Guanciale

Guanciale is magic. Imagine bacon, only better; porkier, tastier, richer. Guanciale is the cured jowl of the pig. It is cured in similar fashion to pancetta, which is unsmoked cured pork belly, but the location on the animal gives it a very different taste and texture. Since the cheeks/jowls of the pig see a lot of exercise the hunk of pork derived from them is tougher than the belly, and has much more intramuscular fat instead of layering as is seen on the belly.


I used a very simple formula to not hide the quality of this pork which i got from Niman Ranch. Unfortunately this piece of meat is very difficult to find, even in ethnic butchers. You can sub a piece of pork belly and get good results as well.

Guanciale

Ingredient	Quantity(g)	% of Meat+Fat
Pork jowls	1257	100%
Salt - Kosher	44	3.5%
Black pepper crushed	9	0.7%
Sugar	22	1.75%
Cure #2	3.2	0.25%
Thyme (Dry)	1	0.08%

I mixed the cure well, trying to make certain the cure #2 was well dispersed in the sal








The cure mixture is rubbed onto the jowels, making sure to get into the "nooks and crannies".

The jowls are then put into a ziplock bag, and they'll be turned every few days.

Once cured, they'll be hung to dry for anywhere between 1 and 6 months.