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National Bacon Lovers Day

Food · August 20

A food day for bacon fans, with a look at the many regional styles of bacon and the ways people bring it well beyond the breakfast plate.

National Bacon Lovers Day falls on Friday, August 20, 2027. That is 297 days away.

Bacon fans tend to have opinions, and this day gives them room. It is a food day for the people who love bacon, and for the many shapes bacon takes once you look past the familiar strip.

Start with style. Canadian bacon is cut from the loin, so it comes in lean round slices that eat more like ham. Irish and British back bacon joins a piece of loin to a ribbon of fat, which gives you two textures in one rasher. Italian pancetta is cured and often rolled, then sliced thin or diced for cooking into pasta sauces. Slab bacon, sold in one piece, lets the cook decide how thick each slice should be.

Then there is where it shows up. Bacon has wandered into dinner and dessert. It gets wrapped around dates or green beans, folded into baked beans and collard greens, chopped into potato salad, and paired with maple or chocolate by people who like salt next to sweet. A little goes a long way, which is why many cooks treat it as a seasoning more than a main event.

A lot of good bacon comes from smokehouses and butcher counters, where the person behind the glass can tell you what wood was used and how long the slab cured. Asking is half the pleasure for a true fan.

If you are cooking it at home, keep raw bacon cold until it goes in the pan and cook it all the way through. Hickory and applewood smoke taste noticeably different, so a side by side tasting tends to settle arguments or start new ones.

Ways to celebrate

• Try a bacon style you have never had, like back bacon or pancetta.
• Ask a local butcher which wood they use to smoke their bacon.
• Add a little cooked bacon to a dinner dish such as beans or greens.
• Hold a small tasting of hickory smoked versus applewood smoked bacon.
• Share your favorite bacon thickness and see who agrees.

Dates

All national days on August 20

Also on August 20

• National Radio Day
• National Chocolate Pecan Pie Day

Categories: Food days