{"id":78047,"date":"2026-07-31T07:52:01","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T11:52:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.utc.edu\/news\/?p=78047"},"modified":"2026-07-31T07:52:37","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T11:52:37","slug":"the-bacon-eaters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.utc.edu\/news\/2026\/07\/the-bacon-eaters\/","title":{"rendered":"The bacon eaters"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>This story originally appeared in the <a href=\"https:\/\/our.tennessee.edu\/2026\/utc-mark-johnson-american-bacon\/\">summer 2026 issue of Our Tennessee<\/a>, a systemwide magazine for alumni of all University of Tennessee campuses and institutes.<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"entry-content-asset\"><iframe title=\"Our Tennessee - American Bacon: The History You Didn&#039;t Know You Needed\" style=\"max-width: 100%;\"style=\"max-width: 100%;\"src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/JdQRP37-NWo?rel=0&#038;modestbranding=1&#038;autohide=1&#038;showinfo=0&#038;controls=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 2013, Mark Johnson stashed away a picture of a maple bacon doughnut for a future project he had in mind.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Around this time, bacon began its renaissance.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Yes, it had remained a breakfast staple, but it also made its way into desserts, cocktails, salads, sandwiches and bacon-wrapped versions of just about anything.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt was like, \u2018Oh, a little treat?\u2019\u201d says Johnson, a University of Tennessee at Chattanooga assistant professor of history. \u201cThis little half strip of bacon garnishing my old-fashioned. If we\u2019re already sinning or doing something that\u2019s bad for us, might as well go for it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In his new book, &#8220;American Bacon: The History of a Food Phenomenon,&#8221; Johnson explores the food\u2019s complicated history. Bacon\u2019s story goes back centuries, and it wasn\u2019t always something people celebrated.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For most of American history, bacon remained a practical meat, used to stretch ingredients to make meals last longer. In the South, enslaved people and later sharecroppers used small amounts of bacon or pork fat to flavor dishes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Long before that, pork carried mixed meanings. Several religious traditions restricted it, which changed how much of the modern world viewed it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The story really kicks off, Johnson said, in early-modern Britain, when a pork taboo emerged among \u201ccity people and wealthier people.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe English really valued their orderly, beautiful, fenced farms as a symbol of their civility and their respectability,\u201d Johnson says, \u201cand pigs just don\u2019t fit in that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When English colonists arrived in North America, those ideas came with them. The reality, however, didn\u2019t match what they had left behind. Raising hogs required less labor, as pigs foraged across fields and forests for their own meals.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThey\u2019re trying to be proper English people,\u201d Johnson says, \u201cbut pigs are taking off (in popularity).\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_78050\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" ><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"880\" height=\"587\" data-attachment-id=\"78050\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/blog.utc.edu\/news\/2026\/07\/the-bacon-eaters\/mark-johnson-book-release-26-6\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.utc.edu\/app\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2026\/07\/Mark-Johnson-Book-Release-26-566.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"1200,800\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-title=\"Mark Johnson Book Release-26\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;Mark Johnson, seated left, talks during a Q&amp;amp;A session and book signing for &amp;#8220;American Bacon.&amp;#8221;&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.utc.edu\/app\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2026\/07\/Mark-Johnson-Book-Release-26-566.jpg?fit=880%2C587&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"wp-image-78050 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.utc.edu\/app\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2026\/07\/Mark-Johnson-Book-Release-26-566.jpg?resize=880%2C587&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Audience members attend a discussion featuring UTC history professor Dr. Mark Johnson during a campus event celebrating the release of his book, American Bacon: The History of a Food Phenomenon. Johnson and a moderator sit at the front of the room beneath a large screen displaying the book cover while attendees listen from their seats.\" style=\"max-width: 100%;\"style=\"max-width: 100%;\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.utc.edu\/app\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2026\/07\/Mark-Johnson-Book-Release-26-566.jpg?w=1200&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.utc.edu\/app\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2026\/07\/Mark-Johnson-Book-Release-26-566.