this sentence is long enough.
That boars head package at my local super market is at least $5.99… Even at $4.99 for 4oz, it’s a terrible deal- that’s $20 a pound. Decent bacon from the butcher is 6.99 a pound, maybe more for the fancy stuff. Hell, you can get package bacon for $5/lb on sale if you look. Maybe it’s just my store, but pancetta is crazy expensive.
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What!?!?! That’s how food is priced! I know I’m not going to eat a whole pound, but I like to know what things cost per unit of measure when I buy them… I don’t buy 50 grains of rice at a time because it’s cheaper than 100!
The difference is literally $3… That’s the potential cost of an entire meal portion…
Yes, this was more to my question. Whether the flavor difference actually justifies the cost difference. It’s totally subjective, so I was hoping to see if you felt it was worth the price. Sounds like you do think so, especially for special occasions… I’ll consider it 
Haha, I’m a cheap-ass, but I love good food!
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This is exactly what I do. Pancetta optional. If no pancetta, olive (or other) oil beforehand.
One last step I like to do: immediately after taking them out of the oven, I pour about 1/4 cup of water or broth into the hot cooking sheet and toss the sprouts, getting up any browned bits. This helps rehydrate them. Then I put into a bowl and drizzle with some aged balsamic.
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(post withdrawn by author, will be automatically deleted in 24 hours unless flagged)
And yet you’ll assume that the extra cost “doesn’t matter”. And that people other than yourself have the luxury of choosing to spend a little extra.
I’ve gone through spans of time where that extra $3 in a batch was the difference between two meals today and one. And I was doing pretty OK comparatively. But yes the problem here is my formating.
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I’m sorry I derailed this whole thing! I love Brussels, pancetta, and bacon together and apart. Happy cooking 
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Trader Joe’s usually has uncured bacon ends & pieces, which work great for chopping up as an ingredient, for $3.99/lb.
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Good to know!
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Different spices too. Pancetta has pretty strict flavorings. Typically black pepper, juniper, and fennel. Though it’s pretty lightly spiced. American bacon varies a lot more. Usually pepper garlic onion and some sort of sugar.
Where are you at. Shrink wrapped lumps tend to be less than 10.99/lb near me. And boarshead pancetta is commonly available at deli counters around the same price as the rest of their better cold cuts. You can buy the pricey stuff if you want. But if you look for domestic pancetta it’s usually priced like any other hunk of cured meat.
The pre diced pancetta tends to taste pretty off. Sour, and just this side of spoilage. With a hard plasticy texture and way too lean. I’ll use it in a pinch. But your better off grabbing some proscuitto or regular bacon a lot of the time.
Assuming your butcher carries bacon or slab bacon. Many in the US don’t. Near me almost none do.
But yeah the prediced stuff is usually around 2x the price of the same brand deli sliced or bought in a shrink wrapped lump. For notably lower quality.
The boarshead pancetta at the super market I’m currently standing in is 14.99/lb. Which is pricey. It’s 11.99 where I usually buy it. The same product in the diced package is 5.99/4oz.
The chain I’m standing in only carries boarshead. But I bought a lump of italian panchetta the other day something like 6 bucks for a little more than 8oz.
Shits not cheap like low grade American bacon. But there’s little need to spend through the nose on it.
Depends on what your doing with it. You blow through a pound making sammiches pretty quick. And there is no reason not to have it sliced and fry it like any other bacon. It’s not like this is something that’s only used in small “seasoning” amounts. Price per pound is still a factor.
Actually makes decent enough bacon. The center cut and thick cut are notably better than a lot of the other stuff on the shelf. Even some purportedly high end brands. It’s not dry cured quality, but it’s good for mass market bacon.
The flavor difference is significant. No smoke, which some American a bacons lack or go light on. But the spices and flavorings used to cure are totally different. And the pancetta is always dry cured, wrapped and hung to dry/age. Which gives it stonger cured, almost fermented flavor. It’s a little funky.
Not really a problem to sub out nearly any other cured pork product for it (or any other cured pork product). Provided you avoid heavily smoked product.
You might want to read the rest of my wall of text. Because at no point did I really bring that up.
Could you maybe just once respond to some one in kind instead of getting dismissive? You might have noticed that a lot of that is just elaborating on and supporting what you said.
You’ll turn your nose up as Oscar Myer as “shite”, but you’ll gladly pay extra for a lower quality product with the precut pancetta.
Spoken as some one who’s never had to worry much about the cost of their food.
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Thank you for the side thread move, @orenwolf
Now I feel comfortable with this: guiancale; pros and cons. Discuss.
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Guys, can we go back to griping about politics?
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The biggest con with Guiancale is that there is one. Just one store anywhere near me where I can get it. And its over an hour drive away. I can take 2 ferries to get their faster but it costs 25 bucks each way. LUCKLY I’m over there for work at least once a week. But seriously that shit is difficult to find in the US.
IN OTHER NEWS. I used to work with a lot of Italians. Off the boat Italians. To a one they used American Bacon and prosciutto in place of Guiancale and Pancetta. Even though they had easy access.
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Ketchup on sausages is an acceptable condiment for children, and adults with childish tastes.
Fight me! 
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We’ve fought this fight before. But if we must fight it again…
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Smart&Final also; I don’t recall the price at the moment but it’s a steal compared to rashers. I also don’t remember the brand - I think it’s actually a S&F house brand - but it tastes pretty good to me. Not sure I’d use it as a substitute for pancetta, but as a mixin for scrambled eggs… oh yeah.
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