guanciale progress

My guanciale has been sitting tightly packed in a bowl with salt and seasonings in the refrigerator for about 14 days now.

Today, I rinsed it off under cold water, patted it dry, let it dry out more in front of a cold, open window and then hung it in a storage crate. We closed off the heat vent in our extra bedroom and will keep a window cracked and the ceiling fan on for what should be the ideal curing environment of 50 to 60 degrees and high-at-first-but-slowly-decreasing humidity for at least six weeks.

There were no funky aromas when I removed it from the fridge -- in fact, it smelled really good -- salty and aged even (and maybe a little like bacon, but that might be wishful thinking on my part). With any luck, we won't end up with three rotting slabs of meat in our house. Also, fingers crossed we both remember to keep the doors to this bedroom shut so that none of the critters gains access to what will hopefully be a delightful charcuterie.