hog jowl
Cured pork cheek, fried like bacon or cooked into peas and greens.
Also called jowl bacon, joe bacon, pork jowl.
Updated September 24, 2026
hog jowl pronunciation
/hawg jowl/
Meaning
Hog jowl is the cheek meat of a pig, usually cured and smoked so it keeps. It fries up like thick bacon, only tougher and saltier, and it seasons a pot of black-eyed peas or collards like nothing else. On New Year's Day across the South, hog jowl hits the table with peas and greens for luck, money, and a year that moves forward. Year-round it is just good country cooking and soul-food seasoning meat.
How folks use it
- “Mama fried hog jowl for New Year's and wouldn't let us skip the peas.”
- “Throw a piece of hog jowl in that pot of greens and they'll taste right.”
Origin and etymology
Jowl means the cheek; hog names the animal. Southern and soul-food kitchens kept the cured cut as joe bacon or joe meat too. The New Year plate with black-eyed peas and greens is an old Southern custom: peas for coins, greens for cash, pork because a hog roots forward. Italian guanciale is a cousin cut, cured without the same Southern New Year story.
Frequently asked questions
Why eat hog jowl on New Year's?
Southern luck food. Peas and greens stand for money; pork stands for progress because a pig roots forward. Folks fry the jowl or simmer it in the pot.