Pork jowl - wikipedia Pork jowl Sliced jowl bacon Fried pork jowl Pork jowl ( alternately called jowl bacon or, especially in the Southern United States, hog jowl ) is cured and smoked cheeks of pork. Hog jowl is a staple of soul food, but is also used outside the United States ; the non-smoked Italian variant is called guanciale. Contents 1 Uses 2 Health risks 3 See also 4 References Uses Jowl bacon can be fried and eaten as a main course, similar to streaky bacon, such as in a traditional full English breakfast. Often, it is used as a seasoning for beans, black - eyed peas or cooked with leafy green vegetables such as collard greens or turnip greens in a traditional Southeastern meal. Jowl meat may also be chopped and used as a garnish, similar to bacon bits, or served in sandwich form. Pork jowl can be used as a binding ingredient in pork liver sausages such as liverwurst and braunschweiger. A Southern US tradition of eating black - eyed peas and greens with either pork jowls or fatback on New Year 's Day to ensure prosperity throughout the new year goes back hundreds of years. During the American Civil War ( 1861 to 1865 ), the peas were thought to represent wealth to the Southerners, while the Northern army considered the food to be fit as livestock feed only. Pigs ( and by extension, pork products ) were symbolic of `` wealth and gluttony '' and consuming jowls or fatback on New Year 's Day guaranteed a good new year. Because pork jowl is cured, like many other cuts of pork, it has been a traditional wintertime food as it is able to be stored for long periods of time without refrigeration. Health risks Like most cured pork products, pork jowls are high in nitrates and sodium, which give the potential for health risks, particularly for those with a family history of heart disease. See also Food portal List of bacon dishes List of smoked foods References Jump up ^ Gillespie, Carmen ( 2009 ). Toni Morrison : A Literary Reference to Her Life and Work. Infobase Publishing. p. 343. ISBN 9781438108575. Retrieved July 28, 2012. Jump up ^ Fabricant, Florence ( September 13, 2011 ). `` Pork Jowl With a Backwoods Whiff ''. New York Times. Retrieved July 27, 2012. Jump up ^ May, Tony ( June 1, 2005 ). Italian Cuisine : The New Essential Reference to the Riches of the Italian Table. Macmillan. p. 11. ISBN 9780312302801. Retrieved July 28, 2012. Jump up ^ Hedgepeth, William ; Findley, John ; Clayton, Al ( 2008 ). The Hog Book. University of Georgia Press. p. 23. ISBN 9780820332734. Retrieved July 28, 2012. Jump up ^ Galiano, Amanda ( December 31, 2010 ). `` Hog Jowls and Pork : Explaining Southern New Year 's Traditions ''. About.com. Retrieved July 27, 2012. Jump up ^ Gold, Jonathan ( July 27, 2012 ). `` Counter Intelligence : Next Door by Josie ''. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved July 27, 2012. Jump up ^ Cox, Greg. `` Little Hen 's agrarian accent leaves a mouth - watering experience ''. News Observer. Retrieved July 27, 2012. ^ Jump up to : Credeur, Mary Jane ( December 30, 2006 ). `` Eating hog jowls may bring luck, at high price ''. Union - Tribune. Retrieved July 27, 2012. Jump up ^ Leada Gore ( December 31, 2016 ). `` Why do we eat black - eyed peas, hog jowls and greens on New Year 's Day ? ''. AL.com. Retrieved June 1, 2017. Bacon Cuts, varieties and similar products Back bacon Bacon bits Bacon Grill Fatback Guanciale Lardo Vallée d'Aoste Lard d'Arnad Lardon Pancetta Peameal bacon Petit Salé Pork belly Pork jowl Salo Salt pork Speck Szalonna Tocino Turkey bacon Vegetarian bacon Wiltshire cure Zeeuws spek Dishes Angels on horseback Bacon and cabbage Bacon and egg pie Bacon cake Bacon ice cream Bacon, egg and cheese sandwich Bacon Explosion Baconnaise Bacon sandwich Bacon soup Baconator BLT Brændende kærlighed Carniolan sausage Chicken fried bacon Chivito Chocolate - covered bacon Clams casino Cobb salad Coddle Čvarci Fool 's Gold Loaf Full breakfast Garbure Hangtown fry Hoppin ' John Hot Brown Jambonette Kugelis Luther Burger Maple bacon donut Oysters en brochette Peanut butter, banana and bacon sandwich Pig candy Pigs in a blanket Pīrags Rouladen Rumaki Samgyeopsal Se'i Seven - layer salad Slavink Stargazy pie Stegt flæsk Tatws Pum Munud Túrós csusza Drinks Bacon martini Bacon soda Bacon vodka BLT cocktail Mitch Morgan Topics Bacon Bowl Bacon mania Blue Ribbon Bacon Festival Danger dog Flitch of bacon custom Heather Lauer J&D 's Down Home Enterprises T.A. Denny Books Bacon : A Love Story The Bacon Cookbook Bacon and Hams The BLT Cookbook Do n't Forget the Bacon ! Everything Tastes Better with Bacon I Love Bacon ! Seduced by Bacon Portal Pigs Kingdom Animalia Phylum Chordata Class Mammalia Order Artiodactyla Suborder Suina Family Suidae Subfamily Suinae Genus Sus Domestic Breeding Shows Farming Intensive farming Sty Pannage Toilet Hog oiler Gestation crate Cross-fostering Swineherd As food Bacon Ham Lard Pork Scalder Slaughter Suckling Blood Religious restrictions Scottish pork taboo Cuts Back bacon Boston butt Fatback Ham hock Pig 's trotters Pork belly Pork chop Pork jowl Loin Tenderloin Ribs Spare ribs Pork rind Pork steak Ear Tail Other uses Bladder Racing War Wrestling Truffling Wild and Feral Wild boar Heraldry Hunting In the Philippines Razorback Pigs in culture Iron Age pig Flitch of bacon custom Miss Piggy Pigs in Space Porky Pig Piglet `` The Three Little Pigs '' Animal Farm Old Major Napoleon Snowball Squealer Babe Babe : Pig in the City Bad Piggies My Brother the Pig Charlotte 's Web The Sheep - Pig Peppa Pig Super Pig Fair, then Partly Piggy Jakers ! The Adventures of Piggley Winks Olivia ( character TV series ) Pink Floyd pigs Pinky and Perky Preston Pig Rasher Porco Rosso Spider - Ham Spider pig The Tale of Little Pig Robinson The Tale of Pigling Bland `` This Little Piggy '' Huxley Pig Wibbly Pig Zhu Bajie Other List of pigs List of fictional pigs Piganino Pigasus ( politics ) `` When pigs fly '' Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pork_jowl&oldid=831157154 '' Categories : Cuts of pork Cuisine of the Southern United States Soul food Smoked meat Hidden categories : Use mdy dates from March 2018 Talk Contents About Wikipedia 日本 語 Português 粵語 Edit links This page was last edited on 19 March 2018, at 01 : 58. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike License ; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia ® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization. About Wikipedia

Question: what part of the pig does jowl come from
Answer: cheeks