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Jason Price | Seattle, Wa

Management Consultant, Entrepreneur, Urban Farmer

Move Over Bacon - Meet Guanciale

A Dreamy Pillow of Meat

by Jason Price, Seattle, WA

Fig. 1 - Sliced Guanciale

Guanciale (pronounced gwan-CHAH-leh) means pillow in Italian. It also means wicked badass cured pork cheek or jowl. If you've never had this amazing concoction of fatty, porky sweet and salty goodness I encourage you all to run to your local salumi purveyor and get some now.

Guanciale is a lovely creation from the aforementioned jowl of our porcine friends. It has a texture and consistency much like bacon but the depth of flavor if much greater. It compares well to pancetta and can either be eaten raw if sliced thinly or cut thick and pan fried to add depth and flavor to many dishes. It is an indispensable tool in the Italian chef's arsenal of ingredients. It can be used for a flavoring for stews or soups and as a featured ingredient in many pasta preparations such as Bucatini all'Amatriciana (see recipe below) or Spaghetti Carbonara.

I Just Can't. Eat. A Face.

If you've never considered or fathomed eating pig face get over it. For you see, you cannot know the joys of eating cured pork cheek unless you try. I know, I know – eating something's face does not sound appealing. But most meat-a-tarians will agree that cheeks are delicious whether they be braised, sautéed or cured. Fresh pork jowl can also be used instead of back fat to make sausages or pates and terrines. If you've never tried Porchetta di Testa you are missing out. There's just something about the fork-tender meat that comes from the head of a properly cooked animal. Just watch this video about what this dish and the term Farm-to-Table truly means. This is bad-ass.

Making Porky Magic

Guanciale is actually a simple thing to make. The secret here is, as always, the quality of the meat and the conditions in which you cure. Buy the absolute best quality you can and pay for it. Most pork cheeks in this country weigh between 1.5 - 4 pounds so you won't break the bank by paying for local, sustainably raised, non-GMO animals for this recipe. Expect to pay anywhere between
$4-8 per pound for fresh pork cheek.

Fig. 2 - Pig face

Fig. 3 - Dual pork jowls

Step 1 – Separating the Jowl from the Head

If working with a whole or half head, the first step in this process is to separate the jowl. This can be tricky if you've never done it before so be easy on yourself if you mess it up. I did. I purchased a half head at a local carniceria (shown in fig. 2). Mexican meat markets seem to be the best source for getting a whole head though the quality isn't fantastic. Good way to practice though.

Work around the cheek bones with a sharp boning knife to separate the jowl from the head. The bone lines are fairly easy to follow. You will likely notice a few yellowish-grey lumpy masses which are lymph nodes. Be careful not to cut these as they may foul the meat. Instead, trim around them to remove them completely as they are unappetizing. Also, you can leave the skin on and trim it off after the guanciale has fully cured or trim it off here. The traditional school of thought is to leave the skin on throughout the process to retain fat, flavor and moisture. Once the cheek has been separated from the face we are ready to start the curing process.

Step 2- Curing the Jowl

After you've trimmed the jowl from the pig head, the next step of this process is to prep the cure. As with most curing, you'll want to measure your cure by weight vs. volume. I typically follow the Ruhlman/Polcyn recipes from their book 'Salumi'. For this go round, I'm curing the jowl that I just trimmed (on the right in fig. 3) ) as well as a nice piece of cheek from Carlton Farms out of Oregon (on the left) that I bought from Bill the Butcher here in Seattle. You'll notice which looks better straight away. Then, you want to make your initial cure (fig. 4) which you'll rub into your jowl and cover completely. I used the following ratios for these bad boys:

• 3% Trappani salt
• 3% Black Pepper – toasted and cracked under a pan
• 1.5% Fennel Pollen (for the Carlton Farms pork) – you can use toasted fennel seed instead if necessary

When you've finished this step your jowls should look like those shown in fig. 5.

Fig. 4 - Curing mix

Fig. 5 - Pork jowls rubbed with curing spices

Step 3 - The Cure

Once you've applied the cure you can place your soon-to-be-guanciale into gallon ziplocks, expel as much air as possible, and note your starting weight and date (fig. 6). At this point, you can put these beautiful babies in the fridge, cover them with another baking pan and weigh them down under ~ 8# of weight. The pressure will help to ensure that the cure makes its way through the jowl.
Refrigerate the jowls for two days then take out and redistribute the cure. Then flip the jowl and replace the weights for 2 more days.

