Guanciale

Guanciale is an unsmoked bacon made from the meat from the jowls (cheeks) of a pig.

Some cuts and pieces of Guanciale are very lean, taking in a good deal of the muscle strips in the cheek and jaw. Others will be fattier than streaky bacon or American-style bacon, and seem like a strip of meat sandwiched in between two layers of fat.

The meat is formed into a block that is triangle shaped, then buried or covered in salt, sugar, saltpetre and spices and let sit in a cool place for a month. It is then hung to dry for another month, sometimes two months, with whatever salt coating is on it still adhering to it.

Spices used in the cure include a generous amount of either black pepper or dried chile, so the meat becomes a bit spicy.

Though the meat is cured, it still needs cooking. It is very flavourful and used as a flavouring agent, rather than as a "bacon" you would fry up for breakfast.

Guanciale is made in Latium, the region that Rome is in. In making a Carbonara sauce, someone who lives in Rome would use Guanciale, not pancetta. Guanciale is hard to find outside Italy, but don't feel bad: not even Italians outside Latium can find it easily.

See Also: Carbonara Sauce

Other entries for: Bacon
Ayrshire Middle Bacon, Bacon Bits, Canadian Bacon, Cottage Bacon, Flitch of Bacon, Guanciale, Gypsy Bacon, Irish Bacon, Lance Corporal Bacon, Pancetta, Rashers, Rolled Bacon, Smoked Bacon, Ulster Roll, Unsmoked Bacon, Wiltshire Bacon

Other entries for: Pork
Barrow Hog, Berkshire Pigs, Butcher Hog, Casertano Pigs, Crown Roast, Fore Hock, Fresh Ham, Gilt Hog, Ground Pork, Ham, Hog Jowl, Iberian Pigs, Kurobuta Pork, Lard, Mortadella, Oreilles de Crisse, Pickled Pork, Pig's Feet, Pork Belly, Pork Brawn, Pork Chops, Pork Crackling, Pork Cubes, Pork Cuts Illustrated -- British, Pork Hocks, Pork Leg, Pork Loin, Pork Ribs, Pork Rinds, Pork Shoulder, Pork Souse, Pork Stewing Meat, Pork, Prime Collar, Salt Meat, Sow, Spare Ribs, Stag Hog, Stewing Pork, Streak of Lean, Tasso, Ventrèche, Zampino

Other entries for: Meat
Affettati, Beef, Buffalo, Cap On / Cap Off, Game, Goat, Institutional Meat Purchase Specifications, Minced Meat, Offal, Paillards, Potted Meats, Poultry, Roasts, Sausages, Sheep, Steak, Veal, Venison, Yak

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