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Identifying and Buying Pancetta


ghostrider

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I’ve been unsure where to put this thread. Does it belong in Italy, which is where it all began? Or New Jersey, since one of my goals is to find a reliable local source of good pancetta? That may ultimately become a separate thread. But my immediate subject is pancetta as an ingredient, so I’m assuming that it belongs here.

I’ve been on a haphazard quest to perfect my approach to pasta amatriciana ever since I sampled the dish on a trip to Italy about 10 years ago. This of course involves good pancetta, and that’s where the dilemma begins.

At the start of this quest, time and time again, I wound up buying chunks of pancetta that were varying shades of grey, and had a bit of that taste you get when meat begins to turn. I assumed that this was a result of the curing process and didn’t think about it further, though I was never completely happy with the results of using this stuff in my amatriciana dishes.

Then, on a subsequent trip to Italy, came the revelation. At our hotel in Verona, a platter of thinly sliced meats was put out for breakfast. I became enamored of a particular batch of circular slices and asked the server what they were, she smiled at my appreciation of the flavor and said, “Pancetta!”

I was stunned. Every bite was full of wonderfully fresh cured pork flavor without a hint of gaminess. I inspected the slices closely, they were a glowing shade of dark rose from the center all the way out to the edge, no tinge of grey anywhere.

So that’s what pancetta is supposed to be like, I’m now thinking. Am I correct? I ask of those who are wiser in the ways of pancetta than I am. Is that greyness a sign of an unscrupulous butcher who is simply unloading old product? Or is that some sort of aged pancetta and it’s supposed to be that way?

Recently, thinly sliced domestic pancetta, vacuum sealed in plastic, has appeared in local deli departments. It has the look & color of good pancetta, but the thin slices don’t really work in an amatriciana dish. I’m after a good chunk of the stuff that I can slice into cubes.

I bought a chunk of Boar’s Head pancetta for my most recent amatriciana effort. It was a bit grey around the outer edges but the center still had a decent pink cast. I trimmed off the edges and used only the center portion. It was pretty good but still had a bit of that gamy flavor. I have to believe that there’s better stuff out there, whether it’s domestic or imported doesn’t matter to me nearly as much as the freshness.

What’s been your experience with pancetta? Do I simply lack a sufficiently refined palate for the delicacies of aged pancetta? Or have I been sold some real crap over the years by some of the most respected butchers in the tri-state area?

All comments & advice are welcome.

Thank God for tea! What would the world do without tea? How did it exist? I am glad I was not born before tea!

- Sydney Smith, English clergyman & essayist, 1771-1845

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Egad.

Grey pancetta?

Fortunately, I've never encountered it.

The pancetta I use is made on a farm about twenty miles from Ottawa. Or I'll buy a few pounds of some good Italian pancetta when a shop I use let's me know it's come in.

"I've caught you Richardson, stuffing spit-backs in your vile maw. 'Let tomorrow's omelets go empty,' is that your fucking attitude?" -E. B. Farnum

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Serving fine and fresh gratuitous comments since Oct 5 2001, 09:53 PM

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Grey pancetta, or any greyish looking cured meat, is usually a very bad sign. It was either not cured or not stored properly.

As you said good pancetta should have deep pink-red (think Prosciutto di Parma) to burgundy looking muscle (depending on aging time) and the fat ranging from a pink hue. to white, no yellow should be present except if the pancetta was smoked (which is possible).

The taste should certainly not be that of meat starting to turn bad, but it cam be a bir gamey. If you taste pancetta made from pigs grown in semi-wild state there will always be a gamey note, which to some, me for one, adds to the richness of this cured meat.

Il Forno: eating, drinking, baking... mostly side effect free. Italian food from an Italian kitchen.
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Thanks for that succinct description of good pancetta. Very helpful.

It also confirms my suspicion that the worst pancetta I've ever bought came from one of New York's most reputable butchers. I spent a long time thinking "Well, this pancetta came from ------ and they're one of the best, therefore some varieties are just supposed to be this grey & taste this funky." My instincts knew better, I should, as always, have listened to them.

On with the quest.

Thank God for tea! What would the world do without tea? How did it exist? I am glad I was not born before tea!

- Sydney Smith, English clergyman & essayist, 1771-1845

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Many would say that you actually need guanciale (cured hog jowl) instead of pancetta to make a perfect Amatriciani sauce. I actually don't like or use pancetta any more in the sauce for the reasons you have listed: I find the product too unreliable and at times there is a bit of a "gamy" flavor it lends to dishes. I've actually switched to (shhh!) slab bacon from my local butcher. Heresy I know.

