Homemade Guanciale
By: Sweetwatercooks
Published: Wednesday, December 16, 2009 - 2:45pm

Ingredients




1 cup kosher salt
2/3 cup sugar
4 cloves garlic (mashed with flat side of knife)
30 black peppercorns (cracked with pan or flat side of knife)
2 large bunches of thyme
My addition: Handful of crushed pepper flakes

Preparation

1 Rinse jowls and pat dry. 2 Remove stray tissue. 3 Remove glands (smally fatty discs). 4 Prepare cure, combine ingredients. 5 Place jowls in two non-reactive containers or ziploc bags. 6 Pour cure (1/2 for each jowl) in the ziploc bag. 7 Distribute over jowl and rub in thoroughly. 8 Refrigerate jowls until they fell stiff all through (4-7 days). 9 Redistribute cure over jowls every other day. 10 When ready remove from container or bag. 11 Rinse well under cold water to remove residual cure. 12 Pat jowl dry. 13 With knife poke hole in one corner and slip long piece of butcher's string through it. 14 Hang jowls in cool dry place until completely stiff to touch but not hard (1-3 weeks). 15 Can be refrigerated upo to 3 weeks or frozen 4 months or longer.

About


An incredibly easy recipe for a first time attempt at home charcuterie