This is one of the few recipes I will ever post. Not because I am a jerk, but because I believe most home cooking should be based on what you have and a technique that works, not upon a recipe from a book that looks great but requires running three errands to complete. Guanciale is in itself a great recipe replacer. If you have some on hand - an easy enough thing to do- then you can always start there when you get home from work and have hungry birds to feed. Just gently fry it in some olive oil, add onions and garlic and whatever else you have on hand for a great meal. With tomato product it becomes pasta or pizza sauce. With carrots, celery root and leftover Lima beans it becomes stew. With potatoes, kale, and eggs it becomes a great frittata. Guanciale, and pork fat in general is the great bridge between 'good' and totally satiating. Ok enough talk already.SPICE RUB
1 pigs jowl - rinsed and patted dry.
2.5g juniper berries
5g fennel seed
2 bay leaves
5g black peppercorns
3-6 dried sage leaves
1/2 star anise
VERY gently toast the above except the sage. Cool, add the sage and grind. Contrary to popular belief spices should NOT SMOKE when toasting. Smoke is disappearing flavor compounds!
GARLIC PASTE
10g red chili or flakes
4 garlic cloves Crush the garlic.
Mix in the chili flakes or crush in the garlic, we love the mortar and pestle for this.
Now, rub the spices into the jowl, then smear the garlic paste over it smoothly.
Layer a bed of sea or kosher salt in a non-reactive dish (stainless or glass is good) and place the seasoned jowl into it. 
Cover with more salt. It should look like it is buried in a good 3"-4" snow fall (not literally 3-4" of salt). 
Cover with plastic with a few vent holes and refrigerate for 20 days. Mark the finish date on the container so you know when to pull it from the salt. This, aside from the salt, is the only really critical direction I've given you so far. After 20 days, exhume and brush and/or lightly rinse off the excess salt, gently pat dry preserving as much of the spice coating as possible. Now you can either hang the jowl for a month in a cool dark place with a light parchment paper or cheesecloth shroud or transfer to a wire rack over a pan, lightly draped with vented parchment or plastic and back into the fridge for 30 days. An auxiliary fridge that runs at about 50 degrees F is great for this. Give it a try, there is so much salt involved that the process is fairly foolproof and jowls are small so if you do mess up your losses are minimal. It could be a whole ham right! To use just cut off a strip like bacon, dice or chop the strip into pieces, fry gently in a little oil and off you go.
