Panceta

Panceta, also called Tocino, is bacon. However, bacon is a slightly more complicated thing in Spain than it is in the United States. It can be made from four different cuts of meat:

1. an upper cut just below the spine
2. a lower one that is half brisket, half belly
3. one that runs from the edge of the shoulder cut to the sternum
4. and a final one that is from the leading edge of the ham to the chin

From these semi-primal cuts the bacon is then sectioned into

1. Back bacon
2. pork belly
3. jowl bacon

Unfortunately for American bacon lovers, even the pork belly here is trimmed mercilessly. Big fatty pork bellies are hard to find outside of traditional farmers markets. Personally I am fine with that, as that is also the only place to find it treated in the same manner as American bacon - air-cured, salted, and then smoked. Most bacon in Spain is one or the other, and rarely both.