Peameal Bacon: Toronto’s Sandwich

This month the Sandwich Tribunal is covering one of Toronto’s local specialties, the peameal bacon sandwich. As a local, I couldn’t pass up the chance to add my contribution.

For reasons lost to the mists of time, people used to refer to Toronto as “Hogtown”. Some folks say this was a reference to us having the largest pork packing plant in Canada, but others say the term was just meant to insult us. Regardless of how the nickname came about, it’s still true that Toronto was pork-processing central for a time – and that it is the point of origin for peameal bacon. Of course, nobody calls Toronto “Hogtown” any more, except for the ironically named Hogtown Vegan restaurant. I’m pretty sure you can’t get an authentic peameal sandwich at the Hogtown Vegan – for that, you have to go to St. Lawrence Market.

St. Lawrence Market is the oldest public market in Toronto. It is a fantastic market, with a wide assortment of butchers, fishmongers, bakeries and cheese shops. I should make the trip down there more often – the shops near my place have good food, but if I wanted to buy a whole octopus (this has never happened), I would need to go to St. Lawrence Market to get it. I also need to go there if I want to have an original peameal bacon sandwich.

here are two places selling peameal bacon sandwiches in St. Lawrence Market, Carousel Bakery and Paddington’s Pump. Both of them have signs describing the sandwich as “world famous”. Carousel is the originator of the sandwich, according to local lore, but on the other hand Paddington’s has restaurant seating, so you can get a beer with it.

I grabbed a sandwich from both counters. First up was Carousel. I discovered that their service was cash-only. I of course don’t carry cash because it’s the 21st century, but after a quick side trip to the ATM I had my sandwich in hand. They were pretty busy but had an efficient assembly line going and the sandwich took them only about two minutes to make. I asked them what they recommended having on the sandwich. They had short a list of options but recommended either maple mustard or honey mustard. I think they get asked this a lot as their sauce menu had those two options starred. I opted for the honey mustard.

The sandwich was very basic – three slices of peameal bacon on a soft bun, with the mustard and nothing else. And they only offer the basic sandwich – there aren’t any variations to the sandwich available here.

The bacon was pretty thick – maybe a quarter of an inch? I don’t know, I’m Canadian, I don’t know how big inches are. The mustard was not one of the elegant varieties available at Kozlik’s stall across the market. It’s a pretty proletarian sandwich – nothing fancy, but still tasty. Also, I think the cornmeal really does add something to the experience. I don’t feel like I would consider myself a “fan of cornmeal”, but I think I think peameal bacon tastes a lot better than ham.

I also picked up a sandwich from the other peameal bacon sandwich option, Paddington’s Pump. Although it was the same sandwich in the same market for the same price at the same time, their counter was much less busy. But they do have dedicated restaurant space, which Carousel doesn’t, so maybe their business is more directed at that audience.

In the restaurant they have a more expensive sandwich than their takeout version. I’m still avoiding crowded spaces when I can, so I opted for the takeout counter again rather than the restaurant. 

The sandwich maker here also recommended the honey mustard, so I went with that here, too. But he also suggested lettuce and tomato, which I took him up on.

Paddington’s sandwich came on more of a kaiser style bun, although it was still soft, with no crunch. The peameal bacon here was sliced more thinly. The sandwich had about the same amount of it, though, with five thinner slices rather than the three thick slices at Carousel. I preferred the thicker slices, as they are much juicier. Also, for my money lettuce and tomato just distract from the peameal bacon, making the sandwich seem more like just a cold cut sandwich.

When I make these at home, I sometimes add cheese – generally an old cheddar – but I don’t add anything else. You can get cheddar or swiss cheese on your sandwich in Paddington’s, so I expect that means cheese is an acceptable addition. There are some other places in town that have other topping options, but for me I think that the simple bacon-mustard-bun combination works really well.

All told, while the peameal bacon sandwich is hardly what you’d call fine dining, I think it’s a fine sandwich to grab when you’re looking for something simple, quick and tasty.