Know Your Cured Meats

Serrano ham, Irish and Canadian bacon, German bratwursts, Polish kielbasas and other ethnic cured meats have long been popular within their own cultural enclaves. But now more of the public is willing to sample smoked, cured and dried meats that have no bearing on personal upbringing but simply impart flavor or style to dishes.

Some of these homemade products have not been seen in America since earlier immigrants made their own; others have never been seen here before. Overall, Italian cured meats are in high demand, with Spanish products not far behind. Even familiar meats such as bacon are enjoying a resurgence. Bacon has become more than a morning side dish with artisanal varieties from cinnamon and sun-dried tomato flavors to pepper bacon and tofu versions.

The Cured Meat Case

ANDOUILLE: Spicy, smoky-tasting pork sausages used in Cajun cooking. Said to have originated in France.

BRATWURST: German sausage made with beef, pork and sometimes veal. Typically pan fried and eaten with sauerkraut.

CANADIAN BACON: Also known as back or peameal bacon (because the center cut loin used to be rolled and coated in ground yellow peas). Comes from the meatier loin rather than the belly.

CHORIZO: (Pictured on right) Spanish sausages made with coarsely chopped fatty pork meat that is seasoned with either sweet or hot pimentón de la vera (smoked ground pepper), encased and served sliced for tapas or as a flavoring ingredient in many Spanish (as well as Portuguese) dishes.

CULATELLO: Called "the heart of the prosciutto," this specialty of Italy's Emilia-Romagna region is made from the heart of the boned hind muscle of a pig's thigh usually reserved for prosciutto.

FINOCCHIONA: Tuscan-style hard salami that takes its name from the fennel seeds that are added to the pork mixture. 

GUANCIALE: Made with the cheeks (guancia) or jowls of hogs; seasoned with salt and pepper, then dry cured for up to three months. Used in central Italy.

IRISH BACON and ENGLISH BACON: Made from a cured pork loin. Originally the term referred to where the animal was raised: Wiltshire in England or Galway in Ireland. Leaner than American bacon.

KIELBASA: Large U-shaped sausage; a staple of Polish cooking, where it is most frequently made with pork and sometimes veal. Often smoked, some sausages are flavored with caraway seeds, others with pepper and garlic or marjoram.

JAMÓN SERRANO: Silky, intensely flavorful ham made from mountain-raised, acorn-fed Iberian hogs and traditionally dry cured. It is served either thinly sliced or added in small pieces to soups, omelets and vegetable dishes.

LOUKANIKA: Fresh Greek or Cypriot sausages made with chopped lamb and beef that is often seasoned with orange zest.

MERGUEZ: Spicy small lamb and beef sausages found in Tunisian, Algerian and Moroccan cooking. Seasoned with harissa, a spicy red pepper paste. Usually sun dried.

PANCETTA: Italian pork bellies that are cured with salt, pepper and other seasonings, but not smoked; rolled into wide logs.

PASTIRMA: Highly seasoned, dried meat product frequently made with beef and used in Turkish cooking. The term derives from meat that is pressed to remove the moisture, then spread with a spicy red pepper and herb paste and air dried.

PICK SALAMI: Dry, smoked salami originally from the town of Pick in Hungary. Available as either mild or mildly spicy when seasoned with Szeged paprika from the same area.

SALAISON: In French, a salt mixture used in curing foods. Often it is nutrient- and mineral-rich sea salt.

SPECK: Cured, lightly smoked and spiced ham of northern Italy.

VENTRÈCHE: French cured but unsmoked pork bellies made and used like Italian pancetta.

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