What is Pancetta?
Pancetta is an Italian style of salt cured bacon made from pork belly. It is rolled into a log and the sliced into rounds. Each slice is made of swirls of dark pink pork and a thin strip of white fat. The raw texture is soft and must be cooked before eating. Once cooked it crisps and retains a meaty texture. Pancetta tastes similar to American bacon with that salty umami flavor that pork carries. Pancetta can be diced or used in strips and has many applications in food.
What does Pancetta Taste Like?
...Salty is one of the five main tastes. It has a satisfying and addictive quality with hints of sourness. Salty foods include cheeses, cured meats, chips, and olives. It is used in almost every dish and prepared food. Salt is added to enhance flavor and offer a distinctly salty taste.
...Umami is one of five main tastes. It is savory with a depth of flavor. Umami is a taste in many foods, including meat, seafood, beans, and nuts. It is both naturally occurring and created through the specific use of ingredients to create a satisfying taste. Umami is characteristic of proteins and savory dishes.
Ingredients
...Pork is a term for any meat that comes from a pig. The main cuts are the shoulder, loin, leg and side belly. Raw pork is pink and often has a white trim of fat, or dots of fat. The texture is moist and and semi-firm. Pork is used to make bacon, sausage, salami and other various meat products. Pork can be bought and used ground, or in specific cuts, such as for pork tenderloin, a delicate cut of meat, with a lower fat content. Pork is known for being a fatty meat and has a full flavor that is enhanced by salt and spices. Pork should always be cooked thoroughly before consuming.
...Salt is a mineral composed mostly of sodium chloride. It is the main flavoring used in food and is naturally occurring in certain foods, such as cheese, beets, meat and celery, plus many others. Salt is white and has finer granules than sugar. Many commercial salts include iodide, while others exclude it. Most salts are white, while some are naturally pale pink with minerals. Salt brings out the flavor of something and can create a tangy mouthfeel, if used in excess.
...Additives are added to food items in small quantities to improve the flavor, change the texture, enhance appearance, or preserve the item. Additives are both natural and artificial. Natural additives have been used for a long time, while many artificial ones were discovered in the 19th century. There are numerous artificial additives including soy lecithin, guar gum, ascorbic acid and sodium nitrite.