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.
Ingredients
- 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
Instructions
- 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
How to eat it?
Video
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