Hi a huge
welcome to Steve's Kitchen. Now for those of you that that are at all
squeamish about meat particularly in this episode we're going to be dealing with
the pigs head
I really would appreciate it if you don't watch this video now I know there
are people out there that are fascinated by the whole production
of food like myself I'm very interested
in cuts of meat that are a little bit unusual but if you're not
interested the warning is there please don't watch this and get upset
I'd rather you just turn off now and watch another video at a later date
and for those that are fascinated by the production of meat
meet my friend here the pigs head
now this is a wonderful cut it's inexpensive but
I'm the one over here by the way not this one this is a wonderful cut of meat this is
often neglected very inexpensive and I've got a couple of pigs heads I'm going to do do two
recipes
today on the channel one's going up right now one of them a little bit later
on we are going to be making Brawn
I think the Americans call that head cheese we are going to be making one of my
favorite cured meats a guanciale which is a
like a pancetta it comes from the pigs cheek
this section of meat here I'm going to show you how to prepare that
how to cure it come on let's get going I'll show you how
now when you decide that you're going to take the life of an animal
it's best to respect the whole animal and use it so come down here now have a
look at the pigs head
the guanciale comes from the pigs cheek there is a lot of
meat here on the side of the cheek and my butcher has been little overzealous he's
cut up the side but it does let me
open here and show you the jaw bone that runs under here and there's a lot of meat
on there we want to get that off so the cut you want a
a good sharp knife and it's important
that use a steel and keep the knife very sharp
we're going to cut from just under the ear here
and go down until you touch
the bone you can see Just in there now
if I start to draw the knife in sharp
eventually I'm going to get down to the cheekbone and I can use the knife then
to guide along the edge of the bone
and we get as close to the bone as possible as we
pull this meat away you can see there that is the cheekbone
and drawing the knife along the edge now be careful with your fingers
continue to draw this meat down and across
the edge of the cheek and eventually
you going to end up with this wonderful piece of cheek meat
now that is the piece of meat we're going to be using to produce our guanciale it's
a very fatty
very flavoursome cut of pork come back in a moment
I'll do the other side and I'll show you what we do with this so
I've got two pics cheeks here which we're going to make
into a wonderful guanciale trust me this is going to taste fantastic
the pigs head itself don't waste this we can turn it into a wonderful stock
or a brawn and I've got a video on my channel showing you how to make a brawn so now
we've got
our pigs cheeks prepared we're going to cure them and what that means is there's a lot of
of moisture in the meat
we're going to be using Salts and sugars we're going to draw those moistures out Now come and
have a look
just how beautiful this cut of meat is but its way to wet
so over here got a bowl I'm going to put half a cup
of salt into there also I've got a half a cup
of sugar I've now got some black peppercorns about 15 or so
black peppercorns I'm just going to crush these ones up going to add the black peppercorns
in there as well
now this is optional I'm using half a teaspoon of salt peter you don't
have to
I'm not going to sit and discuss with you whether you should or shouldn't I do
it's up to you half a teaspoon of Salt Peter some
fresh thyme from the garden now I'm going to put 4-5 sprigs just going to
draw the leaves off of there and pop them in the mixture as well
now you'll see I've got some thyme sprigs in there as well we're not worried about
that
lets just give this a good mix through this is our cure
now I'm just going to clear a little bit a space this
is my brining tub it does have to either be
stoneware or plastic I'm going to take the pigs cheeks now
going to lay them in here just on the bottom
I'm going to take some of my salt and sugar rub
sprinkle it over the top of the pigs cheeks and I'm going to push it
into every little crevice if there's any gaps in there we're just going to push the
salt
inside any little holes we want to completely
coat the meat in this salt and sugar
solution going to turn them over now so their skin side up
I want to put the rest of my salt and sugar on there
and completely cover really massage the salts and sugars
into the flesh this is going to draw a lot of liquid out
now I'm going to take some more thyme fresh from the garden
just going to take these now and lay them across the top of the meat
put some underneath I want the thyme flavour to get
in there completely so my pigs cheeks are now covered in my cure
now you want to cover this over now whether you use a foil wrap or cling wrap
I've actually got a lid for this one pop that on there
that is going to stay in the brine for five days I'm going to pop it in the fridge
and you'll see a lot of liquid come off now you can turn it every day or so if you
like in five days time we're going to take this out of here and I'll
show you the next stage
now my pigs cheeks have been in the brine for a couple days and you can see all
the moisture that's being drawn off
it's a good idea every now and again you can feel thats getting stiff already
to turn the meat over then I'm going to pop that back in the fridge now don't forget
five days and this will be fully cured then we're going to take it out and rair dry it
now my guanciale has finished curing its been 5 days a little over five days
actually
in the fridge and it smells smells as fresh take a look at that
as fresh as the day I put it in there but all the juices have come out now
what we're going to do is lift one of those out
now here's a quick quiz for you this is guanciale it's an Italian recipe
there is an English recipe very similar to this so if you know what it is
it's not exactly the same completely different name comment down below
okay the pigs cheek now I'm going to bring it
out onto a board it's a little stiff now you can feel it
on the top corner here I'm just going to take my knife which is nice and sterile
just going to pop a hole through the cheek like that
I'm then going to take some food grade string or butchers string
just going to cut about a foot or so off just pop
the string using the knife through
the meat and then what we going to be doing
just going to do an old-fashioned reef knot
so you've got a nice secure knot there now we're going to find a place to hang
this to finish it's curing and its going to drip for at least a few days so
put a little tray underneath there
keep it away from the flies not too damp sometimes you might want to put a net
over it
we're going to leave it hanging for about three weeks now
it will be definitely ready don't take any these herbs off there
they are going to enhance more flavor so I'm going to hang these up
I've got a little place in the back of the house there and I will see you here
in three weeks time and we're going to try this wonderful
homemade guanciale
so three weeks later on I'm here again and this is the exciting time for me because
look the guanciale
has been hanging it's completely cured the smell
is fresh there's nothing bad a little blush of salt coming out there
this is ready to use this is a young guanciale
it's great to go into different pasta dishes
particularly I'm going to be doing a carbonara on my
channel very shortly so you'll get to see this being used
but I will actually cut a little bit look we've got two here
there absolutely gorgeous I will sliced a little bit off now just to show you
what that looks like it is very fatty but don't worry about that
so you see over here I've cut myself a couple of strips of this now I've
cut this up into some little lardons
little squares or strips and then we're just going to take
those little slivers of guanciale pop it into a hot pan
probably doesn't need any oil but if you want you can add a tiny little bit
of a dribble of oil in there I would just fry these up
until they're are beautiful and crisp and then let's try some now look I've just
fried those up until they're beautiful and brown like that
I know this is a very fatty meat but trust me I'm just going to take
those out of there now absolutely trust me on this one
the flavour coming from this guanciale
is something you've possibly never tried before
it is so rich probably a little bit hot there but
let me let this cool down a little bit actually I'm going to go for a piece
it is hot but here goes
Oh do you know this is heavenly and this is why
this is why we make our own guancaile
if you can get it in the shops I'm sure it's going to taste good this
is fantastic imagine this in a carbonara
it's going to be great so stay tuned I hope you'll try this at home
if I could give you a piece of this now you will tell me that is the best bacon
that you have ever tried it's delicious be good share the love give this one a thumbs-up
I hope you've enjoyed this unusual series looking at meats
I'll be doing more of it on the channel take care see you next time
so I've got this wonderful
or I've got two cuts of guanciale here which is not going to last too long in my
house this is going to make such good food
I hope you've enjoyed this little look into
curing pigs cheeks take care I'll leave some links to some other videos here
be good see you next time