SC - Food Help!!!!

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Leslie Lansdowne wrote:
> 
> Help!
<snip>
> pancetta!  I need this for another recipe, too and I can't find it anywhere!
> I understand that this is an Italian bacon that is cured rather than
> smoked---but me being a rather novice when it comes to food, I really don't
> know what an acceptable substitition would be.  How about prosciutto?  or
> regular bacon???  or a cured ham?  does it matter and will it majorly affect
> the taste of the food???

"Majorly" is kind of a matter of opinion. The pancetta is in the recipe,
I assume, for both flavor and the lubrication provided by the fat. As
you say, pancetta is salt-cured and semi-dry, like prosciutto, and the
flavor is similar-- more similar to prosciutto than to smoked bacon. It
has a tang that most smoked bacon lacks. On the other hand prosciutto is
much leaner than pancetta.

I'd suggest either using fatty portions of prosciutto (along the edges
of slices, etc, estimating about 30% fat) or perhaps if you can find
real salt pork, instead of the lumps of pickled fat they now sell under
that name, that might do.

If you do end up going with a smoked pork product, you might try
shredded fatty portions of Virginia Ham. Some markets, particularly
Asian ones, sell them in small portions, for shredding into soups and such.
 
Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com
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