Iron Sky comes

[Rich]

Because they make better sausages than Brits? But then, everybody makes better [strike]sausages[/strike] food than Brits

FIFY. Is there such a thing as an English Breakfast, which doesn't involve sausage?

English breakfast with "bacon", which is just a ham steak with a tiny bit of bacon on the end? Wait, is that the Irish breakfast?

I grew up calling it Canadian Bacon.

[Denis]

Because they make better sausages than Brits? But then, everybody makes better sausages than Brits

No way Denis - the village I left had a family owned butcher who slaughtered his own pigs and made the best sausages in Christendom. The guys name was Bacon, really

Noooo - you left the only place in the Great Britain with decent sausages??? Seriously - every time I am on the big island, I try the English Breakfast, the Cumberland sausages, the sage and onion sausages and any other sausage I can find (including sausage rolls), and I am always disappointed. You'd better give me the Bacons' address...

Returning to the non-sausage hijack - "bacon" is what English people and you colonials call what are properly known as "rashers". There are two kinds of rashers - "back" and "streaky". Streaky rashers (from the belly of the pig) are what most 'Muricans think of as bacon, while back rashers are slices of the cured loin with a little bit of streaky attached (you call this "Canadian bacon".

In Australia and New Zealand, you get both kinds of rasher in one - they leave the loin and belly bacon together on one slice, like this.

A traditional Irish breakfast without sausage is unthinkable. Not only do you get normal sausages, you should also get white pudding (a thick slice from a parboiled sausage of pork meat and fat, bulked up with oats and strongly spiced) and black pudding (pig's blood sausage). You should also get mushrooms, eggs (usually fried, but scrambled or poached are also traditional), grilled tomatoes and baked beans, along with lots of hot toast, home-made soda bread, butter, jam and marmalade. If you're in a really good place, you might also get potato cakes and/or potato bread.

[Aglifter]

I have had really good Spanish Chorizo, but it was served cold - and it was at one of those places that might have found the only source making a good one...

[Highspeed]

Ham is an amazingly big deal here, they love the stuff. You have to pay $$$ for the best quality. It's in all the big supermarkets, in it's raw state ( like an actual pigs leg ) and the displays would probably send some vegetarians running out the door screaming.

The Spanish don't raise much beef. There isn't any year round grazing except in the very north and pigs are the better option.

In any place away from the tourist regions if you order a hamburger you get...a burger made from ham. It would be OK if it was nice pork, but it's a bright pink colour that suggests it's made from lord knows what piggy byproducts.
They really don't get the concept of fast food at all. You can stop at a filling station on a major highway and they have a range of locally made Tapas, fresh bread and wine instead of microwave burgers.

I miss salami. You can buy it here but it's the greasy, fatty lowest common denominator stuff.
I miss pastrami. Not available at all.
I miss sausages which aren't full of goddamn paprika. Never thought I would get tired of a spicy food, but I have.

I do a good Chorizo dish now and again - basically you fry it up in thin slices with several cloves of garlic until slightly browned, turn the heat right down and then add red wine vinegar and honey to make a sauce. You probably want to use the uncured sausage for this.
We eat it with 'bravas' which are sauteed potatoes with a spicy tomato sauce.
To make it authentic ( was a staple dish of the Spanish cowboys ) you would use cured sausage and add stale bread to the mixture.
It's what metrosexual food critics admiringly call 'peasant food', the fucking idiots.

Edit - looks like we are going to get a mega crop of olives this year. We have 90 trees and after pruning the shit out of them they are doing really well. I wish I could share it with you guys, but I can't think of a way to ship the oil safely without costing a load of money.

[Flintlock Tom]

Hello!?

SPACE.
NAZIs!

[arctictom]

Mmmmmmmmm space nazis cool.

[Denis]

I miss salami. You can buy it here but it's the greasy, fatty lowest common denominator stuff.
I miss pastrami. Not available at all.
I miss sausages which aren't full of goddamn paprika. Never thought I would get tired of a spicy food, but I have.

...

Edit - looks like we are going to get a mega crop of olives this year. We have 90 trees and after pruning the shit out of them they are doing really well. I wish I could share it with you guys, but I can't think of a way to ship the oil safely without costing a load of money.

Hmm. For the pastrami, ask a Turk, next time you see one. Turkish grocers all sell it, and there's bound to be a Turkish grocer somewhere. If that doesn't work, I could probably send you some, as it's not very sensitive to transport, unlike sausages - I can't help there, unless we can find a chilled goods courier. What kind of salami do you like? Good news on the olives!

I know the Spanish are not big on beef, but if you can buy a brisket somewhere, you can make your own pastrami and salt beef. In case you're wondering, "Prague powder" is just pickling salt (table salt mixed with sodium nitrite and or sodium nitrate), which you can get from any butcher who makes his own ham or cured meat.

[Denis]

By the way, your olive wood prunings should do very nicely for smoking your pastrami!

[Denis]

I like mine sliced very thin, then blanched in mustard water til the edges curl...

Why the blanch? Do you want to take out some salt?

[Denis]

In part yes, but it also gets that nice mustard flavor into it, and it renders out some remaining fat and collagen into the water, which coats the meat when you pull it out.

It's really almost a poach (not really a braise or a full boil), but since technically the pastrami is already cooked, you aren't actually poaching it.

Hmm. Must try that... the collagen texture is one of the things I really like about pastrami and corned beef.

A friend in the Belgian Army recently put me onto the best strong mustard I have ever tried: Wostyn. Now I really need a pastrami sangwidge, and I haven't had breakfast yet...