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Papua New GuineaFlavors · Toronto
Sandwich of cured, unsmoked pork loin, coated in cornmeal, grilled and served hot on a soft roll, usually with mustard. Linked to Toronto’s pork history, it was declared the city’s signature dish in 2016.
Traditional dish from Toronto, Ontário
Also known as: peameal bacon, cornmeal bacon sandwich
Illustrative images. The pictures in this guide are illustrations based on the real place, not photographs, and may differ from it.
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Peameal bacon sandwich — Toronto, Canada
Peameal bacon is a pork loin cut cured in a brine of salt, sugar and spices, without smoking. On the outside it has a yellow cornmeal crust; the name comes from dried pea flour that was once used to coat the meat to help preserve it. It is leaner and milder in flavor than belly bacon.
For the sandwich, the meat is sliced thin, grilled and served hot, in generous portions, on a soft roll, almost always with mustard. It’s a simple snack, common at breakfast and lunch, and the St. Lawrence Market, a public market opened in 1803, is the place most associated with it.
The history ties to the 19th-century pork industry. In 1854 William Davies began selling meats in the old East Market Square, where the market stands today. His company exported cured pork from Toronto to England, and that trade earned the city the nickname Hogtown. The Museum of Toronto credits the market, through Davies, with the origin of the sandwich.
In 2016, during a food festival, the mayor declared the peameal bacon sandwich Toronto’s signature dish, describing it as very Canadian and very Toronto. Peameal bacon is mainly found in Ontario and eastern Canada.
Toronto , Ontário
Declared Toronto’s signature dish in 2016; linked to St. Lawrence Market.
Pork loin cured in a brine of salt, sugar and spices, unsmoked, coated with cornmeal; soft roll and mustard.
Hot, thin grilled slices piled in a soft roll, usually with mustard. Eaten by hand, often standing or at the market tables.
Year-round, especially at breakfast and lunch.
Your questions
It is pork loin cured in brine, unsmoked, covered by a cornmeal crust. Historically the crust was made from ground dried peas, hence the name.
St. Lawrence Market, the public market in the old downtown, is the place most associated with the sandwich, but it appears in cafés and diners across the city.
Because of the 19th-century pork industry: firms in the city exported cured pork to England. Peameal bacon is part of that history.
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