The thousand-year-old expression “bringing home the bacon” came from a common British competition of trying to catch a greased pig at a country fair.
But the first time it was recorded and entered into modern use in North America was in 1910, when, after her son won a championship fight, Jack Johnson’s mother told the press, “My boy said he’d bring home the bacon.”
From then on, the phrase “bringing home the bacon” meant achieving success.
