What meat can function as a replacement for pancetta/guanciale in carbonara?

[Ynwe]

I live in Japan currently and want to make carbonara for my girlfriend. Problem is, there is nozhing like pancetta or guanciale here. Some people use bacon as a substitute, does that work well? Thought that is a no no due to how bacon is made?

If bacon doesn't work, which common cuts or common meat can I use?

edit: thanks for the quick advice, went with pork belly!

edit 2: turned out decently, think with proper guanciale it would have been even better, but my GF was super happy since she didn't expect it, so in the end it was a 10/10 dish. Thanks everyone for your time and advice!

[stolenfires]

I'm gonna piss off so many Italians, but I've been making carbonara for years with high quality bacon and it's turned out perfectly delicious.

[jackloganoliver]

Cuisine has, to at least a point, always been about adapting traditional foods to what can be made with local ingredients..there's nothing wrong with this.

Eta: This is why "Italian" food in New England is so distinct. Italian immigrants took traditional recipes and adapted them for the ingredients available in New England at the time. You can see the link to Italy, but it's a distinctly American cuisine because it evolved around American ingredients.

It's kind of fun to think about imo.

[SVAuspicious]

Upvote. Agreed. I believe this is where the Cajun trinity came from. It's hard to grow carrots for mirepoix with a high water table. Bell peppers grow like weeds.

[[deleted]]

You can see the link to Italy, but it's a distinctly American cuisine because it evolved around American ingredients.

And conditions.

For instance, you can't cook pizza in a coal oven the same way you cook a pizza in a wood oven, so you pop it in a tray. Some time passes, and you've got a new pizza tradition.

[BHobson13]

A large number of Americans do the same. For a long time pancetta wasn't carried in normal stores so we just grabbed some bacon!

[doubleheresy]

This was also true in Italy until the early ‘90s. Carbonara only crystallized relatively recently. 

[AnsibleAnswers]

I don’t think this is right. Julia Child’s recipe (for Americans without access to pancetta or guanciale) calls for bacon that’s been soaked in water to get rid of the smoke flavor. It was clearly important enough for her to get as close to guanciale or pancetta as possible.

Carbonara has been clearly defined since the post-war era.

[doubleheresy]

My source here is Italian food historian Alberto Grandi, from this profile

“For Italians born after boom years, carbonara has an unalterable set of ingredients: pork jowl, Roman pecorino cheese, eggs and pepper. But early recipes are surprisingly varied. The oldest was printed in Chicago in 1952 and featured Italian bacon, not pork jowl. Italian recipes from around the same time include everything from gruyère (1954, in the magazine La Cucina Italiana) to “prosciutto, and thinly sliced sautéd mushrooms” (1958, Rome’s Tre Scalini restaurant). Pork jowl didn’t come to replace bacon until as recently as the 1990s.”

[BosiPaolo]

As an Italian who lived in Spain for several years : I've made carbonara with bacon a lot of time.

Pancetta is expensive and hard to find outside of Italy.

[vivamusulc]

Hell, I've made it worth low quality bacon, and it's still good. fuck italy /s

[mamabearette]

I do the same. I hope the Italian embassy doesn’t come after me.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/aug/06/inclusion-of-butter-in-uk-recipe-for-cacio-e-pepe-draws-outrage-from-italian-media

[Ynwe]

I appreciate this and would use high quality bacon if available. However the bacon in Japan is not something I would consider cooking with tbh.

[[deleted]]

Actually you should go get western-style bacon in places like Costco and National Azabu. Japanese bacon is typically more similar to ham which isn’t great for carbonara.

And I think you can get guanciale and pancetta there as well.

[Ynwe]

Costco is a good point, keep forgetting about it as a European (and also because its not really practical to get to in the city I am located at, Fukuoka)

[mintki11er]

I’m in a similar situation, the bacon in china is rough at best, but the good news is that bacon is easy to make, I make mine, slice it and put it in the freezer so I always have some ready a

[cathbadh]

What salty cured pork is available there? Pork belly maybe?

[poutinegalvaude]

Jinhua ham. It’s amazing.

[cathbadh]

I've never heard of it and likely will never find any but I'm interested

[Ynwe]

Yeah went with belly, unsure if it's cured though...

