In UK books and films, I see rashers of bacon.

How much is a rasher?

A serving.

For my granddaughter, it’s 3 or 4 strips of thick cut applewood smoked bacon available only from my specialty butcher on the other side of town.

Keep in mind that ‘bacon’ refers to a different cut of pork in the UK than in the US.

In a local diner in Lakewood, OH, no longer extant, it was four strips of bacon to accompany two eggs, two biscuits and coffee. Geoff Who is highly experienced.

Rasher = slice.

Google is your friend.

Rasher | Definition of Rasher by Merriam-Webster

Spent a few years in the Midlands and learned how they made Fried Bread (Toast) a Rasher of Bacon and a Full English breakfast with Baked Beans, Fried Eggs (Float fried in Grease) Baked Tomato, Sauteed mushrooms and bangers (a mealy type of sausage as in Bangers and Mash and of course Black Pudding (Blood Sausage) I do love the little toast holder frames.

Can't forget the Earl Grey Tea

It's all Bloody Brilliant!

Bob

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Sag Harbor & Manhattan, N.Y.

Rasher-- seen that word on the menu of many of the cruise ships we have been on.

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14 S&W Revs none with locks!

Rasher is a term found on some upscale restaurant menus so they can charge more for bacon than if they called it a slice.

I always believed that Rasher was a British term, that equals 2 slices of bacon.

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Always Stay Strong!

A rasher is a slice.


Read all about it: A Guide To English Back Bacon

Rasher is "not enough"

A real home made English breakfast is one of the best inventions ever!

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No baby we aint

A rasher is a slice, a thick hearty slice of meaty bacon like you would get with the full English breakfast. One of those pitiful little thin, transparent slices you ger at Denny’s is not a rasher.

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Not in jail.

Yep. Serving size/portion all hinges on one's definition of bacon.

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Music/Sports/Beer fan

Yes, please!

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Thread Killer.

While spending time in Canada and getting to know the local butcher I was suprised to learn that Canadians don't know what Canadian Bacon is. The butcher would sell sliced bacon and surprisingly most people preferred it with more fat than I care for. He would put the ends out for folks to make soup or beans, I saw those smokey meaty lean pieces and told him that was more like what I would call Canadian Bacon. He told me that as far as he was concerned it was all Canadian Bacon and he was proud of his double smoked recipe, it was excellent.
On my to do list for the Traeger is an entire side of fatback bacon that I plan on brining for a couple weeks before laying on the rack, I plan on cutting off the rind.

I'll stick with US bacon, well done please.

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Made it, Ma! Top of the world!

US, Canadian, or Brit: I'll take it all!

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Music/Sports/Beer fan

Another fun one is prawns or shrimp...I was in the east Midlands in England as a college student and didn't have a whole lot of money at the time; plus, the exchange rate was basically $ 2.00 US = One quid or dollar or GBP. In the middle of the country, very quiet area, I stop with some friends at a local pub. Great people, great conversation, and we are here to eat. As an appetizer, I splurged and got the garlic prawn or cheese and garlic prawn/shrimp, I forgot how it was listed on the menu. Back then, I think it was something like 14.00 GBP which was basically $28.00 USD. It was Ok, but the prawns/shrimp I got were about the size of a nickel or a dime, not many, and ya...

To your post, bacon rasher is a serving and as others mentioned, bacon has a somewhat different interpretation in the UK. English breakfast or Irish, etc., is wonderful. One tradition I brought home is beans (baked beans) for breakfast. Never thought of cold baked beans for breakfast, but it definitely works. Cheers

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Rather be outdoors

From the British Periodic Dinner Table:

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Music/Sports/Beer fan

Just remember that Pig Meat has killed more people than Machine Guns.
I try not eat it too often.
Oh No! I got Carne Adovada in the oven right now!
That’s Pork marinated in Red Chile Sauce.

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NRA LIFE MEMBER

'Cox and Box':

Two men unknowing rent the same room from a greedy landlord. One puts a rasher of bacon on the grill and the other kippered herring, which leads to a confrontation.

