Speck

{{Short description|European cured pork product}} {{Other uses}} {{Cleanup rewrite|reason=copy editing and style issues, as well as the strange use of a section after sources or references|date=January 2015}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2024}}

[[File:Südtiroler Speck g.g.A. mit Gütesiegel.jpg|thumb|250px|Speck Alto Adige PGI – South Tyrolean speck]] thumb|250px|Smoked speck '''Speck''' can refer to a number of European cured pork products, typically salted and air-cured and often lightly smoked but not cooked. In Germany, speck is pickled pork fat with or without some meat in it. In the Netherlands and Flanders, in Dutch, ''spek'' is bacon. Throughout much of the rest of Europe and parts of the English-speaking culinary world, speck is usually South Tyrolean speck, a type of Italian smoked ham. The term ''speck'' became part of popular parlance only in the eighteenth century and replaced the older term ''bachen'', a cognate of ''bacon''.{{Citation needed|date=July 2013}}

==Regional varieties== There are a number of regional varieties of speck, including: * Bacon, e.g. ''Frühstücksspeck'' ("breakfast speck") in Germany * Gailtaler speck from Austria, with PGI status, which has been made since the 15th century in the Gail Valley ("Gailtal") in Carinthia<ref name="GailtalSpeck">[https://www.bmlfuw.gv.at/land/lebensmittel/trad-lebensmittel/Fleisch/Fleischprodukte/gailtaler_speck.html Lebensmittelnet.at - Gailtaler Speck] (accessed 9 January 2008)</ref> * Schinkenspeck, German "ham bacon", typically made from a flat cut of ham with fat along one side resembling bacon, and traditionally soaked for several days in brine with juniper berries and peppercorn * Speck Sauris PGI, from Sauris, Friuli, Italy * Speck Alto Adige PGI, from South Tyrol, Italy * Tyrolean speck from Austria's Tyrol region, which has ''PGI'' status, and has been made since at least the 15th century<ref name="Tirolspeck">[http://www.tourist-information.at/tirol.php?tmp=03 Austria Tourist Info - Tirol](German) (accessed 9 January 2008)</ref>

==Jewish deli speck== In Ashkenazi Jewish cuisine, in which bacon (like all pork) is forbidden as unkosher, "speck" commonly refers to the subcutaneous fat on a brisket of beef. It is a particular speciality of delis serving Montreal-style smoked meat, where slices of the fatty cut are served in sandwiches on rye bread with mustard, sometimes in combination with other, leaner cuts.<ref>{{cite episode |url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113754874 |title=A Mission To Save Real Jewish Delis, A Dying Breed |network=NPR |date=October 13, 2009 |series=All Things Considered}}</ref>

==See also== {{Portal|Food}} * List of dried foods * List of smoked foods

==References== {{Reflist}}

Category:Ham Category:Salumi Category:Charcuterie Category:Smoked meat