[Sca-cooks] question of Italian meats

[grizly at mindspring.com]

They aren't exactly substitutes as pancetta is a dry cured belly product related to American bacon (distant), but is not at all smoked.  Prosciutto is a hung dried ham that is only salt cured, if memory serves, and is a product originally  of Parma.  So, they are both pork, but one is belly and the other is ham.  I suspect you will want to use less of the prosciutto as it is a good bit stronger, and add a little fat from another source to enrich it if so desired.  A closer substitute would be plain, raw belly if you have a good market nearby. Hard spot to be in with no pancetta to buy . . .


pacem et bonum
niccolo difrancesco
(laridum dominari)

sca-cooks at ansteorra.org wrote:
> Hi everyone!
I'm working on precook for Egils this weekend (it looks like I'll be
feeding 12! Ack!) and I have a question. Two of the recipes I'm using
are from _The Medieval Kitchen_ and call for pancetta. The deli at
Safeway didn't have any and I'm not minded to go running all over town-
I don't have time or energy and I have to just get these done. So I got
som prosciuttio instead. Will this work? Anything I should know about
substituting? Would someone pull me aside next April and remove the
portion of my brain that says "SUre- I can do that! How many? No
problem!" Of course most of this number is teenagers and I figure they
will vacuum up just about anything...

'Lainie
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