Guanciale substitute

[isw]

I make several Italian recipes that call for guanciale. There's not a
local source for the stuff, and I don't want to pay ridiculous shipping
charges just to try it.

I know that pancetta is suggested as a substitute, but it is generally a
lot less fatty then the photos of guanciale I've seen. Even worse, since
I've never been able to find guanciale, I've never cooked with it, and
so I don't have a very good notion of what it tastes like.

I was wondering if a good cured but not-smoked bacon might be a better
sub?

Isaac

[Travis McGee]

Jowl bacon is pretty much the same thing, sans the spices. Season with
rosemary, garlic, and thyme, and, of course, salt to taste. Getting it
unsmoked might be a problem, though.

[Victor Sack]

Pancetta *is* bacon from the belly (the word comes from pancia, belly).
Like guanciale (from guancia, cheek/jowl), it can be relatively fat or
relatively lean, it depends on the cut. Texture-wise, pancetta is
perhaps the best substitute. If fat is important to you, I'd suggest
cured fatback which, however, can also range from almost all fat to
somewhat lean.

By the way, since you cannot find anything under the name of guanciale
locally, you might also want to look for goletta, barbozza, barbaglia,
or barbaja, all of which are the same thing.. even in America Italian
grocers could be using regional names. I once posted on the subject of
guanciale:

<https://groups.google.com/forum/message/raw?msg=rec.food.cooking/NRdAs0XGdcU/W9cZCWG4vlYJ>


Victor

[gtr]

I was looking at guanciale at Whole Foods today and it looked like
nothing but blocks of fat with micro strata, just here and there, of
actual meat. I quizzed the charcuterie know it all, and she said,
yeah, that's pretty much what it is; a block of fat. I was surprised
since I've had it in a few pasta meals in restaurants and didn't
realise it was pretty much a block of fat.

[isw]

Well of course it's basically a "block of fat", but what's unique about
it (assuming it's been well made) is what it tastes like, because of how
it's been treated.

Isaac