[rhplus]

This article places the origin of “bring home the bacon” to an African American boxer’s mother in 1906. He mentions gravy in the response, so I suspect they’re talking about bacon as in meat from the back half of a pig, like a bone-in pork leg rather than the sliced pork belly we envision today. The (figurative) bacon he was encouraged to bring home would be a big piece of meat like a roasted ham.

https://jonathanbecher.com/2020/06/14/bring-home-the-bacon/

[jackfoxy]

The second paragraph of the article starts out

Most on-line sources claim the phrase originated in 1104 in a small town in Essex, England.

In the third paragraph the author states he prefers the boxer story.

Personally, I think the usage of that idiom is older than 117 years.