IT IS so English.
The idiom “bring home the bacon” refers to success or earning a living for the family.
As to the origin of the idiom, I think a long, long time ago, a wife shouted at her husband as he was leaving for work:
“Hey, Bruce, don’t you forget to bring home a slab of bacon for our breakfast!”
“I won’t forget, dear,” he replied in a quivering voice.
“You better don’t or I’ll whack you with a leg of ham!”
To be more accurate, I looked up the source of the idiom. It turns out it was not a pig. According to wonderopolis, the saying can be traced to Great Dunmow, Essex, England. My source noted that the church awarded a side of bacon to people who were happily married.
To further establish the origin, English poet and author Geoffrey Chaucer mentioned in “The Wife of Bath’s Tale and Prologue” (1395): “But for us the flitch of bacon though / That some may win in Essex at Dunmow.”
While the idiom may have an English origin, I did not find a country that could clearly claim it owns the bragging rights of having made the first bacon.
While this sentence is long, my short history of the bacon is short: There’s mention of the Roman Empire, Anglo-Saxon peasants and Chinese cooks making some sort of bacon a long, long time ago.
This famous breakfast food deserves a holiday. And there is a holiday celebrating the glorious fatty, salty and crispy morsel.
The International Bacon Day is celebrated every Aug. 31. Well, it depends. Some cultures mark it on the first Saturday of January or on Feb. 16. If you like bacon so much, celebrate it three times a year.
In 2000, a couple of students in Massachusetts, USA, decided to give the bacon its own holiday just because it was so tasty. Can you find a better reason?
How do you celebrate the day without getting the ire of your cardiologist? Easy! Top green salad with crisp-fried bacon strips. Mix the batter for your morning waffles with shredded carrots and cook as usual. Serve with a few bacon slices. If that does not make you smile, I do not know what will.