Talk:Tyrolean speck

Accuracy of this article
Speck is simply the German word for fatty parts of the pig, taken either from the area directly under the skin of the back (this part contains no muscle) or from under the skin around the belly; the English translation is, roughly, bacon (as opposed to ham, which is usually translated as schinken in German, or prosciutto in Italian). However, Speck can't be simply translated with bacon, because the English word bacon does not encompass both meaty and non-meaty parts. I think the problem here is that the field of linguistics is colliding with the field of culinary arts.

Here are my thoughts and suggestions--I'm no expert--otherwise I'd just edit the entry myself:


 * I find the article too limited, because it seems to suggest that Speck is an Italian word or even an Italian food, which it is not. Speck is primarily a German word that denotes a food that is found all throughout the German-speaking world.


 * The speck that comes from Tyrol (the Italian part of which is called Alto Adige) is called "Tiroler Speck" in most of the German-speaking world. But in Italy it is simply called speck, because that is enough to differentiate it from other cured fatty belly or back meats in Italy (like lardo, pancetta, etc.)


 * To say that Speck is a type of prosciutto is akin to saying that bacon is a type of ham. It's wrong, I'm afraid. Even if Mario Batali says so. 85.178.52.14 (talk) 14:40, 28 August 2008 (UTC)


 * I absolutely 110% agree with the unsigned comment above about the accuracy of this article. I came here to say exactly the same thing (which I will proceed to do for redundancy's sake).  Speck is the German word for the fattier cuts of the meat, pork or beef but especially pork.  I know this because my grandparents were very old school Swabians from the far reaches of Eastern Europe, farm people with no connection whatsoever to the Tyrol or Italy but plenty of connection to speck.  I grew up hearing about (and consuming) "speck" all the time. There is such a thing as cured speck. In English we call it bacon. Check it out: http://translate.google.com/#de/en/speck . I'm sure the Tyroleans have their own varieties of bacon, every little region of central and eastern Europe does. That the Tyroleans prefer to use the German word to describe it rather than the Italian probably just means that Tyroleans are still somewhat Germanic at heart. In fact, in Europe, the best bacon is universally considered to hail from regions north and east of Tyrol, no offense to the Italians. Any central European would confirm this. On the other hand, to be fair to whomever originally wrote this piece (probably an East Coast foody), there seems to be a trend in NYC (judging from this morning's Today Show), of using Tyrolean style prosciutto in pasta dishes and calling it speck. However, to people of more erudition or more Teutonic descent, this trend seems uninformed at best. More to the point (and trying to be as restrained as possible): it's articles like this that make Wikipedia a dubious source of information.  This is merely biased and inaccurate information about bacon.  The more significant the topic the more egregious the lack of accuracy and fairness.  But I digress. This article badly needs a complete rewrite. A≠non-A (talk) 20:55, 26 March 2013 (UTC)

NPOV

 * The above comment is correct, and I have tagged the article NPOV. Compare this article to Speck, which states in the lead that Speck is one of two cuts of pork, prepared as bacon. One is fatty bacon, the other has no meat in it.  --Una Smith (talk) 03:14, 3 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Agreed - the Tyrol stuff should be split off to its own article. It may just be called "speck" in Austria, but not in say Hamburg. What should the titles be: Speck (ham) and Speck (fat)? Johnbod (talk) 22:28, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

Interestingly, there's an English word "speck" that means almost exactly the same as the German. From the Oxford English Dictionary:

Now U.S. and S. Afr. a. Fat meat, esp. bacon or pork. b. The fat or blubber of a whale. c. The fat of a hippopotamus.

I'm trying to drum up the energy to refactor the page. Groogle (talk) 02:27, 10 July 2013 (UTC)

Article renamed
I have now renamed this article from "Speck" to "Tyrolean Speck". I've removed obvious things which are no longer relevant on this page, most moved to "Speck". But the page needs more work:


 * Is the photo appropriate for Tyrolean Speck?
 * What is it made from? Shoulder, leg or belly?  The text contradicts itself.
 * Mint in Italian/Austrian cuisine? Really?

Note that the German pages (which are unfortunately not very detailed) distinguish between Tyrolean Speck and South Tyrolean Speck. Most of this page appears to refer to the latter. Groogle (talk) 03:34, 10 July 2013 (UTC)