How to Make Guanciale – Italian Cured Pork Jowl
- Type
- Ham
- Level
- Easy
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- Rate this recipe
In this article you will learn how to make a super tasty Guanciale. Guanciale consists exclusively of pork cheek. This type of bacon has its origin in Italy, more precisely in Latium.
Personally, I find it not so easy to get a good guanciale in Germany. Therefore, I did some research and made it myself. I am infinitely enthusiastic about the taste and therefore I would like to share this recipe with you.
The recipe is simple and does not require much effort. The preparation actively takes 15 -30 minutes. For the curing and drying phase you have to allow for about 3 – 5 month waiting time.
Guanciale is air-dried and tastes similar to Pancetta. But the taste is much stronger.
Due to the high fat content, the bacon is rarely eaten raw. The typical dishes with Guanciale are spaghetti à la Carbonara, Fave col Guanciale and Bucatini all’Amatriciane. For these dishes I also have recipes for you at the end.
Enough talk! Here you can find the complete recipe in the video or read it.
Have fun and good luck making it!
Table of Contents
Guanciale – What do you need to make it?
Ingredients
| Ingredient | Grams | Percent |
|---|---|---|
| Pork cheek with rind | — | 100 % |
Spices
| Ingredient | Grams |
|---|---|
| salt | 27.5 g |
| black pepper | 5 g |
| Cure #1 | 2.5 g |
| thyme | 1 g |
| rosemary | 1 g |
The amount you need is measured by the weight of the pork cheek.
Example:
Your pork cheek is 350g. Then you need:
For the drying process I used:
- Chili flakes (not too hot)
- Rosemary
- Pepper
The equipment to make Guanciale
Space in the refrigerator
Your Guanciale must be kept in the refrigerator to dry for at least three weeks. For this purpose it must either be hung up or be put on a grid.
Cheesecloth
The cheesecloth is used to wrap your Guanciale in it. It holds the spices on the Guanciale and is permeable to air. Therefore perfectly suited for air drying.
Kitchen string
The kitchen string is important so that you can lace up the Guanciale well. This prevents it from falling out of the kitchen towel.
If you want to grind your spices The spice mill grinds the spices while the mortar crushes or grinds the spices.
Make Guanciale – Step-By-Step Instructions
Massage the herbs, salt & cure into the pork cheek. Make sure that it is covered on all sides.
Place the pork cheek in a vacuum bag and vacuum it.
Put the pork cheek in the refrigerator (2 days / cm of meat thickness). Turn your pork cheek once a day. This ensures that it is cured correctly.
Wash the spices with cold water.
Pat the meat dry with a kitchen towel.
Optional: you can rub your pork cheek with ground pepper.
Hang the Guanciale in the refrigerator/cellar/maturing cabinet to dry. It is important that the humidity is 75% and the temperature stays below 15°C. My piece lasted about 3 months.
Important: The better the humidity can be controlled, the more evenly the Guanciale will dry. If it dries too quickly, this can lead to a dry edge. Here I recommend you vacuum seal the piece of meat again and then let it ripen in the refrigerator for a few months.
Your Guanciale is ready 😄. Enjoy it.
Frequently asked questions
What is guanciale?
What is guanciale?
Guanciale is cured and air-dried pork cheek, and the name says exactly that: guancia is the Italian for cheek. It comes from Lazio, the region around Rome, and it is the cut the classic Roman pasta dishes are built on rather than a general-purpose bacon.
The cut is also what separates it from pancetta, which is the same idea made from the belly. The cheek, the jowl from the side of the head, carries far more fat than the belly does, so guanciale tastes richer and renders far more of itself into the pan. In a carbonara or an amatriciana that rendered fat is the sauce rather than something added to it, which is why the three dishes at the end of this post are the ones guanciale is best known for. The list above asks for the cheek with its rind still on.
How long is the shelf life of the Guanciale?
How long is the shelf life of the Guanciale?
The Guanciale can be kept for about 2.5 months. But I can assure you that it will not survive that long, because it tastes too good for that!
The perfect dishes for your Guanciale – 3 extra Guanciale recipes
Spaghetti à la Carbonara from Gustini
Spaghetti à la Carbonara is a classic in Italian cuisine. The Guanciale goes perfectly with the dish here. You can find the recipe here.
Fave col Guanciale from cook around
Here is an Italian recipe that is easy to understand.
Bucatini all´Amatriciane from Ale Modo Mio
The third traditional dish with guanciale is bucatini all´Amatriciane.
It tastes delicious.
Could you please translate to tsp, tbsp, cups and ounces in your recipes. Some of us are not used to grams and such. Thank you
Hey Michael,
thanks for the input. I won’t do it because it will typically result in a lower quality product. I will post an extensive article on this.
Long story short: These measurements are fine if it does not need to be super precise. For sausage making the only way to make sure they will taste is to use measurement by weight. It is also pretty easy once you get a scale.
If you want you can convert it on your own. You will see what I mean. The amounts are just too small and you will have a variation of up to 30% for some of the ingredients if done so.
Sorry to be the bearer of not so good news but I want to make sure that everyone can produce high quality products. So this is the way to go.
You better get used to the metric system the rest of the world is on it.
One of the best descriptions/recipe I’ve read. Also traditional , simple recipe.
Bravo