[Sca-cooks] I mentioned an Italian cured hog jowl...

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

Also sprach Phlip:
>Ene bichizh ogsen baina shuu...
>
>>  ...it is called guanciale, and is highly flavored and, because of its
>>  gelatin content, remains moist and tender through virtually any
>>  cooking process.
>>
>>  Over time, pancetta (cured belly, like American streaky bacon) has
>>  become a common substitute, and for that, prosciutto or bacon are
>>  often substituted (especially in the US, with some of the interesting
>>  import laws we've had).
>>
>>  Adamantius
>
>Hog jowls are quite commonly eaten here in the US, too, Adamantius.

Yeah, I know. I guess I ignored that because we got on a "whole 
animal head" track, which probably has a little more in common with 
European foodways than American ones. So yes, the Italian cured hog 
jowl is called guanciale. The American version is called... hog jowls 
;-).

>  Po'
>folks have long known about "jowl bacon" which tends to be cheaper than the
>usual American style bacon. You need to remove the skin, because thats
>generally harder than most people want to deal with, then you slice up the
>rest of the jowl and use it just like bacon. Hog jowls will often come
>either smoked, like hams or bacon, or processed like the unsmoked bacon.

So how's that? Dry-salted with a pinch of sugar, then sorta air-dried a bit?

>
>I'm hoping the Yuppie "gourmets" don't discover it like they've discovered
>ham hocks and chicken wings- it really is a nice cut of meat, and the fact
>that it's cheaper than regular bacon hurts my feelings not a bit ;-)

Nah, most Yuppie "gourmets" are too stupid ;-), or too afraid of fat 
and salt, or something that requires some prep work.  I wish I could 
find them around here, though. Actually, I probably can...

Adamantius