Shortcut Guanciale

Recipe from Marc Vetri

Adapted by Ian Fisher

Shortcut Guanciale
Daniel Krieger for The New York Times
Total Time
3 hours 15 minutes, plus 3 days refrigeration
Rating
4(271)
Comments
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There is an edge of obsessiveness to carbonara — and I gave in to it completely by starting to make my own guanciale, the cured pig cheek central to most Italian versions of the dish. There’s no real need to; it’s available online, but I was inspired after eating a wonderful meal at Vetri Ristorante in Philadelphia, and buying a cookbook, “Rustic Italian Food,” by its owner, Marc Vetri. He made it sound easy — and it is. It’s also satisfying. Guanciale is generally cured for a week, then hung to dry for about three weeks, which is how I usually make it. A fireplace is perfect. But Mr. Vetri has a version that cures for only three days, then is baked. If you order raw cheeks, they need to be trimmed. You want to end up with a neat, flat slab, roughly an inch and a half thick. The key is to cut off the glands, down to the first level of meat, and all excess fat. Here is Mr. Vetri’s recipe: —Ian Fisher

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Ingredients

  • 1pork jowl (about 1 pound)
  • 2tablespoons and 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 2teaspoons dextrose powder or 1½ teaspoons superfine sugar (I use the latter)
  • ½teaspoon ground coriander
  • 1teaspoon ground pepper
  • 1teaspoon curing salt No. 1 (available at Amazon.com)
  • 1teaspoon crushed garlic
  • 1tablespoon chopped rosemary
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (4 servings)

187 calories; 11 grams fat; 4 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 5 grams monounsaturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 3 grams carbohydrates; 0 grams dietary fiber; 2 grams sugars; 18 grams protein; 273 milligrams sodium

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

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Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Rinse pork jowl and pat dry. Combine other ingredients in a bowl.

  2. Step 2

    Rub the curing mix on the jowl, then place jowl in a gallon Ziploc bag with the cure evenly spread on top and bottom. Refrigerate for 3 days.

  3. Step 3

    Rinse the jowl and dry it. Roast at 275 degrees for 2½ to 3 hours.

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4 out of 5
271 user ratings
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Comments

Nice Jewish Boy

I don't understand the roasting of the meat! It might be quick but it's roast pork, NOT guanciale. Take your time, after salting and patting dry, find a COOL, preferably damp spot, and let it hang out to dry for about 2 weeks. Slice and freeze. You might also want to add juniper to the pepper/rosemary mix.

Csamora

Also, I would recommend using cure#2, as opposed to Cure #1. It is designed to keep pathogens at bay over a longer air cure, and will be safer overall, in my opinion.

Marcello Roma

I learned to make guanciale in Italy. It's very easy with lots of room for error. Now I make at least 80 of them each year.

There are many rigs you can fashion for a curing chamber. Most people use an old fridge fitted with humidifier (Dayton 1UHG3) and temp controls (Johnson Controls A19AAT-2C) to keep temp 60 to 65 and humidity 60% to 70%.

When mine are done curing I place them in vacuum sealed bags up to three months in the fridge and freeze the excess inventory.

Do not cook to cure!

Madethis recipe with beef cheeks

I went online to see if I could sub beef cheeks in for pig cheeks. I found a YouTube video with two chefs trying this recipe with beef cheeks. They noted it was delicious. Delicious. So I thought I would give it a try. It turned out really well. The flavor was excellent and was much leaner than I'm sure it's pork counterpart plus for those of you that do not eat pork. This is a nice substitution. I also added some ground thyme.

Gregory

Shortcuts; although def.short, are not always good....

Karen

Is it safe to just hang it in a cool garage to dry in a California winter? How do you check if it’s done drying? The jowl meat I was able to find in an Asian market are only 1/2” thick. Thanks

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Credits

Adapted from “Rustic Italian Food” by Marc Vetri

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