[thechat] Re: corned beef or bacon? (was RE: Hijacked... Re: [thechat] Fighter plane's laser may blind civ ilians)

[Drew Shiel]

At 07:18 31/07/2002 -0700, Joel Canfield wrote:
>Help out a culturally deprived chap: how do you define 'bacon' ? In the US,
>in case it's not universally known, bacon is thin strips of fatty pork cut
>from the back (yes, 'back' is the root of the word 'bacon' from Old High
>German; I knew an old, high, German once, but that's another story) and
>generally fried 'til it's crisp.

   No, those're rashers [1]. Bacon is pig (possibly certain bits, not sure
about that, but probably the thighs of yon piggy) and salted to hell and
back. It's cooked on the bone by boiling it for a few hours, from which it
comes out quite pink (or grey, if you're overenthusiastic with the
boiling). It's very salty, often has wodges of fat still attached, and
occasionally fills me with wonder that more of my ancestors didn't all keel
over at about 25

>Tell me about Irish bacon. And, since it wasn't completely clear, is corned
>beef unknown in Ireland, or just not popular? Is that a US Irish thing, or
>not Irish at all?

   I'm not sure. We have stuff we call corned beef, which is a sort of
re-constituted beef-and-flour mix, with other, more dubious bits in. Sort
of like high-quality dog food, now that I come to think about it, although
I quite like it. Is that what you'd call corned beef?

   If it is, we have it, but it wouldn't be considered traditional or
important. If not, we don't have it at all. :)

>Guinness is still Irish, right? ;)

   On that, you are safe.

   Drew.

   [1] A name also used for a particular type of attack by one schoolboy
upon another, where a ruler is struck downward, edge first, glancing off
the buttocks. Being rashered stings like you wouldn't believe.


Drew Shiel                               webmaster at swiftpay.com
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