Just How Long Have Things Gone Better with Bacon?

A common saying that turns up on the Internet these days is that "things go better with bacon."  

A few days ago, I found an article on an interesting blog suggesting that, in Europe at least, bacon has been making things better for a long time.  The post appears on https://www.bakerspeel.com, and the article can be read here. 

The author notes that in medieval Europe, bacon was the meat usually eaten by the lower and middle classes and was primarily preserved by curing, i.e., packing the cut meat with salt to draw as much moisture out of the meat as possible.   In early modern times (i.e., after 1600 CE) bacon was also smoked--exposed in a warm place to woodsmoke), but the smoking process is not, and was understood not to be, sufficient to preserve the meat alone so it was combined with curing to produce a better-flavored product.  Small amounts of sugar were added to the curing material for the same reason.  

I commend the article to my readers' attention as an interesting discussion of how bacon preparation methods--and of necessity the flavor profile that must have resulted--changed over time. 

NOTE:  Edited to change a clause in the third paragraph to read "but the smoking process is not, and was understood not to be, sufficient to preserve the meat alone so it was combined with curing to produce a better-flavored product."  The original said, incorrectly, that "smoking" was combined with "smoking" in the manufacture of early modern bacon.