Top 20 European Bacons

Oliver Carty & Family is an Irish company specializing in producing high-quality cured meats. They offer a wide range of pork products, including bacon, sausages, and ham. The company is known for its commitment to sustainability and traceability in its production processes. Oliver Carty & Family collaborates with local farmers to ensure high standards of animal welfare. Their products are widely available in various retail outlets across Ireland.Expand

The Jolly Hog is a British producer of premium sausages, bacon, and other pork products. The company focuses on high welfare standards, sourcing pork from British farms. The Jolly Hog began as a family business launched by three brothers. They emphasize quality and flavor, using natural ingredients without any artificial additives.Expand

HG Walter is a family-run butcher and producer specializing in high-quality meats, including bacon. The company emphasizes sourcing from ethical farms that practice sustainable farming methods. Established in 1972, HG Walter has built a reputation for providing artisanal products to both retail and high-end restaurant clients.Expand

Honeyvale Foods T/A Oakpark Foods is an Irish food producer. The company specializes in the production of premium bacon products. Oakpark Foods focuses on sustainable farming practices and animal welfare. They produce nitrate-free and gluten-free bacon options. Oakpark Foods supplies to both retail and foodservice markets.Expand

Ludlow Farmshop, located in Shropshire, England, is a cheese producer that crafts artisanal cheeses using milk sourced from local herds. The farmshop is part of the Earl of Plymouth's Oakly Park Estate, incorporating traditional cheese-making techniques that emphasize sustainability and quality. They offer a variety of cheeses, including soft, blue, and hard cheeses, all produced on-site at their creamery.Expand

Sky Park Farm operates predominantly as a deer farm offering various venison products. It also includes a visitor center, where guests can learn about deer farming and purchase farm-produced goods. Venison from the farm is marketed as ethically raised and sustainably sourced.Expand

Lighter in flavor than its heavily smoked Alpine counterparts, but more robust than the delicate Mediterranean prosciuttos, Speck is the most prized food product of the autonomous Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy's northernmost region also known as Südtirol or South Tyrol. With the region sharing not only a border but also strong cultural connections with the neighboring Austria, this distinctly flavored, smoked and cured ham represents the character of Alto Adige’s cuisine, which is an interesting blend of Northern European and Mediterranean traditions. Produced in the province of Bolzano, gently smoked over low-resin wood and finally cured in the crisp Alpine air, Speck Alto Adige takes on a mildly smoky flavor yet remains sweet, which brings its tender saltiness to the fore. Even though Speck is featured in countless traditional recipes of Alto Adige, it is most often sliced as thinly as possible and enjoyed in the most simple way: eaten by hand together with some bread, cheese, and washed down with a glass of hearty red wine.Expand

Dalmatinska panceta is a traditional meat product that can only be produced in Lika-Senj, Zadar, Dubrovnik-Neretva, Split-Dalmatia, and Šibenik-Knin counties. This preserved and cured meat product is made from streaky bacon with its skin on and without the rib bones. The streaky bacon from the pig’s chest and belly is cured in brine or salted, cold-smoked, and dried in the Bora wind. Dalmatinska panceta has a texture that’s firm, elastic, and easy to slice. The aroma is typical of preserved cured pork products and slightly smokey, while the flavor is slightly salty. The whole process, from salting to maturing, must take at least 65 days. Once finished, the product is sold whole, in slices or in pieces. Expand

Produced in a traditional manner by Austrian farmers, Tiroler Speck is one of the oldest Tyrolean specialties whose origins can be traced back to the 1500s. This bacon is first dry-salted and seasoned with a special blend of spices, cold smoked over beech wood, and finally dried and matured in the crisp Alpine air. Prepared in this manner, Tyrolean bacon developes its uniquely intense flavor. Traditionally served in thin slices, Tiroler Speck is an essential part of what is known as Bretteljause or Marend, a typical Austrian platter with assorted meats.Expand

Boczek is a general name for numerous varieties of Polish bacon that is made with belly and rib meat, usually pork. After it has been cured, the meat is usually smoked, double-smoked, smoked and cooked, hunter-style, or with ribs on, known as boczek z kością. Polish boczek often enhances the flavor of slow-cooked dishes such as soups, casseroles, bigos, or golabki. This traditional cured meat product is also commonly eaten with scrambled eggs or with a slice of rye bread smeared with mustard.Expand

Originating from Zeeland, Zeeuws spek is a traditional bacon seasoned with salt, pepper, and bay leaves. It is usually marinated in a combination of spices, oil, and mustard, and is then either broiled, grilled, or smoked, developing an intense barbecue-like flavor in the process. If consumed in the most traditional way, the bacon is paired with bread and mustard, although it can also be consumed with baked potatoes or used in various salads.Expand

The Italian word pancetta or pancia literally translates to 'belly' which means Pancetta di Calabria is actually a dry cured pork belly, a variety of unsmoked bacon. Fresh meat cuts come from pigs born and raised exclusively in this Italian region, and pancetta is made by processing 3 to 5 centimeters thick rectangular slabs of bacon with skin, weighing between 3 to 6 kilos. After being salted for about 4 to 14 days, it is washed and soaked in red wine vinegar, coated with pepperoncino Calabrese chili powder and lastly left to mature for at least 30 days. Pancetta di Calabria is traditionally eaten with warm sourdough breads, accompanied by full-bodied red wines.Expand

Traditionally produced in the Alpine Gailtal region since the 15th century, the delicious Gailtaler Speck is an Austrian variety of bacon. The meat used for its production must come from pigs reared either in the Gailtal Valley or the wider Carinthian area. It is first dry-salted, pressed, and marinated in brine; then seasoned with pepper, garlic, and juniper; and lastly air-cured and cold-smoked over beech and elder wood. Characterized by a rich, salty flavor and a well-pronounced aroma of smoked meat, this Carinthian delicacy is typically enjoyed as an appetizer but it can also be used in cooking, as it imparts a smoky flavor to various dishes. Gailtaler Speck is marketed with two different types of tags: the green ones indicate an artisan product, handmade by farmers, while the red ones are reserved for the Gailtaler Speck made by commercial producers.Expand

Another premium meat product of southwestern Slovenia, Kraška panceta is a dry-cured pork belly, an unsmoked variety of bacon originating from the Karst plateau. Measuring 45-50cm in length and 18-20cm in width, the minimum weight of the standard raw-boned bacon cut is 4 kilos. The usual curing method involves coating the pork belly with coarse sea salt for about 5 to 7 days, followed by rinsing and re-seasoning it with salt and pepper. Kraška panceta is then aged for at least 30 days, until the bacon becomes firm in texture and bright red, with thin creamy-white strips of fat running through the lean meat. The minimum weight of the final product is 2.2 kilos.Expand

Consisting of a specific cut that contains both pork belly and pork loin, Ayrshire bacon is cured back bacon that is available in both smoked and unsmoked (green) versions. The bacon is typically made by curing the skinned and deboned cut obtained from free-range Scottish Large White-Landrace pigs in a unique brine called the Ayrshire cure. After soaking for a day or two, the bacon is drained well before it is allowed to mature for two or three weeks. This bacon is recognized for its dark pink color and creamy fat, its slightly cured flavor, and its ability to fry to crispy perfection as Ayrshire bacon contains no water. Traditionally, the cured bacon is used for making what is known as the Ayrshire middle bacon, which involves rolling the bacon with its fatty streaky cut on the outside and the lean back bacon inside. Highly appreciated by chefs and butchers in Scotland and beyond, Ayrshire bacon is a traditional breakfast staple in the country, and it is also commonly used in a wide range of sandwiches, salads, stews, and quiches.Expand