How to make Pancetta.
Similar to bacon, pancetta begins with a sweet-and-salty cure but is considerably more heavily seasoned with herbs. Then, for a few weeks, pancetta is air-dried rather than roasted or smoked.
INGREDIENTS
- 1- to 2-pound slabs of pork belly
- 1 teaspoon of garlic powder or two chopped and separated cloves of garlic
- a single teaspoon of pink curing salt (optional but recommended)
- 2 teaspoons of sea salt with medium-fine grains or kosher.
- split into 112 tablespoons of black pepper, ground
- 2 pieces of bay leaves and 10 juniper berries split into powder
- 12 teaspoon of nutmeg, ground
- 2-3 fresh thyme sprigs’ leaves
INSTRUCTIONS
- Wash the pork belly in cold water, then pat it dry with paper towels or a clean dishcloth.
- Unlike when preparing bacon, you will remove the skin-like peel from the pig belly before curing it to make pancetta. To do this, spread out the pork belly skin-side up and saw it horizontally just under the skin with a sharp knife.
- In a sizable dish or on a sizable plate, combine all the remaining ingredients with the exception of 1 tablespoon of ground black pepper. On the pork belly, rub them in.
Make careful to coat the whole surface of the pork with the seasoned curing mixture. - Place the pork belly in a nonreactive container (glass, food-grade plastic, or stainless steel) along with any additional curing ingredients that haven’t already been rubbed into it. For a week, cover the container and place it in the fridge. Turn the pork belly inside the container over once daily, or flip the bag over.
- Even at the thickest point of the meat, the pancetta should feel firm after a week. Cure it in the refrigerator for a further day or two if it’s still extremely soft.
Rinse the pig belly well in cold water after it has reached the point of being completely cured and solid, and then thoroughly pat it dry with a clean dishcloth or paper towels. - Position the pork belly meat-side up (fat layer underneath). The remaining black pepper, ground, should be applied on the flesh side. You can’t roll the pork belly too tightly, so form a tight cylinder and fasten it with kitchen twine, butcher’s thread, or plain, unflavored dental floss.
- Hang the pancetta in a humid, cool area, such as an unheated basement, to air dry. You have some leeway with that; ideally, the temperature should be between 50 and 60 °F and the humidity level should be about 60 %.
Without a doubt, hang it somewhere cool and out of the way. Put the pancetta on a rack placed over a dish in the refrigerator with a plastic bag or large container loosely placed upside down over the rack if the humidity is low and the pancetta begins to dry out. Allow it to air-dry for two weeks. - After it has dried, carefully wrap your pancetta in butcher paper or plastic wrap. It will last up to one month in the refrigerator and at least four months in the freezer. To prepare pancetta for consumption, slice it thinly or sliver it, then cook it like bacon.
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