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.utc.edu\/app\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2026\/07\/Mark-Johnson-Book-Release-26-566.jpg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.utc.edu\/app\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2026\/07\/Mark-Johnson-Book-Release-26-566.jpg?resize=800%2C533&amp;ssl=1 800w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.utc.edu\/app\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2026\/07\/Mark-Johnson-Book-Release-26-566.jpg?resize=580%2C387&amp;ssl=1 580w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.utc.edu\/app\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2026\/07\/Mark-Johnson-Book-Release-26-566.jpg?resize=610%2C407&amp;ssl=1 610w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.utc.edu\/app\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2026\/07\/Mark-Johnson-Book-Release-26-566.jpg?resize=600%2C400&amp;ssl=1 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 880px) 100vw, 880px\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mark Johnson, seated left, talks during a Q&amp;A session and book signing for &#8220;American Bacon.&#8221;<\/p><\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Bacon quickly became embedded in American diets, even as its reputation changed depending on who was eating it. Johnson\u2019s book follows those perceptions over time. Europeans viewed Americans as \u201cbacon-eating people,\u201d or uncouth. In the United States, that label shifted to the South, then to poorer white communities and to enslaved and formerly enslaved people.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This perception eventually shifted, which is something Johnson encourages students to analyze in his Food and Southern History class. He also teaches them how to cure bacon.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI wanted to do something in class so they could get hands-on experience,\u201d he says. \u201cWhat would it have been like to the best of our ability back then? What would it have looked like and felt like and tasted like? \u2026 And how does industrialization, commodification and mass production change it?\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;American Bacon&#8221; answers this question. In the 20th century, refrigeration and shifting diets changed how Americans thought about food.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">By the late 1900s, bacon started to disappear from everyday meals. Concerns about fat, sodium and chemicals pushed it out of people\u2019s diets.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Food and Drug Administration almost banned it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Then, bacon came back.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe argument in the book is that bacon had to die in a way,\u201d Johnson says. \u201cIt had to be destroyed in the American imagination as a staple, and then it was reinvented for its associations with hedonism and decadence and doing things you don\u2019t usually do.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That trend gained momentum in the 1990s and early 2000s when diet fads turned to meat, even if bacon didn\u2019t necessarily fit the health guidelines.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe Atkins diet in the \u201990s kind of gave it a jumpstart, but 2000 seems to be a pretty good starting point for the bacon obsession,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At the same time, people grew frustrated with constantly changing health advice.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">\n<div id=\"attachment_78051\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" ><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"880\" height=\"577\" data-attachment-id=\"78051\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/blog.utc.edu\/news\/2026\/07\/the-bacon-eaters\/whats-good-to-eat-26-7\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.utc.edu\/app\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2026\/07\/Whats-Good-to-Eat-26-1882.jpg?fit=1200%2C787&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"1200,787\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-title=\"What&amp;#8217;s Good to Eat-26\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;Students in Mark Johnson\u2019s class learn how to make their own bacon.&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.utc.edu\/app\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2026\/07\/Whats-Good-to-Eat-26-1882.jpg?fit=880%2C578&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"wp-image-78051 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.utc.edu\/app\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2026\/07\/Whats-Good-to-Eat-26-1882.jpg?resize=880%2C577&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"UTC students gather around a kitchen workstation during a cooking class, measuring ingredients, selecting spices and following printed recipes as they prepare a meal together.