Step 4 – Adding the Aromatics and Final Drying

After 4 days, remove the jowls from the fridge and rinse under cold water. Pat the jowls dry with a paper towel and rub with dry, white wine. Then, sprinkle the jowl with 2% cracked black pepper and .5% toasted, cracked fennel seed. Note that during the initial cure the salt will draw moisture out of the jowl and you should experience a weight loss of about 5-10%. Poke a small hole in the corner of the jowl and thread a piece of butchers twine through it. Tie to create a loop for hanging. If you've done it right, the guanciale should now look like the those shown in fig. 7. Bonus points if you have a cute kid hold them up!

Fig. 6 - Bagged guanciale, ready for curing

Fig. 7 - Pork jowls rubbed with curing spices

You should hang your guanciale in a space that is dark with a relative humidity of 60-70% and a temperature range of 55-65 degrees. Ideally, you'll have a basement for this which is free of pests and dogs that like to jump.

Step 5 – Mangia!

After ~3-5 weeks of dry curing your guanciale should be ready to eat. Look for about 30% weight loss to determine when you are ready to cut and eat your delicious creation.

You can now cut into this savory treat and get cooking. My recommendation for starters is the aforementioned Bucatini all'Amatriciana. The quintessential dish which uses guanciale. You'll need to purchase bucatini which is a thick spaghetti with a whole through the middle in order to make this dish. Recipe to follow…

Fig. 8 - Cured, aged and ready to use!

Fig. 9 - Buccatini all'Amatriciana - Yum!

Making Salumi is Fun!

Curing meat in your home is fun and fulfilling. It is truly Culinary Alchemy. There's nothing better than cutting open that pancetta, coppa or salumi that you've made after a long wait and sharing it with your soon-to-be amazed friends. Seeing, smelling and tasting the transformation the meat has undergone is nothing short of amazing. All it takes a good set of instructions, quality meat, the right conditions, and a little bit of elbow grease.

If you enjoyed this post stay tuned for more great step-by-step recipes focusing on charcuterie and salumi. Please check my other posts at TheHungryDogBlog.com and here on my own personal site as I continue the journey to learn these culinary arts.

Next up I'll document the process to cure bacon at home. You'll never eat store bought again!

Recipe for Bucatini all'Amatriciana
Adapted from Cooking by Hand by Paul Bertolli
Serves 4

This is the dish you must learn to make if you intend on curing guanciale at home. You can use this base recipe as a guide and switch things around a bit to personal taste. A bit more tomato, a bit less onion - make it your own but make it good. Do justice to the guanciale you've spent a month curing.

Ingredients
• 2 T Olive Oil
• 8oz. of guanciale cut into 1/4" cubes
• 1 medium sweet yellow onion finely diced
• 1.5c fresh chopped tomato (you can use canned, whole peeled tomatoes and chop prior to use)
• 2t tomato paste
• 1 small serrano chile (diced finely)
• ½ c Parmigiano-Reggiano, grated
• ½ c Pecorino Romano, grated

Instructions

1. Place a large saute pan over medium high heat and add both the olive oil and guanciale
2. Render the fat from the guanciale while stirring frequently with a wooden spoon
3. After a few minutes, as the guanciale starts to take on color, add the onion
4. Cook over medium high heat and stir to develop an even color
5. The guanciale should start to crisp at this point and the pan may start to develop a brown residue on the bottom.
6. Add the diced tomato, the tomato paste and the chile
7. Cook until the sauce is reduced and most of the water has evaporated to a point where it has a rich, red color – 20-25 minutes
8. Salt and boil your pasta water, then cook ¾ - 1# of bucatini
9. Before draining, rehydrate sauce with a ladleful of pasta water – it should develop a creamy appearance due to the starch in the water
10. Retain 1c of pasta water prior to draining
11. Drain pasta and add to the sauce until it's fully coated
12. Continue to rehydrate sauce until texture is creamy and consistent
13. Serve immediately with equal amounts of grated cheese

Buon appetito!

Source: http://www.jasonprice.com/how_to_make_guanciale.html