poitrine

Poitrine is the breast of lamb, veal, chicken etc, but on its own, it means pork belly or what the French sometimes call lard maigre. It’s popular in Asian restaurants, but it also adds flavour to scores of traditional French recipes.

It’s sold either nature (or fraîche), demi-sel or fumée (plain, salted or smoked). You can buy thick, already marinated slices to go on the barbecue, or thin strips for a bacon sandwich, as in poitrine fumée fines tranches.

You can sometimes find poitrine de boeuf, but it’s pretty rare.