guanciale advice

    • Official Post

    Now there is a word I am pretty sure I have never encountered in 57 years...I am gonna take a shot at pronunciation...

    Gwan-chill-lay

    I've never been able to get my tongue around that either.

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    • Official Post

    Goo-unch-alay

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  • After reading heaps of recipes on the net, all of them different, I'm going to follow Narms method as best I can. Here's the jowls, they are skinless so it's a variation from the start

    I trimmed 4, about 3k. I'm doing the initial salt curing in the fridge, here they are packed in salt and propped up at one end, I'll use a paper towel to remove any liquid that acumulates

    Not to sure how long to leave, after 10 days I'll check the stiffness of the meat, thinking 14 days might do it

  • It's been 14 days, so here they are out of the salt and washed in wine. They were soft to touch but overall quite firm, smelt good

    Here they are in 50/50 white and black pepper, tagged for weight and hanging. I hope to see 25-30% weight loss over the next month. This was by far the hardest part of the process as the wife said there was no way in hell I was hanging pigs faces in her spare room.

    • Official Post

    Narm now you have to give us your carbonara recipe

    No problem at all. Make sure to try the guanciale to make sure it's not too salty. If it is too salty, adjust the salt content of the other ingredients, but not the salt content in the pasta water unless you absolutely have to.

    Carbonara:
    In a large bowl, mix 1 egg per 100gm of spaghetti that you're cooking.
    Salt and pepper the egg to taste.
    Grate some pecorino cheese (or parmesan if good pecorino is not available, BTW Costco have great Reggiano and pecorino romano).
    In a pan, fry up diced guanciale with EVO (the more the better in my book, the wife usually disagrees).
    Cook the spaghetti al dente (if it says 10 minutes on the packet, cook it for only 9, test it to make sure it's not too hard for you).
    Strain the spaghetti, then add to the bowl with the egg and mix quickly. The heat of the spaghetti should cook the egg.
    Pour the guanciale and the oil into the bowl and mix.
    While you can also mix some pecorino in the bowl, I usually sprinkle it on top when I serve the plates. You can crack some pepper on top as well.
    The trick with carbonara is to get the egg and other ingredients to develop a creamy consistency. So not too cooked, not too runny. Lots of vigorous mixing will help here.
    I usually set aside a glass of pasta water so that in case it gets too dry I add that back in until I get the consistency right.

    I love carbonara, but may I suggest a Gricia sauce for your first guanciale dish?
    Gricia is the simplest pasta you can make:
    Fry guanciale in a pan with EVO.
    Cook spaghetti al dente.
    Mix the two in a bowl.
    Sprinkle pecorino liberally in the bowl and mix. Use the pasta water trick to get the consistency right.
    Serve on the plate, sprinkle a little more pecorino on top and crack pepper on top (optional).

    Masterbuilt Gravity 800 | Maximus Pizza Oven | GMG - Daniel Boone | Cyprus Grill | Big Steel Keg | Blackstone Griddle | Fire Pit | Weber Genesis |

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