Cured pork fat and belly

Cured pork fat and belly are the fatty cuts of the pig kept with salt: back fat, belly and cheek. They are dry-salted or brined, sometimes spiced or smoked, then sliced thin, fried or cooked into dishes. Salo, lardo, Lard d'Arnad, pancetta, guanciale, bacon and torrezno differ in cut, salting, ageing and whether you eat them raw. ¹²

Three cuts. Lardo di Colonnata is the fat layer covering the back from the nape to the rump, more than 3 cm thick, and Lard d'Arnad uses shoulder and back fat from pigs at least nine months old, also at least 3 cm thick. Pancetta Piacentina takes the central fat cover of the belly from behind the breastbone to the groin, while Torrezno de Soria keeps the skin and three layers of fat, lean and fat. Guanciale is the triangular cheek, about 1 kg. ³⁴⁵⁶⁸

Salo. In the Ukrainian textbook method, back and side fat at least 2.5 cm thick is briefly brined, rubbed with salt and packed in boxes on a bed of salt 1–1.5 cm deep, each layer salted, then weighted and kept at 2–4 °C for 14–16 days. Salt makes up 13% of the raw weight, 5% of it for rubbing; garlic and pepper are optional. Finished salo is firm, white or pinkish, with 3–4% salt and no more than 5% meat trim. ⁷

Lardo di Colonnata. It is made only in Colonnata, a hamlet of Carrara, from pigs raised in ten Italian regions, and only from September to May. Within 72 hours of slaughter the fat is trimmed, massaged with salt and laid in marble tubs called conche, rubbed with garlic and layered with sea salt, ground black pepper, fresh rosemary and garlic; preservatives, additives and starter cultures are banned. It rests at least six months in poorly ventilated rooms, in a brine the fat releases itself; conche from the 17th–19th centuries are cited as proof of origin. ³

Lard d'Arnad. This Aosta Valley lardo has been a PDO since 1996 and its specification was updated in July 2026; it is made entirely in the commune of Arnad. Within six days of slaughter the fat goes into wooden tubs called doils, of chestnut, oak or larch, layered with salt, garlic, bay, rosemary and sage, then covered with salted water that has been boiled and cooled. It stays at least 90 days and comes out white with a light pink heart. ⁸

Pancetta and guanciale. Pancetta Piacentina comes from pigs of about 160 kg, at least nine months old, raised in Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna; it is salted by hand, brine being banned, with 1.5–3.5 kg of salt per 100 kg, pepper, cloves and at most 15 g of nitrate, rests at least 10 days at 3–5 °C, is rolled and tied, then ages at least four months from salting at 10–14 °C. Lazio guanciale is salted with garlic, pepper, chilli, wild fennel or wine, dried 5–7 days at 16–18 °C and aged from 30–45 up to 120 days; some producers smoke it over juniper for 10–12 hours. ⁴⁵

Spain and Portugal. Torrezno de Soria is a PGI from the province of Soria: fresh belly from white pigs, at most 6 cm thick, brined for 1–3 days at 0–8 °C, optionally coated with paprika and dried for 2–10 days; it must be heat-treated before eating. Spain's 2014 standard lists salted tocino, salted panceta and cured panceta among whole-piece cured products and defines bacon as smoked panceta. Portuguese smoked toucinho is immersion-cured for 3–5 days and not heat-treated. ¹²⁶

Nitrite and nutrition. EU guidance puts dry-salted pancetta, lardo and guanciale in the same group as dry-cured bacon, matured at least 4 days; from 9 October 2025 this group may keep no more than 105 mg/kg of residual nitrite, down from 175. Lardo di Colonnata allows no additives at all. USDA data give raw back fat 812 kcal and 88.7 g fat per 100 g, 42 g of it monounsaturated, and salt pork 748 kcal, 80.5 g fat and 2,680 mg sodium. ^1391011

Why it matters to you. Lardo, Lard d'Arnad, pancetta and salo are eaten raw in thin slices, bacon and torrezno are cooked, and guanciale is mostly fried in strips; more on the pages Bacon, Guanciale, Curing of meat and Cured meats & charcuterie. Check the label: «Lardo di Colonnata» with IGP, Lard d'Arnad with DOP and the EU symbol, while guanciale is only on Lazio's list of traditional products and salo has no EU status. ³⁵⁸ WHO classes processed meat, including salted and cured meat, as carcinogenic to humans, with risk rising with the amount eaten. ¹²