Guanciale recipe

After frequently making Pancetta, i was keen to try Guanciale, an Italian cured meat made from pork cheek or jowl. It’s used in many traditional recipes like carbonara and has a slightly stronger flavour than Pancetta. Like Pancetta, it’s super simple to make at home and the fat gives a great depth of flavour to the dishes and sauces it is used in.

Details on how to make Pancetta can be found here: Pancetta recipe. I decided to cure it with the skin on, but you may prefer to remove it or ask the butcher to do so for you.

• 530 g pork cheek, skin on
• 1.3 Cure No 2
• 13 g Salt
• 5 g Black pepper
• 5 bay leaves, ground
• 1/4 teaspoon allspice

• Mix all the salt cure ingredients and put in a zip lock freezer bag
• Add the pork cheek to the bag and make sure it is covered in the cure all over
• Leave this in the fridge for 7 days, turning it over every day (this is important)
• After 7 days take the cheek out of the bag and rinse it and pat dry
• Weigh the pork cheek and note this down
• Hang the pork cheek in the fridge for 3 weeks or until it drops about 30% of its weight