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I really just have a basic bacon question, something that has always bugged me and hoping that there a baconophile out there who has the answer. In Australia our bacon comes in packs and the meat is opaque pink. As a greedy German origin child I took great delight in eating the bacon straight from the packet (and sneeking off with Grandad's hanging salamis) . It's used like regular bacon, fried with eggs etc.
Now when I moved to England for a while the bacon over there was really different, it was translucent, raw looking and when you cooked it heaps of moisture would come out of it, almost resulting in your rasher being boiled in it's juices. It ended up tasting similar and it's used like regular bacon, fried with eggs etc. You could not eat it raw like a greedy German/Australian kid.
What's the difference? Is UK bacon unsmoked? Australian bacon precooked? Not sure exactly. Anyone know?
Also when living in England and not making much money we cooked Gammon alot. In Australia we don't have something named Gammon (infact it's slang for rancid food), is Gammon just brined Pork? Raw pickled pork isn't readily sold in Australia so to recreate those wonderful experiences I'll probably have to do it myself. Anyone know it's origins?

im not exactly a "baconphile" but i think the answer is that UK bacon in supermarkets is pumped full of Shi* and water when being processed, hence the stuff that comes out of it. Butchers Bacon i find to be a lot better and a lot dryer and tastier (and by "butcher's bacon, i include my own home made stuff in that lol)

aussie bacon is pumped to 22% and cooked to a final yield of 5% at 58 degrees celcius. I f the bacon you are eating loosses a lot of moisture then it has been pumped too high or is pickled raw. Gammon ham in australia is a boneless hand tied leg ham.

timmyw wrote:... aussie bacon is ... cooked ... at 58 degrees celcius. ...

North Americam bacon is pre-cooked too.
British bacon is sold *raw* - though "smoked" bacon is *cold* smoked, likely at a temperature in the low 20's C. (Or sadly even more likely, just dosed with smoke flovouring...)

German/Austrian/Alpine "speck" isn't quite bacon, though its close.
Notably it *is* eaten either raw or cooked like bacon.
I believe "speck" is produced by curing, a little smoking and a lot of very slow drying. This produces a much denser (and more expensive) product.
I wonder if your family tradition was to eat expat-produced made-in-Oz speck?

Australian bacon consists of the loin and belly where as speck is just the belly

North American bacon is cured, cold smoked, and sold raw. The good stuff is dry cured, the high producton stuff is brined and or injected.

i asked my uncle out their to find out for me as his mate moved out to rockingham a couple of years ago and set up a butchers, apparently their bacon is cured, then steamed untill almost cooked, also the rashers are around 12" long.

pumped with brine
left in brine bucket 24hrs
hot smoked with probe in it.
over night machine.machine switch's itself off.
ovenking,brand commercial