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Discover the history of Danish bacon in Britain – just click on the century you want to read about.

1800s

Her board was served most with white and black, milk and brown bread, in which she found no lack; singed bacon and sometimes an egg or two….. From “The Nun’s Priest Tale” in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales

Agricultural production in the 1840s struggles to feed the growing UK population caused by the industrial revolution.

The paddle-steamer Riberhuus (627 tons), which inaugurated DFDS’s Ebjerg – UK service in 1875. Primarily designed to carry livestock, it also accommodated 28 passengers

The Danes recognise a potential opportunity and the Danish bacon export business is born. The merchant ship ‘SS Rattler’ sets sail from the port of Hjertting in October 1847 with a cargo including ‘six sides of green salted bacon’. This is the first recorded shipment of bacon to England. Meat consumption increases rapidly, and Danish producers start developing business relationships with the UK as Germany closes its borders to live pigs.

Horsens producer-owned bacon factory and its board. From a painting by R. Christiansen

The first Danish pig meat co-operative is formed in 1887. By the end of the century, about 90% of Danish bacon exports are to the UK.