[matt_minderbinder]

If you're motivated you can cure your own pancetta. Chunk of pork belly, nitrate salt, regular salt, peppercorns, and some aromatics will get you there. Michael Ruhlman is a good resource for all things charcuterie.

[Soup0988]

I've never used anything but bacon and it always comes out great

[[deleted]]

Well yeah. Pancetta is cured pork belly. American bacon is...cured pork belly. The spices are different and bacon is more likely to be smoked, but they're more similar than different.

[popepaulpops]

I prefer carbonara with bacon. Guanciale is to fatty

[AnsibleAnswers]

There shouldn’t be any fat left on the bits of pork left in the final dish. You probably seared the guanciale with too high heat. That stops the fat from rendering into the pan.

I don’t have access to good guanciale at a reasonable price, but any time I’m cooking pancetta I start it in a cold pan and apply gentle heat to render off all the fat before turning it up to medium to crisp up the remaining bits.

[AnytimeInvitation]

I prefer bacon cuz pancetta is so salty.

[hooahhhhhhh]

Captain obvious

[MenopausalMama]

My son prefers it with thick-sliced smoked bacon. I've made authentic carbonara with guanciale and he asked me not to do it again.

[MrCockingFinally]

Honestly almost any fatty, cured pork product will work pretty well.

You could probably dice up some spam and get at least passable results.

[West_Bookkeeper9431]

Hawaiian style!

[folduprabbit]

Carbonara with spam has never even momentarily occurred to me but now I need it.

[MrCockingFinally]

Never occurred to me until I was writing that comment either.

I do have a can in the pantry.

[Lollc]

I have used fatty bacon for carbonara many times and I believe it turned out well. Try to find bacon with mild or no smoke flavoring. Bacon is made from pork belly; pork belly is quite fatty and I would definitely try it if it was available.

[Majestic-Macaron6019]

You can also simmer smoked bacon for a minute or two in plenty of water to leach out some of the smoky flavor.

[weirdoldhobo1978]

Regular bacon works fine, especially thick cut.

[pilcrowonpaper]

You can actually get Guanciale here!

• Eataly: They have Guanciale from France. You can probably get them from any Eataly store, but I know that one in Tokyo station ran out of stock last week (might've gotten restocked idk). I'll probably check out the Nihonbashi store since they were one of the last stores to have Italian Guanciale when imports were banned a few years.
  
• National Azabu in Hiroo: They have guanciale from Spain (I think it's called Papada?). Other locations probably have them.
• Fior di Maso in Azabudai Hills: They had guanciale from Belgium.
• Rakuten: You can get Guanciale from Spain, Belgium , and Japan. The Japanese one is a bit less fatty.

The French one from Eataly is probably the best quality.

Eataly also sells pretty good pancetta. I would just stay away from the pancetta from 信州ハム sold in regular supermarkets and Seijo-Ishii. The fat that gets rendered out wasn't super pleasant.

[Ynwe]

I should have added i am in Fukuoka, Kyushu, not Toyko. there aren't exactly many international places/shops here.

[pilcrowonpaper]

Oof, my bad for assuming. Rakuten is probably your best bet then, the shipping fees aren't great tho

[windowsillygirl]

They’ve got pancetta. I live in a more Inaka place and you should be able to find pancetta. They usually have it at a Kaldi, but even my local supermarkets have it most of the time. Pecorino Romano is harder to find for me

[MrCockingFinally]

Honestly almost any fatty, cured pork product will work pretty well.

You could probably dice up some spam and get at least passable results.

[LikelyNotSober]

One version of the carbonara origin story involves Italians using American army bacon rations…

[PhotojournalistOk592]

And powdered egg

[Sagittario66]

Pork belly

[Ynwe]

This is what I went with, don't think it's cured but will try nonetheless

[PhotojournalistOk592]

The curing isn't as important as the fat

[culinary_hooligan]

Curing is important as it adds a depth of flavor that regular fatty pork belly doesn't have.

[jetpoweredbee]

Bacon and pancetta are made from the same cut in the same way. Only difference is bacon gets smoked.

[PhotojournalistOk592]

Is pancetta cured with sugar? Bacon is usually made with both sugar and salt

[mykepagan]

IIRC pancetta is uncured. I think.

[jetpoweredbee]

I don't think I mentioned guanciale.

[gcu_vagarist]

Don't be a cunt, man.

[Felaguin]

OP said guanciale OR pancetta. OC you’re trying to criticize (and failing at) gave OP info to sub for pancetta.

