Pancetta

I recently watched a television program where the restaurant made their own pancetta and made it look pretty easy. That got me to thinking. Could I make my own pancetta? Or would it be too difficult to manuever? I suppose before I begin I should talk to you about pancetta and what it is. Pancetta is mostly oftenly referred to as Italian bacon. It is an unsmoked, salt cured pork belly. And it needs to be immersed in a spiced salt mixture and then hung to dry. While I knew I could find the pork belly and I knew I could cure it well, did I have the place to let it hang dry? Well I had no cellar or basement or anything of the sort but I figured I could find a dark cool place somewhere in my house and decided that I had nothing to lose so I would give it a shot!

First things first you need to get yourself some pork belly. I have found some very nice pieces at the Commissary on base. It is not a whole slab of pork belly but I think this works out better. You get manageable sizes pieces of pork belly in which to cure. It also fits inside a ziploc bag much better. If you want a large size of pork belly then by all means go ahead but it will require more salt mixture than I am outlining as well as a longer cure and dry period.

And now that you have your pork you need a salt mixture. Here is the recipe I used for 2 small pieces of pork belly.

2T pink salt
1/4c kosher salt
2T brown sugar
4T black pepper
2T juniper berries
4 bay leaves
1t nutmeg
4-5 sprigs of thyme

This is not an exact recipe. You can use any spices you like in here. You can use fenugreek, fennel, hot pepper spices, or more black pepper or any other version you like. This was just my first attempt at a basic run of the mill salt blend.

Trim the skin off the side of the pork belly.

Mix all the spices together and rub into every part of of the pork belly. Once you have it all rubbed in, place the pork into a large ziploc bag. You want to let this marinate for 7-10 days in the refigerator. You may want to shake the bag or flip the bag over once a day. I let mine marinate for 9 days.

Once your meat has cured in the fridge you need to rinse every bit of the salt mixture off the meat. Use your fingers to rub off all the salt mix. Lay it on a paper towel to dry off.

 Pat off all the excess water and grab some kitchen twine and roll up your meat. I rolled mine width wise. Make sure and leave a loop at the end of the string so you can hang it by a hook to dry. Your meat will need to hang for about 2 weeks.

I screwed a hook into my ceiling in what I believe is called the breakfast room. I put it in the corner of the room. It is generally kept dark because no one uses it much and the blinds stay closed. It stays cool because its not too close to kitchen to get that heat and with the blinds closed no heat comes in that way either. It is also fairly close to the vent. But basically you need to find a place where it will stay cool and dark. Or as cool and dark as you can get. I also placed a plate with a paper towel on it to catch any fat or juices that come out of the pancetta.

I forgot to take off the skin on my meat so about a week into my drying process I pulled it off and removed the skin and then let it hang for another week.

I took the smaller of my pancetta up to my Dads and sliced it paper thin and tried it out. I told my Dad that since I had never tried this I did not know if 1) it would be good or 2) it would make us violently ill. But he was willing to take the chance and so was I. And no one got ill!

It was nicely salty and yet maintained its porkiness. It did have some more dried out pieces on the edges of the meat. But I think when you make homemade foods you take all that with a grain of salt. You realize it is not the perfect prepackaged meats you buy in the store and just cut it off or chew it like jerky! But now that I know for sure that this is a process that works for me I can experiment around with different salt mixtures. I am going to try a salt cured pork belly but once rinsed I am going to one side in cracked black pepper and let it dry. That way you get some nice black pepper taste like you do when you buy deli style pastrami. But the best part is the price to make this. I spent between $1-3 a piece for my prok belly pieces. And I had all the spices on hand. You may have to buy some salt if you are making large pieces but overall it should be stuff you have in your pantry. And that means I spent probably $5 for my two pieces of pork belly. And when you go to the store to buy pancetta you spend $5 for maybe 6-8 slices. So I am coming off on top! If you like cured meats then I absolutely recommend trying this recipe out!