Guanciale - Post Script

Marian’s guanciale obsession.

In my earlier post, “Guanciale and Why Pork Became So Integral to Italian Cooking“ published on October 24, I told the story of Marian and our friend Derek doing a taste test of three different types of guanciale.

Marian became fascinated by the experiment and the variety that seemed inherent in the different guanciale that they had purchased. This led to a conversation with Fausto, the chef at the Academy. He said that he was partial to guanciale from the Marche.

Marian became obsessed with the idea of doing a broader test. She purchased ten different guanciale from six different salumerie. She then spent one morning cooking the different samples after slicing them into lardons.

The salumerie represented started with the two that we used from the prior test, Paciotti (but with a different guanciale than we tested before) and Forme, which had won the test last time, with its winner:

• Paciotti - Di Nero Calabrese

• Paciotti - Marchigiano

• Paciotti - Di Sono Magalitza

• Forme - Umbria

• Roscioli - Regio Emilia

• Castroni - Umbria

• La Tradizione - Amatrice

• La Tradizione - Lazio

• Mercato di Testaccio-Fagnini - Unknown province

• Mystery - Marian can not remember where she purchased it. Fortunately this was not a winner or it would have driven her crazy.

The result of Marian’s trips to salumerie all over Rome.

Marian cooking the guanciale and keeping track of things. Because of the brilliant food that the Rome Sustainable Food Program provided us we rarely used our kitchen for more than breakfast.

One of the keys was how the lardons crisped up without loosing their tenderness.

Marian ready for Fausto’s arrival. They reheated the lardons two at a time.

A science experiment at an institution dedicated to the arts and humanities.

Marian followed Fausto’s instructions that the key to cooking (or rendering) guanciale is “low and slow” for 15-20 minutes.

Fausto and Marian starting with a visual inspection.

Organizing the tasting.

Tasting!

Smiles induced by delicious guanciale.

Fausto came over to our apartment in 5B for the taste test with Marian. They quickly worked through a first round reducing the field of ten to five and then reduced the five down to the top two. Listening to their comments—they were looking for a balance of flavors—but first and foremost flavor. Some had off flavors. It was important that they not be too salty—some were very salty. It was important that they cooked in a way that left the lardon crisp on the outside and soft on the inside. Some did not crisp up and others crisped too much. Fausto was impressed with the variety of flavors and said that he now understood why Marian was so obsessed by doing this taste test.

The two winners are: “Paciotti - Di Nero Calabrese” and our prior winner “Forme - Umbria.”

Fausto commented that it was easy to see which the winners were because there was little left of each of them—you had to keep going back for more. Of course, he also set the stage for a next taste test by saying to be consistent we really should take slices from the same part of each guanciale—either the ends or the middle.

The rule of taste.

We laughed that they had done this test just prior to lunch being served and that none of us had our usual appetite for his great lunches. Fausto, Sara, and the whole Rome Sustainable Food Program is one of the great assets of the American Academy in Rome.

The result of this taste test is a full refrigerator shelf in San Francisco.