Pancetta stateside seems to be notably unreliable a product; I've heard or read people complain elsewhere that they just can't get it the way they had it in Italy. I'm not even sure if the U.S. can import pancetta from Italy, and if it does it is no doubt cured much longer than the Italians do for their own use. You'll need to find a deli with high turnover so the pancetta isn't sitting around so much, or switch to online. And take a chance and order guanciale, too.

Told you I'd respond!!!

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Many would say that you actually need guanciale (cured hog jowl) instead of pancetta to make a perfect Amatriciani sauce. I actually don't like or use pancetta any more in the sauce for the reasons you have listed: I find the product too unreliable and at times there is a bit of a "gamy" flavor it lends to dishes.  I've actually switched to (shhh!) slab bacon from my local butcher.  Heresy I know. 

Not heresy at all in my opinion, in fact I consider that the most 'Italian' thing to do - use the best produce available, rather than a pale imitation of the 'Genuine' product.

I love animals.

They are delicious.

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Many would say that you actually need guanciale (cured hog jowl) instead of pancetta to make a perfect Amatriciani sauce. I actually don't like or use pancetta any more in the sauce for the reasons you have listed: I find the product too unreliable and at times there is a bit of a "gamy" flavor it lends to dishes.  I've actually switched to (shhh!) slab bacon from my local butcher.  Heresy I know. 

Pancetta stateside seems to be notably unreliable a product; I've heard or read people complain elsewhere that they just can't get it the way they had it in Italy.  I'm not even sure if the U.S. can import pancetta from Italy, and if it does it is no doubt cured much longer than the Italians do for their own use.  You'll need to find a deli with high turnover so the pancetta isn't sitting around so much, or switch to online.  And take a chance and order guanciale, too. 

Told you I'd respond!!!

Thanks! :smile:

I haven't tried preparing it with guanciale myself. In Italy I had it both ways, as I have over here. The rendition I had that I liked best was a pancetta version so that's where my focus has been.

I've never been able to find Bel Paese in the US either that tastes the way it does in Italy. That was another revelation.

Ah well, the search for pancetta is part of the fun, I've spotted a couple of new (to me) places recently....

Thank God for tea! What would the world do without tea? How did it exist? I am glad I was not born before tea!

- Sydney Smith, English clergyman & essayist, 1771-1845

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This might not be exactly what you wanted as an answer, but it's very very easy to make your own pancetta tesa (think flat pancetta), pancetta or guanciale. I make a year's supply tesa at a time, along with curing the two jowls that come with the hog. But you don't need a hog to make tesa, you can get very respectable slabs of pork belly from any decent asian grocery that you can turn into tesa yourself, very easily and safely. Really. Some spice, some wine and garlic, some salt and a little curing salt. Easy. If you can make amatriciana, you can make pancetta tesa. And if you can find someone who raises pigs and feeds them something that makes them taste extra yummy (like whey or nuts) then it will be even better. I think the tesa and guanciale I make can rival anything I've eaten in Italia and I've served it "raw" as you've described. Good stuff!

regards,

trillium

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You will find wonderful pancetta, as well as superior beef and pork cuts of all types, at maresca's butcher, in sergeantsville, NJ. They are a gem, and a trip back in time. ..it is worth a trip from across the state to experience this place..and don't worry if the glass case is empty, they ahve pretty much everything in the meat locker. Pick up their pate Louise, country style pate, and their slab bacon, along with the pancetta. Dry aged meats, and home baked breads from a neighbor if you get there early enough.

here is a thread about it.

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...8820&hl=maresca

Edited by Kim WB (log)
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Thanks so much for the Maresca's suggestion & link.

Takes me right back to my childhood. My dad used to drive us 50 miles from St. Louis county out to the small town where he grew up to get meats & bacon from his favorite German butcher.

The butcher made a beef concoction called "raw hack." The name pretty much tells you what it was - raw beef hacked up with a good deal of onion. A bit like steak tartare but designed to keep for a week or so. Only place I've ever encountered the stuff. I should probably start a thread to see if anyone else has ever heard of it.

Thanks for awakening those memories. I will have to visit Maresca's.

Thank God for tea! What would the world do without tea? How did it exist? I am glad I was not born before tea!

