Peameal bacon is Toronto’s great culinary invention, created in the 1850s by William Davies at the St. Lawrence Market, who rolled brined back bacon in ground yellow peas to preserve it. The cornmeal coating we use today came later, but the sandwich remains the same: thick slices of the sweet, juicy bacon, fried until the crust crisps, and stacked high on a kaiser roll. Visitors line up at market stalls like Carousel Bakery for this very sandwich, and it’s been feeding hungry Torontonians for well over a century.
What makes it great is the contrast — salty-sweet, tender pork with a golden, crunchy cornmeal crust, all mopped up by a soft bun and sharpened with mustard. It’s a hearty, no-nonsense lunch that tastes like the city itself: fast, friendly, and full of flavour. And when the peameal sizzles in the pan, your whole kitchen smells like a Saturday morning at the market.
