Pancetta
Porcine Pulchritude
Last December I made pancetta using a recipe in Michael Ruhlman's and Brian Polcyn's Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing. I ordered a pork belly from my local rancher, rubbed the cure into it, and let it rest in the refrigerator for two and a half weeks. Then I rinsed the cure off, rolled it up and tied it, and let it age for another two weeks in a cool closet. Finally it was ready and I cut off a
Inevitably I had to try cooking with it so I peeled and diced a couple of parsnips and sautéed them with diced pancetta for lunch — awesome!
I've included an adaptation of the recipe for making pancetta below, but I recommend buying the book.
Last December I made pancetta using a recipe in Michael Ruhlman's and Brian Polcyn's Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing. I ordered a pork belly from my local rancher, rubbed the cure into it, and let it rest in the refrigerator for two and a half weeks. Then I rinsed the cure off, rolled it up and tied it, and let it age for another two weeks in a cool closet. Finally it was ready and I cut off a
Anybody who believes that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach flunked geography. ~ Robert Byrne
piece and cooked it — as I said, extraordinary. Far better than any pancetta I've ever eaten. It's also easy to make in a home kitchen. The hard part is the waiting.Inevitably I had to try cooking with it so I peeled and diced a couple of parsnips and sautéed them with diced pancetta for lunch — awesome!
I've included an adaptation of the recipe for making pancetta below, but I recommend buying the book.
Pancetta
2 - 3 pound pork belly — skin removed
2 cloves garlic — crushed
1 teaspoon pink salt (curing salt with nitrite)
1 tablespoon dark brown sugar
1 tablespoon black pepper
1 tablespoon juniper berries — crushed
2 bay leaves — crumbled
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 reaspoon dried thyme
Combine all ingredients except pork in a small bowl.
Trim the belly so that it forms a neat rectangle of fairly uniform thickness.
Rub the cure into the both sides of the pork belly, place in a large zippered plastic bag, and refrigerate for one week. Without removing the belly from the back, massage the curing mixture into the meat again. Refrigerate for another week. At the end of that time check the meat for firmness at it's thickest point. If it's still soft, refrigerate for another couple of days until firm.
Remove the belly and rinse off the cure with cold water (you don't need to be obsessive about cleaning it) and pat dry. Sprinkle the meat side with another tablespoon of black pepper. Roll very tightly, meat side in, and tie with twine at on to two inch intervals. Hang in a cool (50 - 60F), dark place — ideally with 60 percent humidity — for 2 weeks.
Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for up to 3 weeks or freeze for up to 4 months.
25 Comments:
Ugly? It's beautiful! Like a pork candy cane. Umm...ok, maybe not the best description...
Pancetta & parsnips sounds wonderful, I'll have to try that.
Kevin, I love pancetta and proscuitto, but I will not skin the thing! This looks beautiful to me though.
Vicki,
I like it!
Donna,
I had the skin removed by the butcher.
Wow Kevin! Very impressive, and it looks amazing!
Hey, I bet I could do this! I live in Central Illinois and have access to both locally raised beef and pork, I bet I could special order a pork belly! It sounds pretty easy!
Sorry for all the !!!s, but I'm pretty excited about this!
OK, Vicki wins. Great description.
Beautiful, Kev.
That looks amazing!
CC & Kristen,
Thanks.
Peggasus,
It's a peice of cake.
I agree with the candy cane comment! Just gorgeous. I can only imagine how good it was.
Wow! I can't believe you cured your own pancetta. I suppose after hanging out a while in the fridge all covered in salt, it can be left in a closet without and adverse health effects? Great to know.
I guess beauty is in the eye of the hungry. I dont think that's ugly at all! It looks as good as it probably tastes! Great work.
S'kat,
Vicki hit it on the nose.
Susan,
The two-week cure in the refigerator makes it safe to hang.
Ulterior,
This some throws your salivary glands into flood mode.
I ordered some salt and will be making bacon from that book very soon!
Brilynn,
Bacon's also on my list.
This looks amazing, I cant wait to try this out. I can eat this type of thing till the cows come home! Do you wrap the pork in anything when you hang it in the cupboard?
Thanks so much for sharing this little delight with us!
smiles.:-))Bonzai
Anon,
No, I didn't wrap it. I hung it just the way you see it.
Howdy Kev, that looks mighty pretty to me. When I saw the parameters for humidity and temps it made me think of the conditions under my house here in Oakland during the summer. What do you think, too buggy? Could I maybe build a wooden box to suspend it in, or maybe even put it in my smoker and then put that under? Am I nuts? I just really, really want to try making pancetta sometime.....
D-man,
"sourdough monkey wrangler"???? Jeez, what a job title. Do you only need to feed sourdough monkeys once a week?
But nevermind that now. An Oakland cellar. The conditions should be perfect in terms of temp and humidity. But bugs...
I suspect that's not an issue because the bugs just won't like the way it tastes, but I don't know it's not an issue.
Ok. So follow my directions for rolling and tying the pancetta. Arrange for a long piece of twine to hang it by. Then take a couple of layers of cheesecloth and form a loose bag around the pancetta, tied to the twine you're using for hanging at the top. That should keep all bugs off.
But rats and mice might be a problem -- and more difficult to solve.
And go buy Ruhlman's book. From what I can tell looking at your Web site, you'll love it.
My sourdough pets get fed at least once a week, but my monkey currently eats about 8 or 9 times a day it seems (that's including 3 sit down meals; she has always been a good eater).
Thanks for the response of technical tips. The wooden box idea was really about addressing the rodent population, so combining it with the cheesecloth thing sounds very promising. I'm beginning to plot it out already. And I will check out that book.
Thanks for dropping by!
Pancetta is a wonder... you can prepare it in so many differents ways. i love to dry it to make it crispy and serve it with some Saint Jacques or with a good risotto with some white truffe.
Have you ever try the colonata? a totally white pancetta
Laurent,
I served it at a class the other night as part of an appetizer:
potatoes -- sliced 1/8 in thick
melted butter
goat cheese -- creamed with fresh chives
pancetta -- cubed and browned
I brushed butter on the potato slices and then baked them in 500F oven until done.
Next I topped each slice with a dab of goat cheese, then topped the cheese with a few cubes of pancetta.
Delicious.
Hi, sorry for being late to the party, but your site showed up in a google search.
I followed Ruhlman's recipe for pancetta, which has been hanging for about a week in an outdoor shed. The weather has been in the proper range, and it being late October there are no more bugs in this neck of the woods.
However, yesterday I noticed white specks appearing on the pancetta, specifically those parts where the meat is showing through. Do you have any idea what this is? I'm thinking it's salt crystalizing, but it could be something else.
Michel,
If it's salt it will feel granular (like salt), but there are harmless molds that occur on cured meat as well. My guess is that if you followed the curing directions and the temp hasn't gotten more than three or four degrees above 60F then you're ok. However, you might query Ruhlman: michael@ruhlman.com.
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