Guanciale, carbonara’s iconic cold cut, comes from the cheek and throat of a pig. It’s beloved for its buttery soft fat and distinct flavors that make it very different from other fatty cuts like pancetta or bacon. Luigi from Ammano farm in Tragliatella, Lazio, Italy showed me how it’s made the traditional way from a special breed of local black pigs he’s been perfecting for years.
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I’m Claudia, a journalist and producer reporting on food. I was born and raised in Bari, Italy, and I have been living in London, UK since 2012. I am the host and producer of Regional Eats on Insider Food and So Expensive Food on Business Insider. I enjoy learning what goes behind the scenes in the food industry, how traditional dishes are made and why certain foods are so important to countries and cultures around the world. Follow me for more food videos!
How Guanciale is Made in Italy | Roman Carbonara’s Cold Cut | Differences with Pancetta, Bacon | Claudia Romeo
#guanciale #italianfood #coldcuts
00:00 Intro
00:26 Guanciale’s iconic triangular shape
02:38 The compact fat in a pig’s cheek
03:55 Differences with pancetta
04:49 Salting the guanciale
07:39 Aging the guanciale
09:35 Cutting open a smoked guanciale
15:04 Tasting (and dreaming of a carbonara)
18:14 Farm tour with Luigi and Lello
22:57 Luigi’s story
We’re in Tragliatella, in the
Lazio region, Italy
and we’re going to meet with Luigi.
He’s a fourth generation farmer
and he’s going to show us how gianciale
is made the traditional way.
The recipe is actually quite simple
but Luigi feels very strongly about it.
Especially because he’s really keen
on showing us
what makes guanciale so distinct
compared to its main rival, pancetta.
Let’s go.
Luigi uses a local breed of black pigs,
which he says are ideal to make guanciale
because of the high quality of their fat.
Luigi and his dog, Lello,
let’s not forget him…
I got the feeling he’s the one who runs
the show around here.
took me on a tour of the farm.
You can learn more after the tasting section.
The farm uses all parts of the pig to
make different cold cuts
including ham, capocollo, and many more.
After salting, the guanciale rests in a cold
room for a couple of weeks,
where it’s massaged and flipped regularly
to ensure the spices are evenly spread.
When it’s ready to move onto aging,
it’s washed,
pierced and then hung in a series
of aging rooms.
A week later, the meat is moved to this other,
colder, and less humid room.
Your average day.
Guanciale can age for a minimum of
4 months and up to 6 months.
Like this one here Luigi is cutting open today,
it can also be smoked.
Luigi and his team make
100 guanciali a year.
It’s a seasonal cold cut, available only for
a few months a year
due to the limited number of pigs
he breeds.
The Ammano farm started as a dairy, breeding
sheep and then cows
and making cheese from their milk.
It was Luigi who decided to start
breeding black pigs
and producing meat products.
Thank you so much for watching.
Don’t forget to like and subscribe
to the channel.
I’m leaving a box here where you can
see how pancetta is made.
They are both special in their own right.
We have no preferences on this channel.
Thank you again for watching.
See you next time!
38 Comments
In North America guanciale is most often a low quality product at +70$ kg. A real scam.
Great content as always – this guy seems very dedicated to making high quality products!
Wonderful content. You do a great job.
Buona
Lello!
Apologies if I simp, But you really add to the beauty of these videos Claudia!
Another outstanding episode. Claudia has a true talent for this agricultural reporting.
great vídeo claudia! I like to learn a little more about those foods you bring here in your channel. You bring the information that makes them interesting and special.
I've always wanted to try Guanciale (especially with carbonara), but its harder to find here in the U.S. very inetresting as always!
Wonderful
I love how knowledgeable and thorough he is, and how he explains everything he does and is doing eg discarding the rind because it goes rancid during ageing. You can tell he pays attention to the small details and give his product at lot of thought and care. Thank you for another wonderful video. I love learning through you ☺
When I make my own, I struggle to get lovely thick jowls like those!
My only problem, when she's in Italy and they all speak Italian, I must concentrate on reading subtitles instead of enjoying entire video )))))
a well told report on an evolving multi generational farm….really …. lives I'm not certain those consuming what they create ….realize….are so increasingly tenuous ….a viewer from rural Montanas Rocky Mountains…. thanks for sharing
Wonderful content!
great to see you Claudia doing you own the insider is too woke
Buon giorno, Claudia. I'm back with another question. All those decades ago when my family lived in Desio, my mother, & therefore I, learned to make Carbonara with pancetta. We were always under the impression it was a Northern dish, especially since there were no tomatoes in it. Then suddenly, in the last five years or so, all sorts of places are saying it's from Rome & uses guaciale. Since you are Italian, could you clarify for me, please?
I've even taught the recipe to my son.
What time of year is guanciale typically available?
Wonderful as always
I love learning about regional specialties and the care the producers put into making them. Thank you for another great video!
Claudia on Guanciale! Perfect! It's coming into winter here and I need to make some for proper carbonara!
beautiful scenery
Most Europeans eat smaller portions and less often.
I love how Italians make use of every parts of the animals.
Great video, though it would be nice if you had a camera person so we could see you speaking with your subjects like you've had in your videos for Insider.
👍
The yellowish external zone of guanciale show us as ageing is too prolonged in time or in no optimal conditions otherwise the meat seems to be an excellent product.
Ah! So that's why it's that shape! I buy guanciale and I've always wondered about the form of it
that's like 90% fat
Your usual fabulous job, Claudia! Thanks for giving us insight into so many interesting foods and their preparation.
just render that fat out for my bacon sandwich
24 minutes of serious salvation. 👍
You know that it is fatty when they say that the meat is the marbling. 😀
6:25 If I ever feel bad about my belly fat, I'm just going to call it noble.
What a great video, Luigi seems like a stand up guy and living the dream. As soon as I saw those pigs I thought to myself, "hey they're just like Pata Negras." Love your videos Claudia!
Very authentic reporting. Great job Claudia.
Not much of a gore warning. 1 milisecond really is not long enough to pause, fast forward or really do anything. Better to not include it at all or give an actually useful amount of time. The video is already like 30 min, 10 seconds extra is fine
this was so good i didn't know what to do with myself when it ended