cured meats

Even if you've never heard of guanciale, it's entirely possible that you've eaten it before and never realized it; the cured meat resembles bacon when it's both raw and cooked. But guanciale comes from an entirely different part of the pig.

A specialty of the central Italian regions of Umbria and Lazio, guanciale is pork jowl or pig cheek that's been cured with black pepper, red pepper, or spices. It's softer in texture and less salty than pancetta, but possesses a stronger, fattier taste.

Guanciale's rarely eaten raw; rather, it's well-suited for sautéeing with vegetables, enriching a stew, or boosting the flavor of meat. It's an essential ingredient in several classic Roman pastas, such as spaghetti alla carbonara and bucatini all'amatriciana.

Source: Flickr User thebittenword.com

At the Fancy Foods Show, I found myself drawn to paper-thin slices of dark, purple-hued cured meat. I quickly learned that the ultratender, sweet meat was something called bresaola, also known as beef prosciutto. Bresaola is an air-cured, spiced, and salted cut of beef that is aged for several months. The cut comes from the hind leg of the animal and is best served thinly sliced as an antipasto. While the beef cut (usually the eye of round) is very tender, unlike prosciutto, it's extremely lean and has no visible fat. Valtellina, the Alpine valley in Lombardy where bresaola was first conceived, is a protected geographical indication; those made in the same style outside Valtellina are often labeled "viande séchee" instead. The most popular way to serve bresaola is sliced on its own as an appetizer. It is often drizzled with olive oil or vinegar in the style of beef carpaccio, or served on top of salads and pizza. Have you ever tried bresaola?

Source: Flickr User snowpea&bokchoi

Both PartySugar and I are fiends for cured meats as well as suckers for anything mini — so you can imagine our reactions when we opened up a parcel that was filled with pocket-sized packs of Hormel Pepperoni Minis! I stepped out to run an errand, but Party confessed she couldn't wait for me to get back to break into them. Were they as delicious as they were tempting? Find out when you keep reading

With cured meats making a comeback, it's common to see charcuterie and salumi platters on restaurant menus across the country. But are charcuterie and salumi the same thing? What about salumi and salami?

While charcuterie and salumi share many similarities — both are cured meats, and both maximize the use of every part of the animal — they're not the same thing. Charcuterie, a French term, typically refers to cooked meats such as pâtés. The Italian equivalent of charcuterie is referred to as affettati, while salumi generally refers to salted and dry-cured meats. Salame (plural is salami) is a cured sausage made from ground pork, and is a type of salumi.

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