Bacon and pancetta

[cdn offroader]

Got a nice 10lb belly from the butcher, gonna do half as a dry cure bacon, and the other as pancetta. Removed the skin, trimmed them up and applied the cure and seasoning for both, and now to wait...

Following the recipes from Charcuterie(early Christmas present)

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• cdn offroader
• Dec 22, 2013

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• cdn offroader
• Dec 22, 2013

 

[cdn offroader]

So after curing for 7 days in the fridge, I pulled and rinsed the pancetta, covered the meat side with crushed black pepper, and tied into a log for extended hanging

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• cdn offroader
• Jan 5, 2014

After about a week hanging in the basement, it had lost about 2 tbsp. of liquid, and was starting to really dry out, so I cut up a few packs and vac packed it.

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• cdn offroader
• Jan 5, 2014

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• cdn offroader
• Jan 5, 2014

I thought the flavor was good when I hung it initially, but the salty flavor has really intensified after drying, I think t will be really good shaved thin on a sandwich, pizza, or used in soups/stews etc, but too salty to be eaten by itself...

EDIT: Cubed it up and fried it into some pasta, was perfect.

 

[snorkelinggirl]

Hi CDN,

Nice looking pictures of your pancetta! A little thinly shaved pancetta topping your eggs or sauteed greens sounds wonderful!

Sorry to hear that it came out too salty. I've also followed Ruhlman's recipes for pancetta, as well as bacon, guanciale, and duck prosciutto. All of these recipes have come out too salty for my taste. I've been much happier with my product when I have followed recipes using the "Cured Meats" blog written by Jason Molinari. He uses equilibrium curing, so less salt, longer cure time, and more predictable results.

Have a great day!
Clarissa

 

[cdn offroader]

Final set of pics from this one, borrowed a Cuisinart slicer from a buddy, found out it was to short to slice my bacon whole, so had to trim it...

, much happier with the bacon flavor. Did 1/2 in peppered, left the other half plain. Also ended up with a nice bag of bacon ends, which may end up in beans, or soup, or as sausage filler.

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• cdn offroader
• Jan 9, 2014