I mean it's creamy and the cheese melt well
but it tastes fucking horrible

I added 3 egg yolks and a lot of shredded parmesan
maybe it's from the taste of the cheese?

by kambustgawr

10 Comments

  1. Designer-Addition-58

    try a whole egg and a normal amount of quality parmigiano / pecorino

    edit – also i’d thicken that a bit more, in the pic it seems watery almost

  2. maRthbaum_kEkstyniCe

    Looks like you let the pan cool this time

    Was it pre shredded cheese? That may explain why the sauce doesn’t stick to the pasta

    Or you used too much pasta water to finish the sauce, and that’s why it’s runny and doesn’t stick?

    If it tastes bitter, it may be 1) olive oil that isn’t good quality or 2) old parmesan (I prefer pecorino but if you use parmesan it can’t be stale)

  3. Vision-Oak-2875

    You need a quality Parmesan, 24 month aged at least. Why is it so wet? For that amount of pasta go with 1 egg yolk. You only need pasta water if the pan is still piping hot.

  4. 1337-Sylens

    It’s very simple dish of fatty cured meat, egg, cheese and pepper.

    If consistency is right technique should be too, so flavor is mostly function of the cheese and meat you use.

  5. continuousobjector

    My uneducated guess is the quality of the cheese is the culprit

  6. pureformality

    Perhaps too much of the water the spaghetti was cooked in?

  7. byebaaijboy

    Your dish tastes bad because it looks like your sauce is not cooked and so you are eating raw egg, which is an acquired taste.

    To remedy, next time try to move the pot on and off the flame, as needed to cook the sauce, but to keep it. from curdling

    Edit: because redditors have dismal reading comprehension skills.

  8. Train_Guy97

    That looks good and very delicious as well 🙂

  9. lgbtjase

    It looks a little thin, but I think that might be temperature related. Preshredded cheeses are often coated in an anti-clumping agent, which can create flavor and texture issues. On your next attempt, I recommend grating the cheese yourself. Pecorino is also a category of sheep’s milk cheese. Pecorino Romano, Pecorino sardo, Pecorino Toscana, etc, are all different. Your meat doesn’t look like guanciale, but it could be a quality issue or technique. When you cut the guanciale to fry, cut it so that the lean meat is a strip in the center of 2 fatty layers. Trim the fat to the same thickness (more fat equals more oil. This is a lot of the flavor profile.) You shouldn’t need much olive oil, if any, for this dish unless your guanciale b is really lean. I leave mine as 1 inch strips and fry them up crisp. Low heat so as not to burn them. I combine 1 whole large egg and 1 yolk with 500 g of pecorino romano and a very generous amount of black pepper until it forms a little ball of cheese “dough.”

    Don’t over salt your pasta water because pecorino and guanciale are both salty. It’s easy to over salt. When you get your pasta like you want it, toss in the hot skillet (turn heat off) add cheese dough and mix roughly until creamy. Add pasta water until desired thickness is achieved. Add in guanciale pieces and more black pepper if you want.

  10. PsychAce

    It’s only a failure if you don’t learn from your mistakes.

    Here, the “King of Carbonara”, Michelin star Chef Monosilio of Cucina Italiana in Rome showed you how to do it step by step. 25 min video that is priceless. It isn’t complicated. Easy to follow along.

    Looking forward to your next attempt.

    https://youtu.be/SsUGomHw85o?si=kDOOeOFPvw6V73vV

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