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You are here: Home / Meat / Pork / Bacon / Guanciale

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.

Substitutes

Pancetta or unsmoked bacon.

Language Notes

Guancia means “cheek” in Italian

This page first published: Mar 2, 2004 · Updated: Jun 12, 2018.

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Tagged With: Lazio Food

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