change, I can tell you from experience, passion counts for a lot. In the Mediterranean, olive oil is something that most every good cook cares about deeply. People in every part of the Mediterranean love their olive oil and they eat a lot of it.

As far as I can tell, other than the obvious other option of chocolate, bacon is about as close as North Americans get to that kind of passion for food. Seriously, you start talking bacon to people and they go wild. People who cook for sure, but also those who just like to eat; professionals or home cooks; older folks and kids, they all love bacon. Their eyes light up. They tell stories. They believe in bacon. And they consume it in large quantities.

2. There is long-standing history.
Olive oil has been a part of Mediterranean culture for thousands of years. Bacon has been big here for 500 years. Back in the 17th century, William Byrd wrote of North Carolinians that they ate “pork upon pork and pork again upon that.” And most every traveler’s tale mentions it as one of a dozen key provisions to have on board their boat or covered wagon.

3. Political and ethnic boundaries have no bearing.
Olive trees have outlasted empires (Greeks, Turks, Byzantines and Ottomans), have been common to warring countries (Greece and Turkey, Israel and the Palestinians), and are popular in regions such as Provence that have changed status many times (in this case rule by France, Italy and later back to France).

In studying traditional American cooking, it’s increasingly clear to me that bacon could be the single most important ingredient we’ve got in this country. Much like olive oil, which serves as a culinary thread (maybe strong rope would be a better image) that ties together all the varied cuisines of the Mediter-ranean, bacon is the common ingredient of nearly every element of regional American cooking.

You’ll certainly find it all over the South, for sure—both the Union and Confederate armies counted on it heavily during the Civil War. Bacon’s always been popular in New England cookery with clams in chowder, beans for baking, eggs for breakfast, sautéed scallops and dozens of other old-time dishes. The Pennsylvania Dutch use bacon in eggs and potato salads. Out west I’ve had bacon with fish and in salads and on sandwiches. North of the border, Canadian bacon has been big for a long time.

It’s significant to me that, in this context, bacon is also huge in Native American cooking. Remember that the pig was not indigenous to North America; it was just one more ingredient introduced by invading people. And yet, everything I’ve been learning on the subject tells me that it’s used extensively by modern day Native Americans, and actually has been for centuries. Bacon with wild rice is a staple. The fact that bacon came to be so closely connected to—and so often cooked with—the most highly valued and esteemed food in the Native American cultures of the Upper Midwest speaks volumes to its culinary value.

4. The fat is where the flavor is.
The flavor of any cuisine, whether in Spain or the American South, is carried more by the type of fat that’s used in cooking than anything else. I learned long ago that if you want to replicate the traditional flavors of any cuisine you always start by using the right fat. Just as olive oil is the flavor that underwrites more Mediterranean food than any other ingredient, bacon quietly, but with beneficent force, buttresses the flavors of food all over this country.

5. There is big flavor return for a small investment.
As is the case with olive oil, the flavor bacon brings to the table far exceeds its relative volumetric contribution to cooking. In other words, when you look at the ingredients list for a recipe you’ll rarely see either olive oil or bacon listed in particularly large quantities. But when you use them well, each makes an enormous difference in the flavor of the finished dish. Long story short—a little bit of either goes a long way. Literally an ounce or so of bacon can make up half the flavor of a fantastic, easy-to-prepare dish.

In this sense, I’ve become a bigger and bigger believer that bacon’s leading value in the kitchen isn’t in its obvious uses sliced for breakfast or BLTs (though those are great too), but rather when it’s chopped or diced and then used as a seasoning. In that sense, it works just as olive oil does in Greek cuisine. Through slow cooking, the flavor of the fat is absorbed into the fresh produce leaving a full flavored, really rich vegetable dish.

6. They both can be used for year-round cooking.
It’s become a particular emphasis of mine, and many others, to eat fresh foods when they’re in season. But while both olive oil and bacon each has a ‘season’ in which they are typically produced—mid to late autumn for oil, early winter for bacon—both are designed for relatively long storage and year-round cooking. And because each has a long shelf-life they are amongst the staples that cooks count on in all seasons, regardless of whether economic times are good or bad.

7. Millions eat them both.
Unlike some foods, which were at one time eaten only by particular social classes, both bacon and olive oil seem to be almost universally loved. Other than the obvious exceptions of observant Jews, Muslims, vegetarians and other groups with strict prohibitions, bacon is popular with everyone—urban and rural, old and young. While the wealthy may have had more of either on hand at any given time, neither product was ever produced only for rich people. Both bacon and olive oil cut across class lines and you’ll find both in kitchens of every economic level and most every ethnic group. While they haven’t added it as a question to the Census yet, statistics are that more than half of American households have bacon on hand at all times.

8. There are different types for various dishes.
Just as one would want to select an appropriate olive oil to use in a particular recipe (say, a big green oil with meat, and soft elegant one for delicate fish), people want to be able to choose their bacon accordingly. This is one of my big pushes for the next few years—to get folks to move past just thinking that ‘everything is better with bacon,’ to realizing that, while bacon is generally a good thing, pairing the right bacon with the appropriate food is better.

9. Importance in society.
One place where I struggled with the veracity of the “bacon as olive oil” theory was when I thought about the role that olive oil has played in the spiritual activity of the Mediterranean. Bacon doesn’t have any part in religion (except as a prohibition), whereas olives and olive oil have much significance in the Mediterranean. (For example, ‘Christ’ comes from the word ‘chrism’ which means ‘to be anointed’ with oil in Greek.) But then, I came upon this quote from Joseph R. Conlin, who wrote in Bacon, Beans and Galantine, about life during the Gold Rush. He said, “Then as now, most Americans probably preferred a good beefsteak on the table to any other viand. But pork was president of the Republic.”

With this quote I realized that while bacon may be non-sectarian, it is a duly elected officer of the state and, therefore, has a powerful place in our society. Perhaps even more to the point, the 19th century Godey’s Lady’s Book sums it up: “The United States of America might properly be called the great Hog-eating Confederacy, or the Republic of Porkdom.”

Maybe we should drop the bald eagle and replace it with a slab of good bacon? Or maybe it’s time to move past the “chicken in every pot” platitude and go with “thick slices of bacon in every skillet!”

10. There is still room for growth.
While many retailers sell bacon, few of us have given it much weight in our meat cases or in our prepared foods. Using the olive oil analogy, this is a call to take it to the next level—if we have 30, 40 or more olive oils, why fewer than a half dozen bacons? If nothing else, I’ll say that while it’s not strange to see great olive oils retailing at about $40 a half-liter (about a pound), bacon is still a bargain at well under half that price.

The opportunities for bacon growth are pretty big, I think. Because so many people already feel so positively about it, it’s easier than ever to get them excited about buying, cooking and eating bacon. Towards that end, here at Zingerman’s we’ve run bacon classes, bacon promotions, BLT specials and featured it in ads, special menu items, monthly clubs and bi-monthly newsletters. Consumers can’t seem to get enough of the stuff—between that and the fact that it’s so good, putting a heavy promotional focus onto selling (and, in your kitchen, cooking with) better bacons can’t yield anything but positive results. Call your bacon suppliers, learn more what they do, why it’s special and then share all the information with your staff and your customers.

Editor’s Note: This essay has been adapted from the forthcoming book, Zingerman’s Guide to Buying Better Bacon, which will be published in winter 2009.

Ari Weinzweig is co-owner of Zingerman’s Delicatessen in Ann Arbor, Mich., and author of Zingerman’s Guide to Giving Great Service and other books. For more information, visit www.zingtrain.com.