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

I was born and raised in Canada until the age of 11. We noticed a bacon here in the US when we moved being marketed as "Canadian" bacon, and the closest we could figure it was a rather poor variation of Canadian Peameal bacon, certainly not the same: The History of Canadian Peameal Bacon

As to the full English fry breakfast and rashers of bacon, I have eaten my share on trips abroad. I remember a memorable experience staying in a B&B having a great breakfast, eggs, bacon, bangers, tomatoes, beans, blood sausage, home baked goods slathered in real butter and I asked the owner if they ate like this every morning. She replied "Heavens no, I shouldn't think you would live very long eating like this every day!".

My daughter, daughter-in-law and I have made a couple of trips abroad and initially they were quite put off by the bacon but did learn to enjoy it in the end. Wasn't the the dermatome instrument sliced thin strips but the traditional bacon mentioned in previous posts.

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John. SWCA #1586

A rasher of bacon was a slice when I lived there. Also, what the US calls "bacon" would be called streaky bacon in the UK. It's also considered the cheap and nasty stuff because of all the fat. (I can feel the flames already). Back bacon is the proper stuff. (flames now set to thermonuclear).

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Release the Kraken

We used to ask for Canadian Bacon pizza in the Canadian town of Sidney, BC. We were always told that all of their bacon was Canadian.

Best,
Rick

Strange people the Brits. They weigh themselves with stones. Old Bill is the police. "Bloody" was a swear word. And they regularly go "up the apples and pears". My father was one of those oversexed, overpaid, over there guys that won the bloody war for them.

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SOS USA

They were not over paid

Oversexed, and overpaid compared to Tommies as described by Brits..

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SOS USA

Thank you.
I've told my wife about Canadian bacon covered in cornmeal for over 30 years but no one not even a couple from Canada that live here have ever heard of it.

Back in the day (rasher) was used for watermelon or anything that was served in slices. It's primarily a southern thing I think.

"Rasher" has been used to signify a single slice of bacon or ham in England since the early 1600's.

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Music/Sports/Beer fan

The bangers I came across in the UK weren't acceptable to the locals if they were anywhere less than 99% gristle, tendons and cartilage. The locals would pitch a fit, politely of course, if there was meat.

Don

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U.S. Coast Guard, retired CPO

I just find that Bangers seem to have more filling with some type of meal! I prefer breakfast sausage or good old fashion Italian Sausage with my Bangers and Mash.

Bob

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Sag Harbor & Manhattan, N.Y.

I read about bangers and mash in Modesty Blaise novels. Guessed what they were.

Cannot agree more. The White Landrace, which is a major breed of pig in the UK and Western Europe has a thick meaty layer from the skin side downwards and you end up with a piece of bacon that is at least 2.5 to 3 inches thick, with a minimum of fat associated with it. As LVSteve states, the imitation bacon sold in the US would not even be "permitted" in any UK self-respecting butchers shop. Streaky bacon was for the cat. Now if you really want a Rasher/Slice of meat you ask for a Gammon Rasher, particularly in Scotland or the NW/NE of the UK. Then you end up with a full 1/4" thick piece of well-cured bacon which when accompanied with fried eggs (not over easy which is an American affectation), grilled tomatoes and an optional baked bean portion, then coupled with proper toast (preferably from Hovis) and a suitable assortment of jams and marmalade, gives you a good start (the tea must also be leaf, none of those horrible things called teabags) to the day. When I am asked how long tea should steep? my usual answer is that the tea in Boston harbor is just about ready for drinking!!! Dave_n

Forgive the drift but I grew up in an English kitchen where food was neither wasted nor scoffed at because of my mom's memory of wartime depleted larders. Bangers, being made with cereal fillers, were a good way to stretch a quid.

The name comes from them bursting open in a frying pan.

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Music/Sports/Beer fan

A rasher is one slice.
Canadian bacon is ham, unless it is bacon, then it is bacon. When I worked in Canada their bacon was like ours. Me thinks the term Canadian Bacon is a work of marketing.
As far as real bacon goes, it is manna from heaven. When I was a young upstart, knowing nothing of import, I thought fatty bacon was cheap stuff and unfit for consumption. Now that I am older and wiser, I forsake the leaner packages and go for the fatter rashers. Might as well enjoy the flavor. You don't live forever!

John

One thing I notice that no one has mentioned is that when you get an English or Irish rasher, you get a hunk of SALTED meat that would curl your tongue!

You could only eat one.

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Tony

All the English bacon I have ever had was smoked not salt cured.

