Guanciale | 300g & 400g

Guanciale - Rendering and Carbonara

Cured pork jowl. Delivered chilled. Count 30 to 40g per person in pasta.

1. Keep it cold
Leave it in the fridge until you are ready to cut. Guanciale slices cleanest straight from the fridge, while the fat is firm. If you froze it on delivery, defrost it in the fridge first, sealed, on a plate. Allow 12 hours for a whole piece.

2. Take the rind off
There is a firm skin on one side. Cut it away and keep it. It will not soften in the pan, but dropped into a pot of beans or a stock it gives up everything it has.

3. Cut it thick
Slice the block about 5mm thick, then across into short batons. Thicker than you would cut bacon. Guanciale is mostly fat, and thin strips vanish into nothing once the fat renders out.

4. Start in a cold, dry pan
No oil. No butter. Put the batons in the pan before you light the hob. A cold start lets the fat come out slowly instead of the outside catching first.

5. Render low and slow
Medium-low heat, 8 to 10 minutes. Move it around now and then. You want the fat clear and pooling, the edges golden and crisp, the centre of each piece still soft. Take it off before it goes uniformly brown and hard.

6. The fat is the point
Lift the meat out with a slotted spoon and leave every drop of fat in the pan. That rendered fat is the sauce in every dish below. Pouring it away is the one mistake worth avoiding.

7. Carbonara, the Roman way
Cook the pasta. Beat egg yolks with grated pecorino and a lot of black pepper. Drain the pasta, keeping a mugful of the water. Off the heat, toss the pasta through the guanciale fat, then stir in the egg and cheese, loosening with the hot pasta water until it turns glossy. Return the guanciale. No cream, and never over direct heat, or the egg scrambles.

8. Beyond carbonara
Gricia is the same dish without the egg. Amatriciana adds tomato and chilli to the rendered fat. Beyond pasta, it lifts braised beans, lentils, bitter greens, and a plain potato roasted in its fat.

9. Do not treat it as bacon
Guanciale is cured, not smoked, and far fattier. It needs less heat and more time. Season the dish only after the guanciale is in, because the cure carries plenty of salt already.

How much to use
30 to 40g a head for pasta. A 300g piece serves eight as carbonara. Use what you need and return the rest to the fridge, cut face wrapped in paper.

Delivered chilled. Keep in the fridge at 0-4°C. Use by the date on the pack.
Once opened, wrap the cut face in paper rather than plastic, so it can breathe. Use within 2 weeks, and always before the date on the pack.
To keep it longer, freeze it unopened on the day of delivery. Once frozen, it keeps for up to 12 months.
Defrost in the fridge, in its packaging, on a plate. Allow 12 hours for a whole piece.
Do not refreeze once thawed.