I always hear it first, the distinctive sizzling sound of bacon, cooking in the kitchen on a weekend morning. A few minutes later, the signature smell wanders in, and I am enticed out of bed and filled with anticipation and desire. On weekends, my fiancé likes to make breakfast, and while he is vegetarian by choice, he is also a bacon enthusiast. According to NPR, he’s not the only vegetarian making this sizzling exception. There is just something so irresistible about bacon, and it got me thinking about how a simple breakfast food has been elevated to a place of reverence for cooks and eaters alike.

While it might seem like a straightforward topic, the story of bacon, pork and the pig is complicated, and much too long for a single blog post. The prehistoric relationship between humans and the humble pig is complex and dynamic, as domestication of the pig occurred independently in at least seven places across the globe. (Larson 2005)

Yet pork was not universally embraced through history, as some groups, including Jews and Muslims, were forbidden from eating it. I wondered what health or social advantages a pork-free diet offered to ancient peoples, that they sought to eliminate it from their lives, with threats of eternal damnation.

I wondered why pork is favored at breakfast over other meats. Bacon, ham and pork sausage are breakfast favorites, at least in the US, while beef and chicken (except for eggs) are rarely found in the a.m. and mostly relegated to lunch and dinner menus. What historic or cultural conditions lead to this special treatment? Does pork lend itself more easily to preservation methods than other meats, ensuring it would be both ready and safe to eat first thing in the morning?

I may cover all these topics in time, but for this post, my interest is in the present. Bacon is enjoying a renaissance of sorts, a renewed popularity in recent years, after it was exiled during the 1990s in the low fat diet days. Bacon got a reluctant invitation back to the breakfast table when the low carb diet was big, only to be pushed aside again when swine flu was the big fear. Yet when comfort food came on the trendy food scene, bacon became its poster child. Since then it has been upwardly mobile and fueled by the internet and foodie culture, as the bacon fascination today is at a fever pitch. Wikipedia calls it a bacon mania and traces its origins back even further.

Bacon has tremendous appeal as a flavor enhancer, recipe improver, and novelty act, which brought it into the spotlight, and hurled it into food superstardom. There is a new cookbook made up exclusively of bacon recipes, called I Love Bacon! The best recipe I’ve tried so far from the book is the chocolate bacon cupcakes.

For many of us, bacon is widely regarded to be so fantastically delicious that it seems to create a charismatic cult following, and can be a type of enhancement drug. Check the internet for bacon and you will be amazed at the love and dedication that people express for this magical food. One can find it manifesting itself proudly in fantastical piles of bacon, atop mighty burgers, daintily reclining over lettuce and tomato, wrapped around scallops, steaks and hot dogs, or even woven into a meaty textile covering a chicken, turkey or ultimately, the turducken. Bacon bits can be found in salads and chocolate, and bacon flavor in ice cream, soda, gum, vodka, beer, popcorn, and salt, among thousands more. There are also several non-food bacon flavored items including toothpicks, dental floss, scented candles, lip balm, envelopes and lubricant. Stephen Colbert recently featured two new bacony products, Denny’s maple bacon sundae and a bacon scented cologne.

With bacon becoming such a hot commodity, what should a bacon lover do? If you are the gambling type, now is a great time to invest in your favorite anytime food. Consider a recent blog post from the Idaho Farm Bureau “Pork belly prices are on pace to set records this summer as demand for bacon skyrockets. The big jump in bacon use is coming mostly from fast-food restaurants and casual dining establishments that are adding bacon to everything from salads to ice cream sundaes. About 44 percent of U.S. consumers will eat bacon within a two-week period, which is a record high, according to consumer research conducted by the NPD Group, a Port Washington, N.Y.-based market research firm. Much of the growth comes from cooks using bacon as an ingredient to enhance the taste of a dish, according to the NPD study.”

The historical and economic origins of this tasty breakfast staple are only slightly less interesting than they are delicious. “Cured pork belly (also known as bacon) evolved as a way to preserve the meat after slaughter. Pork belly is the result of harvesting both bellies from a pig, salting or smoking them, and refrigerating them. The pork industry’s growth was fueled by the demand for pork bellies as the rail system in the U.S. improved. At the same time, the country’s population and economy shifted from rural to urban, bringing a taste for pork belly to the cities. Considered a longer lasting and easier way to transport pork with little to no perishing, pork bellies became a staple in the American diet. With the increased production and distribution of pork bellies, the first pork belly commodities contract was created in 1961 by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Pork bellies are easy to transport, can be preserved nearly indefinitely with proper refrigeration, and are a byproduct of the most popular meat in the world. Needless to say, pork bellies are commodities that will always have a supply and demand chain.” (Noble Drakoln www.investopedia.com)

The widespread love of bacony goodness is also reflected in the increasing global demand. “China’s continued urbanization presents an opportunity for explosive growth in pork product demand, much like the migration from rural to urban life in the U.S. spurred the domestic popularity of pork bellies. The pork industry has seen tremendous growth worldwide – more exports are heading to China and Japan than ever before. Pork has long been considered the leading consumed meat in the world, and the pork industry saw 105 million pigs go to slaughter in 2006, plus a doubling in export demand in 2007. With much of the pork heading overseas to fulfill growing demand, the industry’s continued growth appears healthy.” (Noble Drakoln www.investopedia.com)

And this graph from the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Daily Livestock Report, shows how demand for bacon increased over the last decade, with prices nearly doubling in that time. You can see clearly how the 2009 swine flu had a downward effect on prices, and how ferociously demand returned in 2010.

According to the Daily Livestock Report, “This surge in bellies prices has been driven by a confluence of factors. Bacon featuring this spring was quite aggressive by many manufacturers and retailers with many brands being promoted in “2 for $5” ads where the 2 refers to 2 one-pound packages. The resulting draw-down in frozen pork bellies inventories pushed those stocks to their lowest level since October 2007 — in August. That is important since bellies stocks normally continue to decline through October due to lower summertime hog slaughter runs and late-summer BLT sandwich usage. When these lower stocks met lower-than-expected hog supplies since July 1, the bellies supply situation became critical and prices began to rise rapidly.”

The next question now is, are we in the midst of a delicious, bacony bubble? It certainly could be, but judging by current trends it should last a while longer, and even then it might be the most appetizing bubble to burst in economic history.