The word guanciale may be new to you, but it is a highly used ingredient in various dishes.
Guanciale is cured pork meat, and it is used in various Italian recipes. You can buy guanciale and other Italian food ingredients from our local ordering site Origini Italian Market.
To know more about guanciale, read this article.
What is Guanciale?
Guanciale is made from pork meat. The name guanciale originated from the Italian word “Guancia.” It translates to cheek. Similar to its translation, guanciale is made from the cheek or jowl of pigs.
As it is prepared using the cheek meat of pigs, the guanciale has a higher fat-to-meat ratio. Its rich fat brings a buttery flavor and a perfect balance of sweet and savory. You can say that it is similar to bacon. But the flavor of guanciale is much superior, and its texture is softer than bacon.
Guanciale can be eaten raw by cutting them into thin slices. Moreover, they can be cut into cubes or triangles (depending on the shape) and cooked in a frying pan for eating. Still, guanciale is mainly used differently than bacon. Rather than a stand-alone meat dish, guanciale is used as an ingredient in other dishes. Two of those dishes are Bucatini all’Amatriciana, and Spaghetti alla Carbonara. These are two Italian pasta dishes.
How is guanciale produced?
The production process of guanciale involves many steps. Let us summarize the whole process in this section.
First, a pig head is bought, and the cheek and jowl are separated from the bone. The skin of the meat is not trimmed in the process. The cut of the meat is usually triangular or rectangular shaped. This piece of meat is then rubbed with sea salt. After that, it is left alone for some days to cure.
After the cure, the second step begins. The cured meat is brushed to remove all excess salt in this step. Then this meat is seasoned with additional spices. It can be rosemary, black and red pepper, garlic, and other spices.
After seasoning, the meat is left for aging. The aging process for guanciale is 60 days. But you can age it for more days. Some chefs say that Guanciale meat can be aged for as long as 6 months.
How long should you age the seasoned cheek meat for the best guanciale? The longer the aging, the tastier and rich the guanciale will be. With that principle in mind, you should age the Guanciale meat for as many days as possible. So, you should at least age the meat for 60 days/ 2 months to bring out the rich flavor of guanciale.
However, aging will also make the meat lose weight. So long, the aging process will result in more weight loss of the cured meat. As a general rule of thumb, you can expect the meat to lose 20% to 30% of its weight in aging.
How to properly store guanciale?
Food storage is always difficult. In the case of guanciale, it is even more difficult. Guanciale contains a high fat-to-meat ratio. It is a semisolid fat product. They tend to go bad quickly at room temperature. Thus it is always a good idea to store them in the refrigerator.
Before putting them in the refrigerator, you should wrap the guanciale in paper or plastic wrap (for vacuum packaging).
Sliced or unsliced, you should always store guanciale in your refrigerator. However, guanciale will lose some of its taste in long storage. The Guanciale meat will become stiffer the longer you store it. At one point, it will be so stiff that you may be unable to eat or cut it.
So you should consume your guanciale within a few months after purchasing. But if you need to store the guanciale for a prolonged period (say 12-24 months), put it in the freezer to completely freeze it.
Frozen Guanciale has a much longer shelf life. But after 18 months, it will lose its original taste, sent/aroma, and texture. So we recommend you do not freeze guanciale for longer than 12 months.
Note that you should put the frozen guanciale in the refrigerator the night before consuming it.
How long can guanciale last?
Guanciale’s shelf life depends on its storage method and the condition of the meat. An untouched Guanciale meat can last in the refrigerator for more than 6 months since its production date.
The longer you store guanciale, the stiffer it will become. Guanciale will lose its original taste value after 6 months of storage. It can be prevented by freezing it completely in the freezer. But after 18 months in the freezer, the meat will lose its taste, texture, and aroma.
The shelf life is even shorter in the case of sliced Guanciale meat. Sliced Guanciale meat will go bad in just 14 days. Thus you should eat it all when you decide to cut it. We won’t recommend freezing sliced Guanciale meat because unfreezing it will damage the inner meat texture.
Substitutes for Guanciale
Guanciale is superior in taste to other meats. However, it is difficult to store, so you may want to look for some substitutes for guanciale. Fortunately, guanciale can be substituted with other kinds of meat. Pancetta and bacon. These two come close to guanciale.
But these two substitutes may not deliver the exact aroma and flavor.
What makes guanciale unique is its higher amount of fat than meat. So if you want to substitute guanciale with pancetta, or bacon, you should pick a fatty piece. Non-fatty vacuum sealed pieces will not work as substitutes for guanciale. Visit Origini market for the best bacon and pancetta to substitute guanciale.
Even after selecting the fattiest piece of pancetta, or bacon, you may still fail to bring the same taste of guanciale to your dishes. The reason is the quality of the fat in the meat. The fat in the guanciale is from the cheek of the pig. It has higher quality than the fat in their belly or back.
How to cook guanciale?
You can eat Guanciale raw by slicing it into thin pieces. But the best way of cooking guanciale is to slice it into cubes. The recommended shape of the cube is ¼ inches. Then put the Guanciale cubes in a frying pan. Cook it in low to medium heat until the meat browns. The fat in the Guanciale slices should melt down, and the remaining Guanciale meat should turn crispy or tender.
This is basically how you should cook guanciale. Now you can do whatever you want with the cooked guanciale.
Conclusion
So that was all you needed to know about the famous Italian staple food, guanciale. It is tasty, rich in flavor, and value. Without it, many Italian dishes would not be possible to make.
However, you need to buy the best quality guanciale for it. This brings us to the production date and the production method of guanciale. Now, if you want to buy some good quality guanciale and other ingredients for making a good recipe, visit the Origini market. They have the best quality ingredients for all Italian dishes.