The Italian Stallion

Prosciutto simply means "ham" in Italian, but Stateside, it stands for the raw cured ham that can take up to three years to make and costs upward of $18 per pound. (It is cleaned, salted, and gently pressed for about two months, washed again, hung to dry in an airy place, then aged for up to 400 days.). The longer the meat is aged, the more concentrated the flavor and the pricier the final product. Nutty Prosciutto di Parma is king (U.S. sales shot up 20 percent last year, to 6.55 million pounds); sweeter San Daniele prosciutto is a slightly less expensive option. But avoid the cheap stuff—it's often oversalted and improperly cured.

The Other Cured Meat

What's all that stuff on the small-plate menu? In addition to prosciutto, you may see Italian speck, which is made from the same cut of meat, but is cold-smoked and looks more like bacon. Coppa (a.k.a. capicola or "gabagool" in Sopranos-speak) is similar to prosciutto, but made from pork shoulder and neck and is drier and sweeter. Salame, the Italian word from which salami comes, is generally cured pork sausage, and can be studded with anything from fat flecks to fennel. Genoa salami is the most popular salami, with close relatives being sopressata and pepperoni. Pancetta, the cured, rolled, and unsmoked belly of the pig, is the closest Italy comes to bacon. Mortadella, a favorite among many foodies, is similar to what Americans know as bologna, but with pistachios and fat cubes running through it.

Viva Ibérico

Ask any foodie what gets top billing among pork products, and Spain's jamón ibérico will likely be the answer. Similar in form to Italian prosciutto, it gets its mighty reputation mainly from the animal's diet. In their final months, the pigs eat only acorns, which gives the meat a sweet-nutty-fatty flavor profile. The highest ibérico-grade hams are dubbed bellota ("acorn" in Spanish) and are so revered that slicing it with anything other than a knife is seen as sacrilege. In 2007, the U.S.D.A. began allowing ibérico hams into the U.S. for the first time; they generally command about $80 to $100 per pound. Eat slivers of it plain.

Nose-to-Tail

From a culinary standpoint, the pig's efficiency is a thing of wonder. You won't see beef feet or cow snout on a menu, but pig's feet are a Southern treat, and Paris even has a restaurant named after the gelatinous trotters—the legendary Au Pied de Cochon. As the American palate expands, restaurants are offering an abundance of pig parts. In New York City, trendsetters serve pig's ears (Resto), tails (Momofuku Noodle Bar), and liver (Peasant) rather than tenderloin. Ears aren't hard on the palate—when diced and fried, they have a chiplike crunch. But less adventurous eaters will want to avoid the texture and tang of liver, and chitterlings (intestines), no matter how well they're cleaned, will always have an "eau de digestive system" flavor.

The End of the Great Pork Scare

There's one more reason pork tastes better than ever. In the past, there were concerns about trichinosis (often called "pink pork disease"), a parasitic illness that can result from eating pigs fed on garbage. As a precaution, pork was cooked to an internal temperature of 150 degrees—which killed moisture and flavor along with the disease. With trichinosis basically obsolete, pink-centered 140-degree chops are becoming more common in restaurants.