Make Guanciale At Home Cured Pork Cheek - Bacon
Guanciale What Is It? How To Make Guanciale At Home - Welcome Friends! Welcome back to the kitchen. Today we're going to make Guanciale , or Pig Cheek / Hog Jowl 'Bacon'. If you've been watching the series where we're breaking down the pig, you will have seen Jamie and I cut the jowl off the pig's head. Today that's what we're going to dry cure. This process is pretty much the same as the dry cure bacon that we did a while back.
Ingredients
| 1 hog jowl, skin on | ||
| 3% kosher salt | ||
| 1% sugar | ||
| .25% Instacure #2 / Prague Powder #2 (optional) | ||
| 50g cracked black pepper | ||
| 5 mL (1 tsp) fennel, crushed | ||
| 5 or 6 bay leaves, crushed |
Directions
MAKING:
1. Weigh the hog jowl. (write this weight down and save it)
2. Weigh out the salt and sugar, based on the weight of the jowl (Prague powder too if using).
Example: if the jowl weighs 100g, then you would need 3g salt and 1g sugar.
3. Mix the salt, sugar, pepper, fennel, and bay leaves, (Prague powder if using).
4. Rub the cure into the meat, fat, and skin on every surface.
5. Put the jowl into a non-reactive container (plastic, glass, ceramic, stainless steel), and throw in any excess cure.
6. Don't cover or wrap the jowl, allow for airflow, and place in the fridge.
7. Turn the jowl over once a day.After 4-6 days, rinse off the cure, and pat dry.
8. Sprinkle on some extra black pepper, and poke a hole through the skin to tie a string through.
9. Hang in a place that is between 50-55°F and around 65% humidity, for at least 3-5 weeks.
SERVING:
10. The jowl is safe to eat without cooking when it has lost 30% of it's original weight.
Recipe Summary
