What's the difference between American ham and British ham?

Question

You always see ham offered in American breakfasts but not in British ones, is there some difference? Thanks.

Answer 1

British ham has taste and is more refined.

Answer 2

A true American ham, dry cured not brined. Long cold smoked and aged at least 6 months is the far superior product. Try Burger's from Missouri and you will know. Can't remember the name of the one from South Carolina but also an exceptional ham.

Answer 3

Well talking about ham and bacon, if the U.K think their ham has taste ( or bacon) then they obviously haven't been to Ireland. The taste in unbeatable. Someone said something about American meat being banned. I have also heard about the substances added to American meat that is illegal in Ireland. So if I may add Ireland - THE TASTE.

Answer 4

I stayed in a hotel and they had ham and bacon on the breakfast menu in the UK. If I have bacon I have a fried egg, and scrambled egg with ham, very nice.

Answer 5

PP has it
In the UK we tend towards Back Bacon which is closer to the cut that you would call Canadian Bacon.
Your Bacon is from the belly and is closer to, but not exactly, what we would call Streaky Bacon.
Ham here is always the hind leg and is cooked whole either boiled or roasted. Lovely as part of a meal or on a sannie.... but not really suited to being fried up with eggs.

Answer 6

The British ham has a cold, bitter, emotionless personality.
The American ham is conceited, slutty, and overweight.

Answer 7

breakfast is almost the same,except americans don't usually eat huge breakfasts. eggs, toast, pastries, some fruit (grapefruit especially), oatmeal, cereal, sausage, bacon, coffee, orange juice...stuff like that lunch is often a sandwich, soup, or salad. dinner varies. i think the main difference is that americans eat italian, chinese, and mexican food more than the british. similarly, we don't eat as much indian or middle eastern foods. everything that we eat here, you eat there. but certain things are less popular. except black pudding. that's pretty much nonexistent here

Answer 8

Generally we British (and Irish) have bacon, rather than ham at breakfast.

When Americans want decent bacon for breakfast they ask for Canadian bacon!

In Britain we are also fussier about where our food comes from, hence the popularity of organic and local farm produce, you can even find out the name of the farm upon which the pig was reared if you want to! Animal welfare is important and even non-organic meat is likely to come from outdoor-reared and free-range animals (except for such examples as Bernard Matthews' "chicken")

In the U.S. all meat is anonymous, factory-farmed, genetically-modified and stuffed with synthetic growth hormones to maximise yield and the animals fed on genetically-modified soya.

Much of the so-called "trade war" between the U.S. and the E.U. is because the Americans demand we import their contaminated meat, even though the growth hormones they use in producing it have been associated with cancer in children. The E.U. refuses to let this meat in, which is just as well as our own government takes its orders from Washington and would probably be quite happy to feed this refuse to the British people.

Incidentally the U.S. banned imports of British beef in 1987 (a full eight years before France or Germany did over BSE) and as far as I know our beef is still banned in the U.S. (You see, this is never mentioned by the pro-American, foreign-owned, anti-Europe, right-wing British press.)

Answer 9

mmmmmm....this American loves Irish/British bacon. I wish we could get it here in the regular market. Its too spendy at the British market..... $8 for 4 ounces....grrrrr!!!

Answer 10

fruit grows on shrub or vines and fruit and vegetables grow in the earth.

Answer 11

I think when the americans talk about ham and eggs, they are refering to what we call bacon and eggs.