3045 Who will bring home the bacon?

i use the thinly sliced pancetta available in most supermarkets.....also if you want it a bit thicker ask at any deli/deli counter.

Friends over last week couldn't tell difference and wondered what i was talking about when i said we couldn't get bacon.

Particulary nice if you like your bacon crispy.:)

Pancetta comes in all cuts...streaky type and and what looks like thinly sliced back...also check out SPECK....can't find a translation for it in the dictionary but it came up a quiz show on TV the other night.

Speck is gorgeous, and if you get it sliced thicker than normal, Ooooohhhh..:o :o

The nearest thing to salted butter would be the Lurpack butter in a silver packet. (think its Danish or German) Its slightly salted - and most supermarkets have it. I Know what you mean though - the butter in Guernsey is a deep yellow and really salty - yum yum. (hot toast with salty butter and marmalade mmmm)
Karen

Speck (I think a German product) and pancetta are both cured pork like bacon - the problem is that butchers in Germany and Italy cut the product differently -- I buy Speck in a block and cut it myself, hubbie prefers to fry to pancetta lightly - both yummy

I like capo collo grilled like bacon (the cured type of capo collo, not the raw one you get from the butcher). It`s closest to my favourite bacon (M&S thin & crispy). The butter doesn`t bother me too much but my oldest daughter keeps craving English salty butter!:rolleyes:

[QUOTE=Carol and Dave]Whilst I love Italian food, and have had a good supply of Bisto, custard powder and HP sauce shipped over to keep the other half happy, I can't find repacements for bacon and salted butter. Has anyone got suggestions?:confused:

Mortadela is lovely, prosciutto crudo is devine but...... what wouldn't I give for a bacon sarnie?:D[/QUOTE]
Hi,do you remember when Sainsburys was still a shop,i mean a kind of deli and NOT a supermarket.Well,if you're old enough you'll remember that they then sold bacon mainly back/streaky which theyd cut of sides of great pieces hanging from hooks.Well you can get that sort of bacon here (the only decent places to get it nowadays in uk apart from a very few "old style" buthchers is fortnum and mason or harrods) all the rest is that coloured unsmoked varieties that shrivel up.You'll have to search for it inj Italy if you're in the north it's not difficult to find ,in the centre you can find it butnot everywhere,in the south i'm not so sure.Look carefully in up market deli stores better in larger towns ask for pancetta affumicata you may be pleasantly suprised........

[QUOTE=The Smiths in Puglia]I like capo collo grilled like bacon (the cured type of capo collo, not the raw one you get from the butcher). It`s closest to my favourite bacon (M&S thin & crispy). The butter doesn`t bother me too much but my oldest daughter keeps craving English salty butter!:rolleyes:[/QUOTE]
I've no idea about puglia where even butter is little used compared to the north but used to get Danish salted butter in the supermarket in Milano if you're ever in the north you can find it easily...

Thank you all for your suggestions. I shall try both Speck and pancetta, they sound delicious and I do like my bacon crispy.

As for butter, it looks as if it's a trip back to Blighty and a message to the kids to have toasted tea cakes with lashings of melted, yellow, salty butter waiting at the airport!

Carol I've lived in Italy for over 15 years now and get by with the speck and pancetta but God how I devour some good crispy bacon when I hit the UK!!!
First meal no matter the time is a good old bacon butty.
Everyone who comes over knows they have to bring some bacon.
I manage to get salted butter here in Cattolica. Lurpak and also some of the butter they produce in Vipiteno area which is salted.

We get pancetta afumicata, which tastes exactly the same as bacon, they slice it thinner, but I now like it like that. And if we can get it at our village store I am pretty sure it is readily available

I go along with all the folks who think pancetta is just as good - but if you want the "Danish" stuff and have a Pam supermarket nearby, they do this (pre packed) under the trade name Tulip. Trouble is, they hide it pretty well - it isn't with the pre packed pancetta, generally you find it near to the equally foreign wurstel!! They also do Lurpak - but have you ever considered shaking a smidgeon of fine table salt onto your unsalted butter??

Or some nice olive oil instead of butter?

[QUOTE=tumblong]We get pancetta afumicata, which tastes exactly the same as bacon, they slice it thinner, but I now like it like that. And if we can get it at our village store I am pretty sure it is readily available[/QUOTE]

Aren't there two types of bacon curing available to UK customers: smoked and salted? pancetta afumicata should be similar or the same as the former but pencetta non-afumicata is unsalted and is probably what most butchers will offer in place of bacon.
In Tuscany the bread us unsalted too but Tuscans apply lashings of salt with everything they eat.
BTW, I read yesterday that they are applying for pana toscana included under the EU's protected geographical indication (PGI) system. What next?

Pancetta is a good alternative to bacon but you can't beat a danish bacon sarnie. My father in law, when visiting from Italy, would always come over with legs of prosciutto, blocks of parmesan, big salami sausages and other fantastic italian food products. The only 'English' food he would take home with him would be Danish bacon.

I didnt know they did smoked pancetta, dreamy. But I dont think it will beat your Irish or Danishhhhh bacon, and really chaps it has to be slipped between 2 slices of flat, cheap bread, squashed together with the power of a dinner lady and cant cant cant be served unless it has squashed finger marks on it. Perfecto!

However, I shall be taking the lard over when next I return to Italia!

:D :p :D

Oh, clearly very much better, with a bit of salt on it - but not, perhaps with marmalade!!

[QUOTE=elainecraig]I didnt know they did smoked pancetta, dreamy. But I dont think it will beat your Irish or Danishhhhh bacon, and really chaps it has to be slipped between 2 slices of flat, cheap bread, squashed together with the power of a dinner lady and cant cant cant be served unless it has squashed finger marks on it. Perfecto!

However, I shall be taking the lard over when next I return to Italia!

:D :p :D[/QUOTE]

I agree! My sojourne in the UK was largely spent as a near vegetarian (irrational fear of BSE and related illnesses) but after moving to Ireland I took to meat again in a big way - perhaps a bit too big as I am now a whole person overweight, but wow the bacon (and all other pork products) is good here!

The brekkie at the Clarence is fantastic and you dont have to stop there.
I love Irish Soda bread with my Irish lard, served at a civilised 8-11am, excellent. Hard to get mashed potato in Ireland though, although chips are great..ahhh memories of the Burren! :o