martyleach
Quintessential Chatty Farker
Pancetta is basically bacon as we know it rolled up, not smoked, and then dehydrated a little bit to intensify the flavor of the bacon. Typically, you buy it in paper thin pieces. Like bacon, you need to cook it at the end of the process.
Quite often, a recipe will call for 1/4 inch cubes of Pancetta. I don't know where to buy that around here, so I made one.
I found a pretty good pork belly at Whole Foods. It was about 15lbs.
I cut it in half and trimmed it up a bit. One piece will be bacon and one will be Pancetta. Got the ingredients for the cure and seasoning out
Bagged and ready for 7-10 days in the fridge, turning and rubbing every day.
After 8 days in the cure, I removed it, rinsed it off really good and got rid of all the noticeable seasoning. Then I gave the meat side a good slather of fresh pepper and rolled it really tight. Don't want to leave any air left in the middle. This is probably the most difficult part.
Then it went into my temperature and humidity controlled cave which is actually an old fridge with a couple mods so that I can dial in the temp and Relative Humidity. I dialed the temp to 53 and the humidity to 60%. I left it there for 2 weeks to dry slowly. You don't want the outside drying too quickly
After 14 days, here is the beauty
Cooked a little lower than normal bacon. I had to try it!!
Put on a sourdough English muffin, topped with sharp Provolone and a fried egg. Dang that was good!
Quite often, a recipe will call for 1/4 inch cubes of Pancetta. I don't know where to buy that around here, so I made one.
I found a pretty good pork belly at Whole Foods. It was about 15lbs.
I cut it in half and trimmed it up a bit. One piece will be bacon and one will be Pancetta. Got the ingredients for the cure and seasoning out
Bagged and ready for 7-10 days in the fridge, turning and rubbing every day.
After 8 days in the cure, I removed it, rinsed it off really good and got rid of all the noticeable seasoning. Then I gave the meat side a good slather of fresh pepper and rolled it really tight. Don't want to leave any air left in the middle. This is probably the most difficult part.
Then it went into my temperature and humidity controlled cave which is actually an old fridge with a couple mods so that I can dial in the temp and Relative Humidity. I dialed the temp to 53 and the humidity to 60%. I left it there for 2 weeks to dry slowly. You don't want the outside drying too quickly
After 14 days, here is the beauty
Cooked a little lower than normal bacon. I had to try it!!
Put on a sourdough English muffin, topped with sharp Provolone and a fried egg. Dang that was good!