- Sydney Smith, English clergyman & essayist, 1771-1845

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Seems like you're well on the way to finding good pancetta, but, just as back up, try to find Molinari brand pancetta. I've been able to find it here in the Midwest. It's been very reliable and tasty for Carbonara in our house. And, if it looks like it's been sitting around a while (i.e. gray), I always ask for a chunk from fresh, unopened package. It freezes well.

Karen

It really doesn't take more than three bricks and a fire to cook a meal, a sobering reminder that it's the individual who makes the food, not the equipment. --Niloufer Ichaporia King

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  • 2 months later...

I was in the grocery store yesterday looking in the meat section for pancetta in the cubes, as I love having them available for everything. I was starting to understand the difference between all the different kinds and their uses in Italian dishes - specifically affumicata and dolce (i.e. for carbonara and amatriciana, respectively, I think!) - or at least I thought I understood. I came across a package that says "Bacon - pancetta affumicata". Now I'm confused. They look exactly like strips of bacon and since they are smoked, I know I can eat from the package. But to see "bacon" and "pancetta" in the same description confuses me - is the term bacon just used to describe the way it is cut?

Can someone please explain to me the major differences between American bacon and Italian pancetta?!

Thanks.

Signed,

A former vegetarian who was reintroduced to bacon and never looked back...

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Bacon and pancetta are both from the same cut of meat: the belly.  Bacon is most often smoked but not cured.  Pancetta is cured, and occasionally, on top of that, smoked.

I know it seems basic and obvious, but the term "Bacon" on the package really threw me off. Maybe it's Italian marketing the pancetta as a new and great American product...bacon slices! I'd never seen it packaged like that here before (in strips like we do in America).

I guess I can go on with my life now. Thank you.

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Bacon and pancetta are both from the same cut of meat: the belly.  Bacon is most often smoked but not cured.  Pancetta is cured, and occasionally, on top of that, smoked.

Um, I'm not sure this is entirely correct. Pancetta is simply the Italian word for "bacon" -- which is to say, cured pork side meat. It just so happens that Americans tend to like their bacon cured and smoked whereas Italians tend to like theirs cured but not smoked (bacon, I should point out, is cured). I have often heard Italians say "pancetta affumicata" to refer to American-style bacon.

Fundamentally there is no difference between "American bacon" and pancetta affumicata, except perhaps in the style of smoking (although, of course, there are wide differences in the style of smoking within the category of "American bacon" as well).

A_Broad, if you want to go one step further, try using guanciale for your Bucatini all'Amatriciana and Spaghetti alla Carbonara.

--

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Okay, so if they are both cured and some/some not smoked, why do Italians eat the pancetta sliced (in the salami style) crudo and we wouldn't touch "raw" bacon in America?

Thanks for the insights!

Oh, and I'll look again for guanciale, but I couldn't find it last time. Is it regional?

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I wonder if it's a perception thing and part of the error I made that Samuel pointed out. Italians (and Europeans?) seem a little more lax about the degree of curing before something is edible. Mario Batali often relates how when he was in Italy they would eat sausage that's only been hanging a couple of weeks and was still very raw and soft-tasting, but the Italians would always explain it as "cured" anyways.

So bacon is cured but my (erroneous) perception is that it's not really "cured" until it's mostly dry and rigid, like prosciutto or pancetta. Now the question I had after reading what Samuel pointed out is, is American bacon cured enough to where it's edible? And I get queasy just thinking about trying to find out--there's my American hangup again! :biggrin:

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Okay, so if they are both cured and some/some not smoked, why do Italians eat the pancetta sliced (in the salami style) crudo and we wouldn't touch "raw" bacon in America?

I've never known Italians to eat uncooked pancetta. Less cooked than Americans, sure. But not raw. Most pancetta I have seen is pretty similar in texture to American bacon.

--

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I've never known Italians to eat uncooked pancetta.

Pancetta can well be eaten uncooked and often is - sometimes the cured belly is rolled, then it is sold sliced, just like other salumi to enjoy as an antipasto, or stuffed in rolls. For that matter, lardo, pure white back fat cured in salt, garlic and spices (such as the outstanding lardo di Colonnata), is similarly eaten uncooked, simply sliced thinly, a delicious and favourite nibble with a good glass of wine.

I'd actually say there is quite a lot of difference between American bacon and pancetta. Most American bacon, I'd guess, is more than likely industrially produced by some sort of wet brining, probably injected with lots of crap. No doubt there is good American dry-cured bacon and that is what most eGers enjoy. But when most of us think of 'bacon', it's probably the supermarket stuff sold in thin slices to fry up crispy for breakfast. I'd be very interested indeed to hear if anyone ever eats this stuff uncooked.

