Food Explorer: Ham

I love food. I love to eat, I love to cook, I love to savor, I love to taste, I love to smell, I love the experience of food. I have been thinking a lot lately about food. And the way that I completely relate to Remy on Disney's Ratatouille. The way that the artists illustrated the experience of food with light and swirls, sound effects, music....that is me. Ahhh....delicious!
Food is a blessing because it keeps me alive and nourishes my babies. It can also be a curse because I love it and have to watch what I eat so that I don’t turn into a giant blueberry (you are what you eat right?). Food brings us together. Traditionally we have holidays and feasts, family dinners and festivities, the one thing that we find in common across the globe and throughout time is food. Food is a major part of life, it is a necessity. Without food our bodies don’t grow, renew or maintain themselves in a proper working order. If we eat too much food our bodies are unable to process the excess efficiently and we find things like love handles or thunder thighs ever increasing in size. Our poor body in the mean time is attempting to create some sort of storage for the future famine which is sure to ensue. Food can help us to maintain a healthy function through things like fiber and antioxidants. Or food can shut down our body or potentially kill us like peanut butter does to those with severe nut allergies or gluten for the gluten intolerant. And amazingly our children and babies come pre-programmed to eat the right amount....we may go into that on another day...
When I was pregnant with my second child I found my body not functioning properly when I was 34 weeks along. I spent many days in and out of the hospital, and doctors’ offices as we tried to help my body overcome what was ailing me. In the end it was a month of I.V. antibiotics, lots of pain meds and a handful of other meds to control the affects of the antibiotics before I was finally able to start feeling anything close to normal- er well as normal as you can that far into a pregnancy. Turns out I had a severe case of E. coli, kidney infection, kidney stones and something else in the microscopic realm that was highly resistant to treatment. What may have started as a case of food poisoning quickly turned into a huge ordeal in which I was fighting for my life and the life of my unborn child. Food may or may not have been the initial culprit, but either way I was unable to eat to nourish my baby and I, we both went into starvation mode. I lost 8 pounds, ended up in ICU because my body was shutting down and in the end had a baby who was six days past due and weighed only 6 pounds 3 ounces. She was a teeny tiny baby who had learned in the womb the importance of food and nourishment to development and sustaining life. Nowadays she is a chunky baby who seems to enjoy food as much if not more than the rest of us. Like I said food can be a blessing, or it can be a curse. Food can heal us or it can make us sick, either way it is something that we can’t live without.
Recently I was thinking a lot about meat. I am not exactly sure why but I was sort of on this meat kick. I guess my body was craving extra protein or something, I probably should have looked to more varied sources of protein but did not. Anyway as I stood there in the meat section of a local store trying to decide what types of meat I should take home to feed my family over the next couple of weeks. Then it hit me-BAM like a frying pan to the face. (ha ha ha) What exactly is the difference between regular bacon, Canadian bacon and some of the other types of bacon out there?
Bacon is technically made from pig, though I have had a substance called turkey bacon. This was tasty, but it was not the kind of bacon I was thinking of. Today I will be referring to the pig variety only. Here are some of my interesting findings:
There are several kinds of bacon- I already knew this if you didn't then you are missing out and should try some of them. There are bacons made from the belly, pork butt and from the back.
Bacons made from the belly:
•    American bacon
•    English streaky bacon
•    Italian bacon (pancetta)
Bacons made from the pork butt:
•    English gammon
Bacons made from the back:
•    Canadian bacon
•    English back bacon
•    Irish bacon
Bacons made from the back of a hog are much leaner, and do not taste the same as bacons made from the pork belly. *Amazing....pigs carry their fat in much the same place as people do, belly first, then butt, then back.....of course all of them are stubborn to get rid of and none look good hanging out of a bathing suit....* Bacon made from the back of the belly are fatter than bacon made from the front of a belly.
Because it is cured, bacon tends to keep for a very long time....that is when it is cured and stored properly...

http://cooking-basics.suite101.com/article.cfm/bacon_beyond_breakfast

Pancetta

Pancetta is an Italian-style bacon that is cured with salt, peppercorns and cloves. Traditionally, pancetta is not smoked. Usually, pancetta is packaged in a roll--like a sausage--and is sold to order by the slice.

Irish Bacon

This smoke-cured bacon takes on the appearance of a boneless pork loin roast. Irish bacon is lean meat obtained from the "eye" part of a piece of pork loin. This bacon can be sliced to any thickness desired.

Read more at Suite101: Types of Bacon - Pancetta, Canadian, Slab Bacon: From Spaghetti to Salads, Incorporate Meat into Other Meal Pairings http://cooking-basics.suite101.com/article.cfm/bacon_beyond_breakfast#ixzz0iO2SOUCc

Canadian Bacon

Similar to Irish bacon, Canadian bacon is also obtained from the pork loin. It contains less fat and calories than American-style bacon. This bacon is also sometimes referred to as "back bacon" because the meat for the bacon comes from the back of the pig.

American-Style Bacon

Virginia bacon is one of the most common types of American-style bacon. This type of bacon comes from the stomach of the pig. American-style bacon is cured in salt and then smoked; before slicing, the rind is taken off.

Slab Bacon

Slab bacon is a large, single piece of bacon with the rind left on. This type of bacon receives additional flavor when it's smoked over roasted corncobs.

Peppered Bacon

The name of this bacon says it all: The bacon receives a spicy coating of coarsely ground black pepper.

Apple Wood-Smoked Bacon

Smoke from burning pieces of apple wood is the key to curing this bacon and infusing it with a slightly sweet, rich flavor.

Pretty amazing .....makes me want to go out and try some of these types of bacon....maybe I will....in moderation of course, I don't want to end up looking like the pigs the bacon came from.

Queen B