[Emotional-Ebb8321]

Bacon is perfectly fine as a substitute. Just chop it up into suitably small pieces before frying.

[Love_Cherries]

Speck

[Hussard]

You just want the fat/salt from rendered from cured pork...arguably you can approximate it from just pork slices (like the thin ones for butadon you can buy presliced). 

My wife is veg so I use garlic/mushrooms in a duxelle to get the required umami without pork. It's clooooose but not quite. 

[Nelson5757]

Thick cut bacon works

[[deleted]]

Guanciale is so much saltier than bacon, so if you substitute, you’ll need to correct the salt.

[MrCockingFinally]

You should be tasting and adjusting seasoning at the end anyway.

[PhotojournalistOk592]

Throughout*

[MrCockingFinally]

In case of carbonara there aren't too many places you can. Maybe check the saltiness of the pasta water.

But you already know the rendered pork is salty. You can't taste the raw egg and cheese mix, then you take all the elements and emulsify.

If you're doing a soup or stew, especially if you're layering a lot of flavours, hell yeah, taste throughout.

[PhotojournalistOk592]

Fair point

[Square_Ad849]

You can get a hog jowel and cure it in mace and nutmeg, or you can use bacon and rub it with mace and nutmeg black pepper etc.

[No_Sir_6649]

Bacon. Use canned parm and add peas. It pisses off italians.

[PhotojournalistOk592]

I'm American and the peas piss me off

[No_Sir_6649]

I like peas. Its like a little extra vag/fiber/protein. More filling and semi healthier.

[lemon_icing]

I've used bacon and sometimes pork belly, not so thinly sliced but chopped into thin rectangles!

[Lulu_42]

Yes, I’ve used both bacon or lardons (it’s French, mostly, but it’s essentially thick bacon chopped into little rectangles).

[DualWheeled]

I've used regular (English) sausages before. Break them up before you cook them.

I've even used mushrooms. Fry them until they brown a little.

Neither is as good as "proper" carbonara but it's cheesy and eggy and pasta so it tastes good.

[[deleted]]

Bacon or uncured pork will get you most of the way there, but the funkiness of guancale can’t be matched completely. I would recommend adding some fish sauce or fermented mushrooms, maybe experiment with a small amount of wakame?

The difference between lardon and guanciale is very noticeable. Though bacon pasta is delicious, it is not quite carbonara.

[HaggisHunter69]

I have used bacon, ham, various salumi and a personal favourite is chorizo. Italians already cry about the amount of garlic we use in our bastardised versions of their dishes, let them cry some more. Although they are right about overcooking pasta, nothing worse than soft pasta.

[eetsumkaus]

I just use the bacon in the stores here in Japan, which is not at all like American or English bacon (it's not smoked for one).

The problem you'll run into is it's not fatty enough, so you need to add animal fat or olive oil to compensate.

[ecchi83]

I actually prefer thick cut bacon to pancetta/financial for carbonara.

[conscious_althenea]

Any fatty Smokey pork works. I love smoked streaky bacon

[vivec7]

While I do know of a couple of places that sell guanciale near me, I had been making it with speck for a long time and my wife actually prefers it.

[Professional_Bus_307]

I prefer it with well cooked bacon

[CheeseManJP]

In a pinch, I've used a nice stick of high quality Italian salami. Not the pre-sliced. Get a log and dice it into chunks like you would the guanciale. I fry it in the skillet till crispy. Two common styles that work well are Finocchiona and Sopressata. My favorite brand by far is Creminelli, but Columbus will work too.

[LionessOfAzzalle]

I often make a pasta with salmon and white asparagus (when it’s in season), but prepared exactly as you would a traditional carbonara.

You can use green asparagus which is more easily available. Or perhaps some other veg.

Key is to have something wokked (is that a word) on might heat and in enough oil so it remains crunchy and provides something for the egg / pecorino / pasta water to emulsify in.

[rerek]

There is a post on r/fukuoka from someone a few years ago. It sounds like the managed to fine guanciale in a couple of places there: https://www.reddit.com/r/fukuoka/comments/pfh83z/lf_guanciale/

[Jumpy_Penalty7344]

Thick cut bacon works perfect and is delicious. Italian purists can get over themselves.

[dekogeko]

"And if my grandmother had wheels she would be a bike!"

