Pork Jowl Bacon

[meatloaf]

What can I do with pork jowl? Can I make it with the same recipe I used for bacon at 120ppm nitrites?
Why do all the cured pork jowl recipes on the internet call for Cure #2? Is that for longer curing?
Has anyone just made plain ol jowl bacon without the fancy guiancale recipe?

 

[SmokinEdge]

Nothing at all wrong with curing jowl like belly. In fact some of the best bacon I’ve had was from jowl.
Because of the fattier and usually thicker cut you need to go longer in the cure process. Salt moves slower through fat although it’s not a huge difference.
Do some and post up results.

 

[DougE]

A lot of folks make jowl bacon. Just use the same cure as you would on belly bacon and maybe go a little longer.

 

[Hijack73]

If I could get raw jowl as cheaply as I could get jowl bacon (store bought) I'd probably only eat jowl bacon. It's got this texture that's somewhere between gooey and unctuous when it's right. I don't know how to describe it, but damn it's good. indaswamp posted the reason once for that texture but I can't remember the term.

I can still get it for roughly $2.49/lb in store but it is getting harder to find.

 

[Fueling Around]

They got you covered to make regular bacon.

I have bought jowl bacon a few times, but the commercial stuff just isn't worth it to me.

...
Why do all the cured pork jowl recipes on the internet call for Cure #2? Is that for longer curing?
Has anyone just made plain ol jowl bacon without the fancy guiancale recipe?

Some of the stuff you find on a search is not good advice.
I'm not a cure #2 user. Guanciale is just salt cured and dried if I remember correctly.
indaswamp needs to offer his experience.

 

[zwiller]

Pork jowl was big here. Was less than half the price of bacon. Store that stocked it been closed so not sure what's going on as of late. To me jowl is best for cooking. Heavy fat for sauces, adds "bacon" flavor, and the protein that renders is softer than bacon. It's sorta like waygu bacon. The marbling of the stuff I got was insane. If you like your bacon fatty, jowl is better.

I would cure like typical but agree with the guys to got a little more time for cure. No need for #2 tho.

 

[meatloaf]

Ok done! In the fridge and will report back on the result. Thanks!