Pork jowl is a cut of pork from a pig's cheek. Different food traditions have used it as a fresh cut or as a cured pork product (with smoke and/orcuring salt). As acured andsmoked meat in America, it is calledjowl bacon or, especially in theSouthern United States,hog jowl,joe bacon, orjoe meat. In the US, hog jowl is a staple ofsoul food.[1] Outside the United States, there is a longer culinary tradition: the cured, non-smoked Italian variant is calledguanciale.[2][3]
Jowl bacon can be fried and eaten as amain course, similar to streakybacon, such as in a traditionalfull English breakfast. Often, it is used as a seasoning forbeans,black-eyed peas or cooked withleafy green vegetables such ascollard greens orturnip greens in a traditional Southeastern meal.[4][5]
Jowl meat may also be chopped and used as agarnish, similar tobacon bits,[6] or served insandwich form.[7] Pork jowl can be used as a binding ingredient in pork liver sausages, such asliverwurst andbraunschweiger.
A Southern US tradition of eating black-eyed peas and greens with either pork jowls orfatback on New Year's Day to ensure prosperity throughout the new year goes back hundreds of years.[8] During theAmerican 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.[citation needed] 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.[9]
Because pork jowl can be 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.
Media related toPork jowl at Wikimedia Commons
