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Canadian Bacon substitute

Best substitute

Sliced deli ham (boiled or honey ham)

Use the same amount slice for slice as the canadian bacon you are replacing

Best for eggs Benedict

Close match

Thin-sliced deli ham is the answer, at 1:1. Canadian bacon's job in a recipe is salt and lean, mildly smoky pork, not fat, and boiled or Black Forest ham does exactly the same job for a fraction of the fuss. Use ham for eggs Benedict, breakfast sandwiches and Hawaiian pizza and almost nobody will notice. Prosciutto also works if you crisp it for 30 seconds and cut the salt elsewhere in the dish. Regular streaky bacon will do in a pinch, but understand you are swapping in a much fattier, smokier, crunchier ingredient, so drain it well.

Other canadian bacon substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

Substitutes for Canadian Bacon with ratios

  1. 2Black Forest ham

    Close match

    Use the same amount or two thin slices per round

    A cured, cold-smoked ham.

    What changes

    Noticeably smokier and a little darker in flavor than Canadian bacon, which reads as an upgrade on pizza and slightly loud under a delicate hollandaise.

    Best for
    Hawaiian pizza, sandwiches and sliders, breakfast casseroles, when you want more smoke

    Sear it briefly in a dry pan and the smoke mellows while the edges frizzle, which is closer to how a griddled round of Canadian bacon tastes.

  2. 3Prosciutto (or prosciutto cotto)

    Taste and texture differ

    Use the same amount by weight, but expect roughly a third fewer slices per ounce

    Prosciutto is much saltier and more intensely porky, and paper thin instead of chunky.

    What changes

    It crisps into a lacy sheet rather than staying meaty. Prosciutto cotto, the cooked kind, is much closer and behaves almost exactly like Canadian bacon.

    Best for
    eggs Benedict, pizza, asparagus and egg dishes, when you want a crisp texture

    Cut back the salt everywhere else in the dish. If you crisp it, do it in a dry pan for 30 to 60 seconds a side, it goes from perfect to bitter fast.

  3. 4Regular streaky bacon

    Taste and texture differ

    Use 2 to 3 strips for every round of Canadian bacon

    This is the swap most people reach for and the one that changes the dish most.

    What changes

    Streaky bacon renders a large amount of fat, shrinks by half, and brings hard smoke and crunch where Canadian bacon brings soft lean meat. A benedict made with it is a different, greasier breakfast.

    Best for
    when it is all you have, breakfast sandwiches, carbonara-style pasta, chopped into salads or hash

    Cook it, then drain it on paper towel and blot, or the muffin turns soggy. Do not measure by weight, a raw strip loses about half its mass in the pan.

  4. 5Smoked pork loin or Kassler chops, thinly sliced

    Close match

    Use the same amount

    Literally the same cut, cured and smoked in the German style.

    What changes

    Firmer, drier and more assertively smoky, but the lean loin chew is spot on.

    Best for
    pan-frying alongside eggs, hearty breakfasts, pea soup and bean dishes, sandwiches

    Slice it thinner than you would a chop, about an eighth of an inch, and warm it gently. It dries out quickly at high heat because there is almost no fat to protect it.

  5. 6Smoked turkey breast or turkey ham

    Different taste

    Use the same amount

    The best non-pork option.

    What changes

    It gives you the salt, the smoke and the lean sliceable body. What is missing is the faint sweetness and the small amount of pork fat, so it tastes flatter and can be slightly rubbery when it is heated hard.

    Best for
    pork-free breakfasts, egg dishes, pizza, lighter sandwiches

    Brush it with a little melted butter or oil before griddling. Without added fat it will stick and stay pale instead of browning.

What is Canadian Bacon?

Canadian Bacon is Canadian bacon, sold in some places as back bacon or peameal bacon, is a lean cured cut from the pork loin that comes in ready-to-eat round slices rather than fatty strips.

Cooking tips

  • Understand what it is actually doing before you swap: Canadian bacon supplies salt and lean smoky pork, and almost no fat. A round yields perhaps half a teaspoon of drippings, so if a recipe told you to fry your eggs or your potatoes in the fat left behind, you will need to add butter or oil regardless of what you swap in.
  • It is already fully cooked. You are only warming and browning it, so 60 to 90 seconds a side in a hot dry pan is plenty. Longer than that and the lean loin turns to leather at the edges.
  • Because there is no fat to render, it sticks. Give the pan a very light film of oil or butter, or use a nonstick pan, and let the surface dry with a paper towel first so it browns instead of steaming.
  • Peameal bacon, the Canadian original, is wet-cured and rolled in cornmeal and is sold unsmoked and raw. If a recipe says peameal, it needs actual cooking to 145 F, and it will taste sweeter and less smoky than the American product labeled Canadian bacon.
  • In the UK and Ireland, back bacon rashers are the same cut but sold raw and often thicker, with a tail of belly fat attached. Treat them like a very lean bacon: start in a cold pan, cook to just firm, and do not expect much grease.

Frequently asked questions

Can I just leave it out?

In eggs Benedict, yes, and the dish has a real name without it: poached eggs and hollandaise on a muffin is still very good, and adding a layer of sauteed spinach or a slice of tomato replaces the bulk. What you lose is the salt, so season the eggs and add a pinch of flaky salt to the muffin. In a breakfast casserole or quiche you can leave it out but should replace the volume with something savory, such as sauteed mushrooms with a splash of soy sauce, or the custard tastes bland and one-note.

Is Canadian bacon the same as ham?

Practically, they are close cousins. Both are cured pork, but Canadian bacon comes from the loin, which runs along the back, while ham comes from the hind leg. Loin is a little firmer and less salty. That difference is small enough that swapping ham in is close to invisible, which is why ham is the top recommendation on this page.

Can I substitute regular bacon 1:1?

Not by weight or by piece. Streaky bacon is roughly half fat and loses about half its weight in the pan, so use two to three cooked strips per round and drain them well. The bigger issue is character rather than quantity: the finished dish will be smokier, crunchier and greasier. For pizza it is fine. Under hollandaise, ham is a much better call.

How much Canadian bacon is on a pizza?

A 12 inch Hawaiian pizza typically takes about 4 ounces, which is roughly 6 to 8 rounds torn into pieces. Ham, Black Forest ham or torn prosciutto all cover the same area at the same weight. Add it before baking if you want it soft, or in the last 4 minutes if you want the edges to curl and crisp.

Is Canadian bacon healthier than regular bacon?

It is much leaner, because it comes from the loin rather than the belly, so per ounce it carries far less fat and fewer calories. It is not low in sodium, though. It is a cured product, and a serving carries a similar amount of salt to bacon, so if you are watching sodium the swap does not help much on that front.

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