We're going to get half a pig via CSA this year, and get the butchers to process it.

Just heard about this

I saw a bacon taco, where the shell was made of bacon....looked pretty good...

I dedicate to you, this bacon
(5.5 pounds of Pork loin last week, 5 pounds of bacon this)

The piece de resistance.
Home made bacon: check.
Home made bread: check.
Custom sausages: check.


Lizzyq says we need to have our own chickens, and we can be self-sufficient in the English breakfast.

It was a truly excellent breakfast bap.

That looks amazing!

I'm still trying to source the loin.

Irish deli/pub place nearby, the butcher there is ringing around for me and also the owner of the local Brazilian mini mart is ringing around her suppliers as the regular ones have the loin pre trimmed when they get it.

There's another couple of Brazilian butchers nearby, but one of them, no one speaks English the previous times I've gone in and the other one, isn't far, but it's a bit out of the way.

I'm not giving up on the search...and the thought of getting a custom cut shipped, making it pricey, kind of takes away from trying to do it myself and on the cheap

One possible extra phrase, and the one we'll use to get more fat on the meat. is "what they make Porchetta with" - certaily our butcher had that in the cabinet, and it looked the right shape - loin bit, and the nice fatty bit..

Looks better than it tastes. Wife bought me one as a novelty xmas pressie.

Excellent.

This will be a little limiting, but for expats on the West Coast, specifically in CA, Vegas and Metro Phoenix AZ, there exists a quaint little supermarket known as Fresh and Easy.

Apparently it used to be a part of Tesco's enterprise, until they had to pull out of the market because it wasn't profitable (or, was less profitable than its British business, when misrepresentation of its UK profits caused it to enter a crisis...) and so now it's an independent. Currently imports as much Cadbury and Mars chocolate and confectionery as Hershey will allow (no Flake. Boo ) and stocks 'British Brand bacon'.

It looks a bit like someone took Canadian bacon and cut a slit in it so it unfolds, not really the 'earlobe' of true English/Danish-style back bacon. It also comes in at $6 for about 8 slices and has no variants with regard to smoked or unsmoked, thick or thin, lean or streaky (but then the US has enough streaky bacon to choose from already).

Having said that it's not a bad facsimile of the kind of bacon that I'm used to. I put the oven on preheat for 350°F and when the timer goes off, that's when I take it out. Cooked, while not carbonated. Flop it on a piece of white bread (which I'm still searching for), some butter, HP sauce and Rob's your mother's brother.

It's definitely worthwhile checking out the RJ Balson link though, they deliver to the US for free!

And on the subject of sausages, I do miss the sausages I used to find in Tesco with a reported 98% pork content; I think they were from Hertfordshire, but I can't be sure. I'd order the pork & onion bangers from British Corner Shop, but they don't ship chilled containers to the US.

Albertson's do an English toaster(ing?) bread which is passable. It even goes stale in a few days!

that's awesome.

With a 6lbs min order and at least $15 for handling fees, it kinda takes the shine off the free shipping they advertise.