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Music/Sports/Beer fan

Absolutely the best meal of the day in England is breakfast! English bacon is more like smoked pork loin than the fatty belly cuts marketed in the United States, simply delicious! The milk is simply to die for; much higher fat content than anything we get here in the US, absolutely delicious! Beans, sliced tomatoes, fresh fruit in season, toasted bread that cannot be compared to anything we see here regularly.

Two breakfast items that I never cared much for in England:

"Bangers", a term for sausages that vary considerably from one place to another. The only common element seems to be the relative content of sawdust in the mix. This was explained to me as a holdover of wartime expedients to stretch the meat supply in the marketplace. Not terribly appetizing, but the Brits seem to enjoy them.

I never found a Brit who could serve a palatable cup of coffee. The best I found reminded me of the instant coffees that were somewhat popular here in the 1970's. Most of what was served as coffee struck me as little better than brackish dishwater. The only exception I found was a lovely small bakery on the High Street in Newmarket, Suffolk, with the most heavenly raised breakfast rolls served with fresh butter and preserves, and a pint container of very fine freshly brewed café au lait (and only about $6 US back in 1990). Very close to a large commons where race horses are exercised early in the mornings, usually crowded with ladies doing their daily shopping and at least 2 or 3 local police constables glaring incredulously at the laughing, joking, talkative Americans occupying a table among all the properly behaved locals.

The French seem to have forgotten more about coffee making than the British ever bothered to learn! Any French sidewalk café or kiosk I found seemed capable of producing a very fine brew any time of the day.

Better British tea brands sold here tell on the box how long to brew/steep their products. Try that advice and adjust to your taste.

Taylor's of Harrogate (my favorite) suggests 4 minutes for Ceylon or Assam. I think 4 also works for Darjeeling and most brands of English Breakfast, which will be a house blend.

Our family went to Chicago every year during the summer from around '59 until '73, and we ate at several restaurants every time we went, and a "Rasher" was 3 strips of bacon at all of them. I never heard or saw the term at home or anywhere else we went. I have always assumed it was a "Chicago thing".

This is what we eat as bacon here in Australia (middle-bacon). We can get streaky bacon but it's only really been in the last few years.

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Its like eating a lobster. The picture on the left is the whole thing, the picture on the right is just the left side of the picture on the left!

When I worked for TNT I spend at least 3-4 days a month in Australia. I don't remember the bacon at all.

Spent 11 years in Chicago. Deep Dish CHICAGO Pizza (truly a Pie) and CHicago Style Beef Sandwiches and Hot Dogs, but I never had Chicago Bacon. Had a few Philly Cheese Steaks outside of Philadelphia though.

Bob

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Sag Harbor & Manhattan, N.Y.

As Lobogunleather mentioned above, the milk in the UK bears little or not relationship to the "4%" milk fat version in the US. My first job as a lab tech back in 1956 in the UK, was working on an experimental farm owned by J. Bibby & Sons in Cheshire. Bibby's were one of the largest animal feed manufacturers at that time in the UK. We routinely tested the milk fat level of any farmer who used Bibby feeds and the figures would range up to 7.5% for Guernsey cows, with 5% being the minimum sold. In general, in the UK at that time, the milk would be delivered in glass bottles daily and the major argument in any household with kids would be; who gets the cream off the top of the bottle on their cereal? Mind you at times you had to be fast to beat the birds who would peck their way through the bottle top to have "their share of the cream". Dave_n

I was in Chicago once for a convention, and the Playboy Club had quite good food, but if they offered bacon, that's not what I remember.

I got to visit the REAL Abercrombie & Fitch there, too. First time I saw Zeiss binoculars. And some truly fine guns. I believe they also had Randall Made knives.

A rasher and a chaser! Mmmmmm!

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Ukraine -- now more than ever

Recipe? Been looking for one since I had some in New Mexico. New Mexico--The state that turned me into a fresh pepper snob.

Ah yes, the early morning visit from the Blue Tits.

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Release the Kraken

I'm English but now live in Arizona.

I grew up with the term 'rasher' (for slice of bacon) and didn't think anything of it until I went up to the butcher in a whole foods some years back and said....

Can I have six rashers of bacon.

What?

Six rashers of bacon please.

What?

Six rashers of bacon.

What?

Six rashers of bacon please

What's a rasher???

I thought I was in a Faulty Tower sketch...

Cheerio,

Roy