The Peameal Bacon Sandwich

Our food guide and St. Lawrence Market guide both mention the peameal bacon sandwich in passing. This page is about where it actually came from.

A Hogtown meatpacking empire

Peameal bacon's Toronto pedigree traces to William Davies, an English immigrant who arrived in the city in 1854 and built a pork-curing and meatpacking business centred on St. Lawrence Market. Davies cured boneless pork loin — not belly, which is what most "bacon" is — and originally rolled it in dried, ground yellow peas as a preservative, hence "peameal." His operation grew into one of the largest meatpacking businesses in the British Empire and is a direct piece of why Toronto picked up the nickname "Hogtown." The peas were eventually swapped for ground cornmeal, the coating still used today.

From butcher's cut to market sandwich

The sandwich itself — thick-cut peameal bacon, grilled, on a soft roll — is generally credited to vendors at St. Lawrence Market who started grilling the trimmed loin ends customers weren't buying as whole roasts. Carousel Bakery, the market's best-known peameal bacon vendor, opened in 1977 and built its identity around the sandwich. In 2016, it was named Toronto's official signature dish.

Sources

• CBC — Meet the Creators of Toronto's World-Famous Peameal Bacon Sandwich
• BlogTO — Legendary Bakery That's Been Open Since the '70s Put Toronto on the World Map