What Are Pork jowls and How Can I Use Them?
Here's everything worth knowing about pork jowls and how to pick them, what they are, how to store them, and what to use instead, plus 2 recipes to cook tonight.
Key Points
- The pig's fatty, well-marbled cheek; richer and closer to belly than a lean chop.
- Fresh jowl braises tender and seasons pots of greens, beans, and stew.
- Cured and air-dried it becomes guanciale, the unsmoked cheek behind real carbonara.
- Render the fat low and slow; too much heat scorches it bitter.
- Pancetta is the best guanciale swap; pork belly or ham hock stands in fresh.
What are pork jowls?
Pork jowl is the fatty cheek of the pig, cut from below the eye and along the jaw.
It is rich and well-marbled, closer to belly than to a lean chop, with soft fat streaked through a little dark meat.
You meet it two ways. Fresh jowl is sold for braising and slow cooking, while cured and air-dried jowl becomes guanciale, the Italian cured cheek behind a true carbonara or amatriciana.
Using Pork Jowls
Fresh jowl wants low, slow heat. Braised or simmered until the fat renders, it goes tender and silky and lends deep pork richness to a pot of greens, beans, or stew.
That rendering is its real job in Southern cooking. A piece of jowl simmered into Big Heat's Brunswick Stew or Pot Likker Chili with Beans melts down to season the whole pot, much the way bacon or a ham hock would.
Cured guanciale is used differently. You render small cubes or strips slowly to release their fat, then build the sauce in that fat. It is unsmoked and more intensely porky than bacon, which is why carbonara purists insist on it.
The common mistake is rushing it. Cook jowl fat too hot and it scorches and turns bitter before it renders.
Keep the heat gentle and give it time.
Substitutes and Storage
For fresh jowl in a braise or pot of greens, pork belly or a ham hock is the closest stand-in. For guanciale, pancetta is the best swap, then unsmoked bacon; smoked bacon works but adds smoke that guanciale does not have.
Keep fresh pork jowl cold and use it within two to three days, or freeze up to three months. Cured guanciale keeps for weeks wrapped in the fridge, and a hard, dry exterior is normal; just trim any off taste and slice from the firm interior.
Quick facts
- In Chinese
- 猪肉下颌
- British (UK) term
- Pork jowls
- en français
- bajoues de porc
- en español
- papada de cerdo
Recipes using pork jowls
There are 2 recipes that contain this ingredient.
Pot Likker Chili with Beans
Southern pot likker chili built on collard-green broth with smoked chuck, ground beef, pintos, chipotle, habanero, and a splash of beer. Long-simmered, deeply smoky, bowl-licking good.
Big Heat's Brunswick Stew
Pit-master style Brunswick stew with smoked pulled pork, roasted chicken, okra, lima beans, and corn simmered in homemade stock. Low and slow for hours, packed with smoky, tangy heat.
