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. 

Ötzi's Last Meal

Reconstruction of Ötzi
Photo by Thilo Parg 
(Wikimedia Commons)

Remember Ötzi?  The Stone Age man whose well-preserved body and state-of-the-Stone-Age-art outdoor equipment was found some decades ago in the South Tyrol?  Believe it or not, further analysis of Otzi's remains has yielded information that bears upon the history of food.

A recent article from Phys.org reports that German researchers have used non-invasive techniques to examine the contents of Ötzi's stomach and have concluded that his last meal was "very fatty, dried meat, most likely bacon" from a wild goat.  The article can be read here.  Judging from this description, it seems that what Ötzi had was more like bacon jerky, goat bacon cut and dried to preserve it.  Dried meat would make really useful, easy-to-carry food in the mountains where he was travelling.  

Think about that the next time you see bacon jerky in your local supermarket or on the Internet. Don't let modern ad copy fool you; some foods, especially dried foods, go way, way back.