\" style=\"max-width: 100%;\"style=\"max-width: 100%;\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.utc.edu\/app\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2026\/07\/Whats-Good-to-Eat-26-1882.jpg?w=1200&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.utc.edu\/app\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2026\/07\/Whats-Good-to-Eat-26-1882.jpg?resize=1024%2C672&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.utc.edu\/app\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2026\/07\/Whats-Good-to-Eat-26-1882.jpg?resize=768%2C504&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.utc.edu\/app\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2026\/07\/Whats-Good-to-Eat-26-1882.jpg?resize=800%2C525&amp;ssl=1 800w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.utc.edu\/app\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2026\/07\/Whats-Good-to-Eat-26-1882.jpg?resize=580%2C380&amp;ssl=1 580w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.utc.edu\/app\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2026\/07\/Whats-Good-to-Eat-26-1882.jpg?resize=610%2C400&amp;ssl=1 610w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 880px) 100vw, 880px\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students in Mark Johnson\u2019s class learn how to make their own bacon.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cPeople are kind of fed up with this,\u201d Johnson says. \u201cIt\u2019s like one day this is good for you, and the next day it\u2019s bad for you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In this cultural recipe, bacon found a new role. It wasn\u2019t something to eat every day but occasionally.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Cooks also adapted pre-cooked bacon to a culture of ease, especially in fast food.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cBacon has benefited from our obsession with convenience,\u201d Johnson says. \u201cThey can add it for next to nothing to a sandwich and raise the price.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Its role at home didn\u2019t completely disappear.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cPeople like the ritual of making the bacon and slowing down,\u201d he says. \u201cIn a way, it reminds us\u2014even if the time and place only exists in our imagination\u2014of a time when people slowed down and appreciated their food and sat together.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt found its way back into Saturday morning breakfast.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 2013, Johnson first laid eyes on a bacon-covered doughnut while working on his previous book, &#8220;An Irresistible History of Alabama Barbecue: From Wood Pit to White Sauce,&#8221; published in 2017.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It wasn\u2019t until he arrived at UTC in 2019 that he started &#8220;American Bacon.&#8221;<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\n<p><div id=\"attachment_78052\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" ><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"880\" height=\"644\" data-attachment-id=\"78052\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/blog.utc.edu\/news\/2026\/07\/the-bacon-eaters\/whats-good-to-eat-26-8\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.utc.edu\/app\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2026\/07\/Whats-Good-to-Eat-26-2019.jpg?fit=1200%2C878&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"1200,878\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-title=\"What&amp;#8217;s Good to Eat-26\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;Mark Johnson, UTC assistant professor of history, teaches a class on food and Southern history in the nutrition lab on campus.&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.utc.edu\/app\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2026\/07\/Whats-Good-to-Eat-26-2019.jpg?fit=880%2C644&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"wp-image-78052 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.utc.edu\/app\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2026\/07\/Whats-Good-to-Eat-26-2019.jpg?resize=880%2C644&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"UTC Assistant Professor stands at the front of a teaching kitchen, smiling as he speaks to students. Ingredients, spices and printed recipes are arranged on the countertop before the class begins.\" style=\"max-width: 100%;\"style=\"max-width: 100%;\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.utc.edu\/app\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2026\/07\/Whats-Good-to-Eat-26-2019.jpg?w=1200&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.utc.edu\/app\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2026\/07\/Whats-Good-to-Eat-26-2019.jpg?resize=1024%2C749&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.utc.edu\/app\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2026\/07\/Whats-Good-to-Eat-26-2019.jpg?resize=768%2C562&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.utc.edu\/app\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2026\/07\/Whats-Good-to-Eat-26-2019.jpg?resize=800%2C585&amp;ssl=1 800w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.utc.edu\/app\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2026\/07\/Whats-Good-to-Eat-26-2019.jpg?resize=580%2C424&amp;ssl=1 580w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.utc.edu\/app\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2026\/07\/Whats-Good-to-Eat-26-2019.jpg?resize=610%2C446&amp;ssl=1 610w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 880px) 100vw, 880px\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mark Johnson, UTC assistant professor of history, teaches a class on food and Southern history in the nutrition lab on campus.