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.