By contrast, the best artisan produced pancetta is dry-cured in salt and (depending on the region) other spices or flavourings (garlic, black pepper in Tuscany and Umbria; peperoncino in Calabria) then left to age for a period of weeks or months. Make no mistake, a great pancetta is a thing of beauty: pancetta tesa (the term is used to indicate that the belly is 'stretched' on a seasoned, wooden board and left to mature for a period of months) from Eudoro in Umbria, is hand-massaged with wine, salt, garlic and black pepper then left for 60 days. It is exquisite. Pancetta is best purchased as a whole slab, to cut off as you need it. Those packets of cubetti that you can find in supermarkets are usually disappointing (but still almost always better than using bacon - British or American - which in my opinion rarely give satisfactory results for carbonara or amatriciana).

I'd go so far to say that artisan-cured pancetta is just about as different from garden-variety American bacon as mortadella di Bologna - the real thing, massive, fragrant, delicious, to be carved by hand off its special trolley - is from Oscar Mayer baloney.

MP

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Thank you so much, Marco_Polo. That clears up a lot for me. I was pretty sure I've been eating pancetta crudo for antipasti, but I've been proven wrong...many times before! I love it. And I live right near Colonnata - I never thought I could love fat so much.

As for the the cubetti di pancetta, I keep those on hand for last minute and easy cooking (pasta, with beans, with eggs, etc.), but now I'm wondering if I bought a block of pancetta, how long would it stay fresh in the fridge? If I know what I'm cooking I buy it fresh, but I am still American and we do love to stock our shelves and fridge with items to make things in a rush and for convenience! I am learning and getting better and do try to go to the market daily (patting myself on the back)!

Didn't know the pig could be so complicated!

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Speck from Austria and the Sud Tirol in Italy is eaten uncooked in thin slices. (speck also generically means "fat" in German).

Speck to be eaten raw is salt cured and cold smoked for a long time. The ratio of fat to lean can vary. The classic great examples are about 1:1. The meat part is very dark in color. Different spices can also be added; one version in Austria/Hungary is "paprika speck".

"Under the dusty almond trees, ... stalls were set up which sold banana liquor, rolls, blood puddings, chopped fried meat, meat pies, sausage, yucca breads, crullers, buns, corn breads, puff pastes, longanizas, tripes, coconut nougats, rum toddies, along with all sorts of trifles, gewgaws, trinkets, and knickknacks, and cockfights and lottery tickets."

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I've never known Italians to eat uncooked pancetta.

Pancetta can well be eaten uncooked and often is - sometimes the cured belly is rolled, then it is sold sliced, just like other salumi to enjoy as an antipasto, or stuffed in rolls.

Well, like I said... I've never known of it. Doesn't mean it doesn't happen, but I can't think it's too common -- especially with 95% of the pancetta out there. If some pancetta is cured to the point where it is more edible, it's really almost a different product from the frying stuff. Here, it would likely have a different name.

I'd actually say there is quite a lot of difference between American bacon and pancetta. Most American bacon, I'd guess, is more than likely industrially produced. . . By contrast, the best artisan produced pancetta is dry-cured in salt. . . I'd go so far to say that artisan-cured pancetta is just about as different from garden-variety American bacon as mortadella di Bologna - the real thing, massive, fragrant, delicious, to be carved by hand off its special trolley - is from Oscar Mayer baloney.

But you're comparing apples to oranges here. Why not compare garden-variety industrial American bacon to garden-variety industrial Italian pancetta? They are fundamentally very similar products, except that one is usually smoked. Or, compare the very best artisinal American bacon with the very best artisinal Italian pancetta. Again, other than the different approaches with respect to smoking, and some minor differences in cures, they are fundamentally similar products. But comparing a quotidian industrial product to an exceptional artisinal product just doesn't make sense. It's like saying that "the best artisan-cured bacon is just about as different from garden-variety Italian pancetta as Smithfield ham -- the real thing, raised on acorns, hickory nuts and peanuts, smoked over hickory and cured for 12 months -- is from cheapo speck."

--

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A product which is somewhat similar in taste to speck and served always crudo in Italy would be coppa , a somewhat less fat "bacon". It's a kind of a firmer, dryer, fatter procsiutto crudo.

Make it as simple as possible, but not simpler.

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