Guanchiale

It is more of a semi-finished product than a finished product. An indispensable component of sauce for amatricana pasta and many other dishes of Italian cuisine.
Jowl is used to make guanciale. There are many hard fibers in the jowl. As an independent dish, it is cooked by baking or boiling. When dried, the jowl is quite tough. For the preparation of the sauce, it is thoroughly chopped with sun-dried tomatoes and spices in a blender or chopper. Can be used as an additive for Ukrainian borscht. In traditional recipes, a small amount of old lard is ground with garlic and added to the borscht at the end of cooking. Can be added to cereals by cutting into small cubes and adding at the very beginning of cooking.
For salting, choose pieces of jowl with a layer of meat, sprinkle them abundantly with salt on all sides and place them in a container in a cold place for 7-10 days, periodically turning them over. We use coarse salt.
After salting, roll in spices and dry in the chamber or in the open air. Loss of moisture can be up to 50 percent during long-term storage without a vacuum bag.