Jowl bacon

[Kent Wang]

I just picked up some jowl bacon from the farmers market. To me, the meat tastes a bit sweeter, there's a lot more fat and the rendered fat is more gelatinous (higher collagen content?).

What are you thoughts on jowl bacon? Are my impressions accurate? Do you prefer it to belly bacon?

[pedrissimo]

I just picked up some jowl bacon from the farmers market. To me, the meat tastes a bit sweeter, there's a lot more fat and the rendered fat is more gelatinous (higher collagen content?).

What are you thoughts on jowl bacon? Are my impressions accurate? Do you prefer it to belly bacon?

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Kent,

Where did you get the bacon? Who was the farmer? I have been looking for some (really, just the pre-cured jowls) here in Austin.

Jowl bacon is called guanciale in Italy (though cured differently). You can find a lot about it on a thread called Cooking wth Charcuterie. That is a cookbook by Michael Ruhlman- who is kind enough to give advice from time to time..

Guanciale is supposed to be delicious. I haven't had either guanciale or jowl bacon yet (though i have seen the latter in Elgin at one of the BBQ meat markets, and in east Texas).

Well, be sure to post a follow-up on how it tastes!

[Tonyy13]

Believe it or not, they sell jowl bacon here in our Publix supermarkets!! It is about half the price of regular bacon, and it comes unsliced, so you can make lardons or whatever out of it, instead of being hosed into only using it in slices. The fat is "crisper", almost crunching in your mouth when you taste it without cooking it (again- all bacon is hot smoked, so technically, it is already cooked). I prefer it now to any brand of sliced bacon I have found, but I am not one to turn away ANY type to be honest. If I had a choice though, I would buy the jowl!!

[judiu]

I just picked up some jowl bacon from the farmers market. To me, the meat tastes a bit sweeter, there's a lot more fat and the rendered fat is more gelatinous (higher collagen content?).

What are you thoughts on jowl bacon? Are my impressions accurate? Do you prefer it to belly bacon?

←

Kent,

Where did you get the bacon? Who was the farmer? I have been looking for some (really, just the pre-cured jowls) here in Austin.

Jowl bacon is called guanciale in Italy (though cured differently). You can find a lot about it on a thread called Cooking wth Charcuterie. That is a cookbook by Michael Ruhlman- who is kind enough to give advice from time to time..

Guanciale is supposed to be delicious. I haven't had either guanciale or jowl bacon yet (though i have seen the latter in Elgin at one of the BBQ meat markets, and in east Texas).

Well, be sure to post a follow-up on how it tastes!

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I don't know if Winn Dixie has invaded Austin yet, but if they have, they usually carry "smoked pork jowl". The stores tend to be, at least here in Florida, rather "ethnocentric" and to carry odd cuts and bits at the meat counters.

[Kent Wang]

Where did you get the bacon? Who was the farmer? I have been looking for some (really, just the pre-cured jowls) here in Austin.

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I got it at the Austin Farmers Market at Republic Square. There's only one pork vendor there, he sells a ton of different cuts, all Berkshire pork.

[fiftydollars]

...(again- all bacon is hot smoked, so technically, it is already cooked)....

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Is it really?

I was under the impression that bacon is cured and cold-smoked (80-100 degrees). I wouldn't think that bacon fat would hold up to hot smoking (180+ degrees). It's been a while since I gave makin' bacon a try, but from what I recall the fat seemed to object quite strongly to high heat.

[BobLee]

Man, that's good lookin' bacon!

[Blue_Egg_Farmer]

My friend Chef Cerino at Carrie Cerinos uses Guanciale in his Spaghetti Carbonara. It has a richer flavor than regular bacon, a little goes a long way.

Here is the restaurant website.

Click on the picture of spaghetti carbonara and you will be taken to a page detailing the use of guanciale also on this page there is a link to his guanciale provider.

http://www.carriecerinos.com/main/main.asp

[ronnie_suburban]

My friend Chef Cerino at Carrie Cerinos uses Guanciale in his Spaghetti Carbonara. It has a richer flavor than regular bacon, a little goes a long way.

Here is the restaurant website.

Click on the picture of spaghetti carbonara and you will be taken to a  page detailing the use of guanciale also on this page there is a link to his guanciale provider.

http://www.carriecerinos.com/main/main.asp

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Another basic difference between guanciale and bacon is that guanciale is not smoked. This information is also provided at Cerino's web site.

Here's a link to a picture of the finished dish at Cerino's, which was posted on this thread in the Heartland forum.

Are those your eggs Blue_Egg_Farmer?

=R=

[Blue_Egg_Farmer]

Are those your eggs Blue_Egg_Farmer?

Yes they are

[ronnie_suburban]

Are those your eggs Blue_Egg_Farmer?

Yes they are

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Beautiful! I'll bet they'd be fantastic alongside a few strips of crispy jowl bacon.

=R=

[ghostrider]

My friend Chef Cerino at Carrie Cerinos uses Guanciale in his Spaghetti Carbonara. It has a richer flavor than regular bacon, a little goes a long way.

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I agree. I've had it in amatriciana preparations at a couple of restaurants, and one of them, to my taste, used way too much of the stuff; the richness of the dish came close to making me ill and I had to stop eating it. A shame to have that happen with what is normally one of my favorite dishes.

I'd thought that I should like the guanciale, but it's too rich for me. I prefer the pancetta.

Edited August 23, 2006 by ghostrider (log)

[Blue_Egg_Farmer]

Beautiful!  I'll bet they'd be fantastic alongside a few strips of crispy jowl bacon.

=R=

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MMmmmm bacon