In several years of searching locally for guanciale, we decided to make our own. We saw that a producer of heritage pork vended at a local farmer's market on weekends. We special ordered some Berkshire hog jowl and picked it up at the market. Being our first time going to the market, we didn't know that an Italian food distributor was right next door and sold to the public on the weekend. Just for grins I went in to see if they carried guanciale. To my surprise they actually had it! Of course we bought some.
Now what to do with the hog jowl. We've never been able find Speck either. Speck is a cured, smoked hog jowl that is German/Austrian in origin. So my wife made the curing spices and rubbed down the jowl pieces. I was going to smoke it that weekend with alder chunks on the BGE, with about 5 days curing time. Along comes this pesky thing called Irma, so we ended up freezing the jowl. When things got back to normal, for the most part, We defrosted the Speck. Trying a piece cooked in a fry pan, It was way too salty. Don't know if the cure continued to work while it was frozen, but a couple of soaks and rinses and onto the BGE it went. It came out really good and the first thing we made with it was käse spätzle.
Now what to do with the hog jowl. We've never been able find Speck either. Speck is a cured, smoked hog jowl that is German/Austrian in origin. So my wife made the curing spices and rubbed down the jowl pieces. I was going to smoke it that weekend with alder chunks on the BGE, with about 5 days curing time. Along comes this pesky thing called Irma, so we ended up freezing the jowl. When things got back to normal, for the most part, We defrosted the Speck. Trying a piece cooked in a fry pan, It was way too salty. Don't know if the cure continued to work while it was frozen, but a couple of soaks and rinses and onto the BGE it went. It came out really good and the first thing we made with it was käse spätzle.
