Bringing Home the Bacon: From Shakespeare to the Baconator
6/23/202648 min
For many Americans, bacon is an essential element of the perfect breakfast—not to mention a welcome addition to everything from cheeseburgers to doughnuts. But bacon hasn't always been beloved. Ancient Egyptians elites looked down on pork, Judaism and Islam banned it entirely, and in Shakespeare’s time, calling someone “bacon brains” was a serious insult. So how did we go from bacon shaming to today's full-on baconmania? We’re calling in the bacon experts to uncover how pigs domesticated themselves before becoming the key to world domination, what Sigmund Freud has to do with the ascendance of bacon and eggs as a breakfast staple, and why "bringing home the bacon" is the key to marital bliss. Listen in now for the salty story of humanity's on-again, off-again love affair with these streaky strips!
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First 90 secondsSpeaker 10:02
Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. Lisa, honey, are you saying you're never going to eat any animal again? What about bacon? No. Ham? No. Pork chops? Dad, those all come from the same animal. [laughs] Yeah, right, Lisa. A wonderful, magical animal.
Nicola Twilley· Host0:18
[laughs] That wonderful, magical animal, the source of such wonderful, magical foods as bacon, ham, and pork chops is, of course, the pig. But for most of history, pork was basically bacon.
Cynthia Graber· Host0:34
And this episode is all about bacon, the prerequisite for your BLT, your bacon cheeseburger, and for some of you listeners, the crumbled topping on your maple donut.
Nicola Twilley· Host0:43
You're listening to Gastropod, the podcast that looks at food through the lens of science and history. I'm Nicola Twilley.
Cynthia Graber· Host0:48
And I'm Cynthia Graber. Why are so many people today so obsessed with bacon, but also so many cultures over such a long time have reviled and even banned it?
Nicola Twilley· Host0:57
What connects Shakespeare with the Wendy's Baconator, and what does it really mean when you bring home the bacon?
Cynthia Graber· Host1:04
This episode was supported in part by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation for the Public Understanding of Science, Technology, and Economics. Gastropod is part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. [instrumental music] Support for the show comes in part from Ring. Peace of mind starts with keeping your home safe, like keeping an eye on packages, visitors, and whatever else your Ring system captures. With battery doorbell, you get a clear view