<\/p><\/div><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI was able to finally get back into academia and had the resources\u2014and the library\u2014to go to archives,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Johnson studied the food\u2019s layered history, from religion and labor to marketing and modern diets, understanding it as part of the same story. It fit well into his curriculum.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI can teach some real and sometimes hard history,\u201d Johnson says, \u201cbut bacon is a way to help you learn how we\u2019ve thought about race and diet and gender and body image and health and wellness \u2026 that\u2019s why it\u2019s titled the way it is.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ultimately, the history book is not about food, he says.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt\u2019s really a story of the United States and how bacon gets all tied up in it.\u201d<\/p>\n<h4>Try this historic bacon recipe yourself<\/h4>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Before Frederick Law Olmsted designed New York\u2019s Central Park and other famous urban landscapes, he worked as a journalist and reformer with an interest in the southern slave economy. During the 1850s, he made a series of trips to the slave states to report on the region. Upon arrival, he remarked in his journal, \u201cI made the first practical acquaintance with what shortly was to be the bane of my life, viz. corn-bread and bacon. I partook innocent and unsuspicious of these dishes\u2026without a thought that for the next six months I should actually see nothing else.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">By the 1850s, northern urbanites had started to benefit from technologies and infrastructure that allowed more-varied diets, so they looked at the bacon-heavy diets of all southerners as a sign of the region\u2019s cultural and economic backwardness. When Olmsted viewed the South, he viewed it through the lens of his own region\u2019s industrialization.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They pointed to crackling bread as one particularly backward, humble, meager meal. They fried their fatty bacon in a cast iron skillet, removed the meaty bits and added them to their corn bread dough, and then added the dough to the skillet, per the recipe that follows.<\/p>\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Ingredients<\/h4>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>2-3 slices of bacon<\/li>\n<li>\u00bc cup butter, melted<\/li>\n<li>1 \u00bd cups self-rising flour<\/li>\n<li>1 cup yellow cornmeal<\/li>\n<li>2 tbsp granulated sugar or honey<\/li>\n<li>\u00bd teaspoon salt<\/li>\n<li>1 \u00bd cups buttermilk<\/li>\n<li>2 large eggs, beaten<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Steps<\/h4>\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit;<\/li>\n<li>In a nine-inch cast iron skillet, fry the bacon until done, then remove the bacon and set aside leaving the bacon grease behind; keep skillet warm in pre-heating oven but do not let bacon grease smoke or burn;<\/li>\n<li>While the bacon cooks, whisk together the flour, cornmeal, sugar, and salt in a large bowl;<\/li>\n<li>In the bowl with the dry ingredients, add the melted butter, some of the bacon grease, buttermilk, eggs, and half crumbled bacon; whisk but do not overmix;<\/li>\n<li>Remove the skillet, pour the cornbread batter into the warm skillet, top with remaining half of the crumbled bacon, and return to the oven; bake for 18-20 minutes; cool for at least ten minutes but serve hot \/ warm.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h4 style=\"font-weight: 400\">Learn more<\/h4>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.utc.edu\/enrollment-management-and-student-affairs\/admissions\/visit\">Visit UTC<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.utc.edu\/apply\">How to apply<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In 2013, Mark Johnson stashed away a picture of a maple bacon doughnut for a future project he had in mind. Around this time, bacon began its renaissance.<\/p>\n<p class=\"more-link-wrap\"><span><a class=\"more-link button text\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.utc.edu\/news\/2026\/07\/the-bacon-eaters\/\"><span>Continue Reading <\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2000,"featured_media":78055,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_slider":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_featurette":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7712,70,15,61,518,64,48007],"tags":[126917,127071,119206,126355,123302],"class_list":{"0":"post-78047","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-academics","8":"category-campus","9":"category-college-of-arts-sciences","10":"category-faculty-and-staff","11":"category-history","12":"category-news","13":"category-research-academics","14":"tag-american-bacon-the-history-of-a-food-phenomenon","15":"tag-goal-2-2-faculty-staff-success-strategic-plan-2030","16":"tag-mark-johnson","17":"tag-our-tennessee","18":"tag-our-tennessee-magazine","19":"entry"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The bacon eaters | UTC News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In 2013, Mark Johnson stashed away a picture of a maple bacon doughnut for a future project he had in mind. 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