Pork jowl

Pork jowl is a cut of pork from a pig's cheek.  It is sometimes called jowl bacon or hog jowl in some parts of America. In the United States, it is often used in soul food. It is used worldwide, including the cured non-smoked Italian version called guanciale.

 Culinary 
Jowl bacon can be fried and eaten as a main course, similar to streaky bacon. Often, jowls are as a seasoning for beans, black-eyed peas or cooked with leafy green vegetables such as collard greens or turnip greens. 

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 in pork liver sausages such as liverwurst and braunschweiger, to help the meat stick together.

 Traditions in the US 

In the Southern United States, there is a tradition of eating black-eyed peas and greens with either pork jowls or fatback on New Year's Day.  This is to ensure prosperity in the new year.  The tradition goes back hundreds of years.  During the American Civil War (1861 to 1865), the peas were thought to represent wealth, while the Northern army considered the food to be fit as livestock feed only. Some people saw pigs as symbols of "wealth and gluttony" and eating jowls or fatback on New Year's Day guaranteed a good new year.

Storage

Pork jowl can be cured.  This made it a traditional wintertime food as it is able to be stored for long periods of time without refrigeration.

References

Category:Pork