Monday, July 26, 2010

Guanciale

Or maybe jowl bacon.

I bought a $3.50 pig's head the other week to try making guanciale.


There's actually quite a lot of meat in a pig's head …


… I got ~1 kg of cheeks (one was much bigger than the other, the butcher had been a little careless) and the tongue …


 … plus another pile of trimmings that I made into a stew …


 … plus what I assume was the thymus, which I was too chicken to try eating myself, so I sautéed it and gave it to the cats:


The skull was intact, so I couldn't get the brains out even if I wanted to. Which is maybe a good thing, as I'd have felt honour bound to try eating them and I'm not keen on that idea at all.

I boiled the tongue, it was delicious cold.


And I cured the cheeks in salt, curing salt, sugar, some garlic, and a few chopped herbs for a week before rubbing the smaller one in smoked paprika and chilli flakes and hanging them both up to dry.


When they've aged quite a bit more they should be guanciale, but in the mean time, I keep slicing bits off and frying them - it's the most heavenly bacon! I'm not sure they'll get the chance to become guanciale at all.

Pig's head is going to become a regular on my shopping list I think. The only problem with it is getting rid of the skull.

6 comments:

  1. Oh My What A Bountiful Deal for the price!

    I love cow's tongues but dont' remember eating pig's tongues before but I am sure its nice too!

    Are the ears included? dont see them... damn delish pigs ears are!

    Now, where are the shoes from Auckland?

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  2. btw, did you just boil the tongue in water or stock or?

    Might want to get pig's tongue next marketing day!

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  3. No, the ears are removed before the pig gets t5o the supermarket. I think they turn them into dog toys.

    The Auckland shoes need to wait for a no-tights day, and we're not quite there yet.

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  4. I just boiled it in quite salty water. It was OK, but next time I'll brine it first.

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  5. Woah! You are brave Bronwyn! I have a hard time cooking things that can stare back at me -__-

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  6. Still in hospital being bored Maki?

    My stepmother used to have that problem with whitebait. Our whitebait are maybe 5cm long and the eyes are the size of a pinhead, but she refused to eat them because they were looking at her. You miss out on some good food like that.

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