>>>>>>>Everyone knows it has to be Texas Pete on eggs!
>>>>>
>>>>>How very NC of you. ;-) Must say that in the US these days I ask for everything "dry" ... because food generally is of such quality that it doesn't need to be slobbered in mayo or any of that other wet stuff. ;-)
>>>>
>>>>The fashion has come here as well... even though it goes against the very definition of sausage, salami, ham and other "suhomesnati proizvodi" - literally, dry meat products.
>>>>
>>>>And it's some brine that they inject, to the extent that a slab of bacon is so thick that the pig it came from would probably have required a wheelchair to move around. A butcher here called these injected things fast food - you must eat it within a couple of days, or else it goes all slimy and sticky.
>>>>
>>>>I bought a piece of smoked neck (because what they sell as "dry neck" nowadays is anything but dry), twice as expensive, but I guess I got me a better deal. I wasn't paying any water at the price of meat.
>>>
>>>Now you can buy non-refrigerated bacon here. Hats off to them if they have figured out how to do that and keep the bacon safe to eat. I do not find the concept reassuring and have not tried it.
>>
>>If its properly cured there's no reason you shouldn't be able to keep it out of the fridge.
>
>Cured meats are now almost the number one food to avoid for your health. How on earth did everyone survive in the days of cured meat? What was the average life span?

Depended on several factors, but remember - they also did more labor intensive work than we do now.