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What a difference a week makes. And a lot of salt, pepper, sugar and thyme. The pork jowl has been cured (compare the shot above to how it looked before curing last week) and looks like it's well on its way to becoming rich, savory bacon.
The Mario Batali recipe we're using calls for the jowl to be hung in a cool, dry place with some butchers twine for a minimum of three weeks. Speaking with some folks who've successfully made guanciale, it's the humidity that'll ruin a good cure. Dry-aging in a controlled environment is a form of rotting, if the space we're hanging the jowl in becomes too humid, mold can occur. tomorrow, we'll show you where we've hung the jowl and how we're fighting the chance of mold forming.
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Question: so far, do you think it's worth it? I mean, time wise and money spent.
Is this something you'd do again?
I guess you can't totally answer until you actually taste it. Because even if it's expensive to do this, if the taste is phenomenal, then it would be worth it.
@Ingrid: It really isn't time-consuming. It takes a couple minutes to make the cure and rub it into the jowl, then you let it cit for a week. My problem was that I nearly forgot it was curing.
As far as cost is concerned, the most expensive thing is the jowl. And that was only a few bucks out of my share of the pork. Everything else I already had on hand.
@mike thoms: I'll cede the point on botulism, as that's also a concern. But this is how they preserved meats before the advent of refrigeration and if it's good enough then, we should be fine now.
At least, that's my hope.
Trust me, I've definitely thought of trying to dry age my own meats, i think maybe my pea brain can't quite grasp all the instructions i'd have to go through to do it correctly though
I'm just going by the recipe and a prayer. Wait'll you see where I've hung it.
One, the jowl is a really cheap piece of meat that's often wasted. So compared to buying some artisanal guanciale, making your own is a steal.
Two, as for spoiling in any fashion, it's usually pretty darn obvious when meat has a problem. (Botulism would mainly be a risk with salamis, where it could hide in the anaerobic insides of the sausage.) Some mold is normal, and a vinegar wash will get rid of a not-so-bad white or even orange-ish growth; it's the green and black ones that are bad. But with the right amount of salt, it shouldn't be an issue.
I'd say that in general, dry aging your own meat is a really precarious and potentially dangerous idea. It seems as time consuming, if not more, than brewing your own beer, only you could also get botulism.
You sound like a really fun, adventurous person.
Let us know how it tastes, Chuck! (