Jowl Bacon and Guanciale


 
C

Clark Deutscher

TVWBB All-Star
I picked up some pork jowls last week. Cured them mid week and finished up some curried jowl bacon tonight. Also in the process of making Guanciale. The jowl bacon is really really good stuff. I would highly recomend. Anyways here are the pictures, ask any questions if you have!

Jowls in the bag
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The curry cure
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Guanciale Cure
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In the fridge
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Hung the Guanciale in the closet today, good thing my wife is away for a month and a half!
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The bacon smoking
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The bacon done and a little taster, the rest is vac sealed and in the freezer
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Clark
 
Nice looking projects there.

I made some Guanciale last fall, which is gone now. I have made pancetta many times and noticed a bit of difference. Mainly the higher fat content in the jowl. And when jowl chunks crisp up, they are more flavourful because of the fat.

Never thought to make bacon of it, though...
 
Great looking bacon Clark!

I wonder if jowl would take to the maple cured bacon recipe from Charcuterie, with less cure time than a belly.
Jowls, being smaller, would be a great way to try several different cures/spices before trying on bellies.

Thanks for sharing!
I plan to look for a jowl source!
 
G - What kind of prices do you get for Jowl vs belly, it is considerably cheaper for jowl here. Very similar flavor just more fat like you said.

Bob - That's pretty much exactly it. I used Ruhlmans basic cure and then just added some curry powder to it. 5 days in the fridge instead of 7 and smoked away. I was going to do some mapole but have a lot of maple bacon in my freezer so went savory. No reason it wouldn't work though!

Clark
 
Nice looking end product there.

I forgot to answer your question. I've only bought jowls when I bought directly from a farmer, so it was 85c/lb. It was low because I was buying a side of pig and asked for extra jowls. At the store, I would have to make a special order and I think it would be around $2-$3 per pound.
 
I got a bunch hanging now. Its a first for me here are my observations:

I picked them up in Cleveland fro 1.89/lb, lots of odd pieces, most pieces were kind of butterflied with 1 or two deep slices made almost all the way through against the grain. I wondered why they were like this, but the cuts help me find and remove a few glands that I would have missed.

they had a faint ammonia smell. I decided to overlook it.

I tried two cures, one out of the Ruhlman book which I know is going to be too sweet. I can't figure out why his curing recipes lean towards sweet.
 
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