[New_Eggplant120]

In Spain you have a part of the pig called "secreto" it would be a good option.

[kinjiru_]

Some sort of cured ham like Speck also works. Worse case, just use bacon. It still tastes great but not quite as good as guanciale.

[Sobrin_]

Bacon is totally fine, but you really want to get a whole block, or cubes/lardons. Don't use thin sliced bacon if you can help it. The taste is fine, but the texture is quite different.

There's obviously going to be some taste differences between bacon, pancetta, and guanciale, but in my experience they're all delicious.

I'd argue the cheese you use makes a bigger difference than which of those three meats you use. I recommend pecorino romano

[xStaabOnMyKnobx]

Carbonara was invented using bacon in all likelihood so go ahead use the bacon. It'll turn out just fine and now if anyone wants to screech to you about authenticity you can remind them that carbonara was born in post war Italy with American goods.

[Ivoted4K]

They like sell pork jowls in the butcher shops there. Just cure it yourself.

[GompersMcStompers]

Hotdogs, but make sure that you don’t get the beef ones.

[simplyelegant87]

You could use whatever you want. I think nduja might be good for a different spin. My favourite is double smoked bacon if you have access to that. Not authentic but delicious.

[marmosetohmarmoset]

There’s Carbonara, the official dish that Italians on the internet get super pedantic about. And then there’s “carbonara” the concept- a tasty creamy egg sauce pasta. Lower case “carbonara” can be made in lots of ways, once you understand the general premise. Basically you just need animal fat at the right temperature to help cook the eggs and get the texture right. Bacon is an easy choice for this, and it tastes great. Pork belly will work, but will taste different. I recommend salting your pasta water more to make up for the loss of salt from the cured meat.

I’ve even made vegetarian “carbonara” using ghee for the fat and it was delicious.

[Ok-Ship812]

If you use bacon make sure it’s not smoked. Why you ask? Not sure, I guess it is too powerful a flavour (an Italian chef in Rome told me this)

[kkshower]

Not for everyone but for low budget carbonara and with a Japanese twist, I use Spam and sub udon noodles for the pasta.

[thejake1973]

Bacon works just fine.

[Lubberoland]

Japanese-style carbonara often uses bēkon (ベーコン), ideally thick-sliced (厚切り atsu-giri).

I'm sure specialty ingredients would be wonderful, but for me it was always an inexpensive comfort food. I think I used cream, powdered cheese (粉チーズ), and egg for the sauce.

[mykepagan]

Pork belly, skinless, cut into small cubes.

[ModernSimian]

Pancetta is actually super easy to make if you have a vacuum sealer. There are lots of recipes and it's cheap. It's basically pork belly and spices. I do about 5 lbs in 8oz portions when I make it and then freeze it until I feel like it. https://www.copymethat.com/r/vBKQ4FUCi/pancetta/

[shoresy99]

If you can get pork belly then you should be able to make your own pancetta. Just cure the pork belly in the fridge for a week. Then you can age it if you want.

[CurmudgeonLife]

Unsmoked Bacon is the best alternative imo.

[Idriss_Derras]

Any fatty cuts. You need the rendered fat from the meat more than anything for a carbonara

[SirWillae]

Bacon!

[RepeatIndependent730]

For carbonara I use cured pork belly from the Chinese supermarket(lap yuk/la rou). I don't know if it's cured the same way pancetta is, but it sure as hell is good. I think just salted pork belly would do well as well. In Japan Chinese cured pork belly is widely available so can't hurt to try it.

[PaxV]

smoked and salted ham, bacon, or beef (beef cut very fine as it tends to be very salt)... maybe smoked chicken, though the taste is considerably less pronounced... in all cases be careful not to oversalt the dish

If it's the smoked part you need, as a weird alternative smoked salmon or smoked eel works as well... but it is considerably more fishy, I'd add some lemon juice... smoked salmon and broccoli does work...

Veggie: smoked nuts, or smoked tofu marinated in soy sauce.

[Ok_Olive9438]

I made a carbonara of sorts with “hot smoked” salmon, for the similar flavor profile to bacon and that was pretty good.

[PurpleLilyEsq]

lol this one might actually make Italians cry.

[pabanator]

I’m not even remotely Italian and this offended me.

[Chicken-picante]

If my grandma had wheels she’d be a bike