Ask what part of the pig bacon comes from, and you will get a confident answer that is only half the story. In an American grocery case, bacon is usually cured, typically smoked pork belly, sliced into those streaky strips that curl in a pan. In Britain, a rasher is often back bacon, cut from the loin, with a leaner eye of meat and a smaller cap of fat. Both are bacon. They are not the same cut.
The same English word covers more than one cut, which is why the honest answer depends on the package in front of you. If you want the longer curing story—salt, smoke, and how the flavor learned to travel without the meat—we already wrote a history of bacon. This post stays on the anatomy and the labels.
What part of the pig is bacon?
Start with the belly. That is the side of the pig, a layered cut of meat and fat. The stripes in a cooked slice are those layers standing on edge. Cured and usually smoked, this becomes the streaky bacon most Americans mean when they say bacon. Butchers also call it side bacon. It is the cut that goes crisp at the edges and stays striped down the middle, which is also why it splatters the way it does: there is a lot of fat to render.
Back bacon comes from the loin, along the back, sometimes with a bit of belly fat still attached. It eats leaner. That is the usual rasher in a British breakfast. Canadian bacon is also loin, but it is typically trimmed into a lean, ham-like round, not a streaky strip. Cottage bacon is a less common cut from the shoulder: still cured, usually leaner than belly bacon, and often sliced in rounds. Cured pork jowl, including Italian guanciale, is a related idea from the cheek, not what a U.S. bacon package usually contains.
None of that makes the others "fake bacon." It means the name is a family of cured pork cuts, and the package in your fridge is only the most familiar member of it.
Pork belly vs. bacon
Pork belly is the raw cut. Bacon is what you get after that cut—or another one—has been cured, and often smoked and sliced. You can roast or braise a fresh belly without ever turning it into bacon. In that form it is sometimes sold as fresh side or side pork: same neighborhood of the pig, no cure.
Once the belly has taken on salt (and usually smoke), the texture and flavor change. The fat renders differently. The meat keeps longer. That is why a slab of pork belly in a butcher case and a pack of bacon are related, but they are not interchangeable in a recipe unless you mean them to be.
How the cut becomes bacon
Curing is the line between a fresh side and bacon. In a dry cure, salt and often sugar and a curing salt are rubbed on the meat and left to work. In a wet cure, the meat sits in a brine, or the brine is injected, which is how most supermarket bacon is made. Smoking can follow, over real wood or with smoke flavor added in other ways.
Some packages say "uncured." That does not mean the meat was left alone. U.S. labeling typically uses that word when the cure comes from a natural nitrate source, such as celery powder, instead of added sodium nitrite. The meat is still cured. The chemistry is just arriving by a different door.
A few words on the package
A rasher is a slice, especially in British usage. A slab is unsliced bacon, which you can cut as thick as you like. Thick-cut is simply a wider slice of the same idea; it takes longer to cook and is harder to shatter. Regular-cut is thinner and crisps faster. How many slices you get in a pound depends on that thickness, and on how much fat is in the belly.
FAQ
What part of the pig is bacon?
In the United States, usually the belly. In Britain, a rasher is often back bacon from the loin. Shoulder (cottage) and loin (Canadian) bacon are part of the same family.
Is pork belly the same as bacon?
No. Pork belly is the cut. Bacon is that cut—or another one—after it has been cured, and typically smoked.
What is a rasher of bacon?
A slice. The word is more common in the U.K. than in American grocery language.
What are the main types of bacon?
Streaky or side bacon from the belly, back bacon from the loin, Canadian bacon from the loin (leaner, more like ham), and cottage bacon from the shoulder. Slab is unsliced; thick-cut is a thicker slice.
Why does some bacon say "uncured"?
It is still cured, usually with a natural nitrate source such as celery powder rather than added sodium nitrite. The label is a regulatory distinction, not a claim that the meat is fresh.
