The best laid plans - pork jowls

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fanciesmom

Smoke Blower
Original poster
Aug 24, 2008
104
10
San Joaquin Valley
I haven't been on much since we moved to ND,  We didn't do any smoking over the winter, and we've been doing some (bought beautiful pork bellies in CA, put them in cure in the cooler and brought them home to ND to smoke).  It seems that things have conspired to put us on the road.  We bought a motorhome, we're putting, tons of stuff in storage and we're going to head out in about 3 weeks.  Now I have to empty a 25 cf freezer and consolidate it with a side x side freezer and a 4 cf freezer that we'll take with us.

I bought about 7 lbs of pork jowls this winter thinking we'd be able to cure and hang them for guanciale.  Well cr@p happens and that didn't.

We also have a bunch of venison that I'm going to make sausage with.  Had hoped to use some of the jowls in the sausage.  I have one large piece that I'm going to corn, cook, and slice so it will store flat.

So . . .  two questions.  Can I just cure the pork jowls in the same dry cure I use for bacon and smoke them??? And can I use some of them in the venison sausage or do I need to go out and buy pork butt??? 

I figure the sliced smoked pork jowl, vension sausages, and sliced corned venison will store flat in the freezer. 

I've got a little piece of pork loin for Canadian bacon too.  The smoker may still be smoking when we pull out
icon_rolleyes.gif
 
guanciale sounds interesting. I've seen the jowls at mexican markets in town.Just might have to try this unsmoked delicacy, then again I just might get off track and cold smoke it because I can.
 
Yes you can smoke the jowels  just like bacon..they are delicious!

You  can also use them in the sausage but I'd save them for bacon and use another cut of pork for that. (Just because I love jowel bacon)

Good luck with what ever you decide to do!
 
Thanks Cowgirl!  Okay - you convinced me.  I'm going to go over and check to see how thawed they are, and then get my cure ready. 

We bought a pork butt - per the Charcuterie recipe for venison sausage so I'll do that.  I've actually got the chips (cherry and merlot and the liquid they soaked in in the freezer to smoke the venison sausage. 

Hopefully we can get this done along with packing.
 
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