- Nov 8, 2016
- 673
- 808
Helped my Uncle Demolish an old deck in his back yard Wednesday. He insisted on paying me, I declined. He insisted...Pulled out $140 and said "Go buy a pastured Berkshire pork belly and make pancetta for the family Christmas party..I'm buying." I said, "Yes Sir! That will be done."
So today, I rode up to the butcher and picked up a 14.25# full belly, 2 1/2" thick; $7.69/# which is not bad for the quality of the pork. The butcher shop just moved to a new location in June and they have expanded to include a deli serving hot lunches, thus they had some new employees that did not know me. I asked for a whole pork belly and he went to pull out what they had in the meat case under the counter. I then clarified that I wanted the full whole belly untrimmed. He went got the head butcher. After some chit chat and filling him in on my new chamber, he said give me 10 minutes and I'll have you a whole belly, need to cut it. He pulled out a loin primal and cut the belly off for me.
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Got home and got to work. Belly trimmed ready to go with Salt, cure and spices...
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Tools and twine ready to go...
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seasoned...
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Sewed...
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Man that skin was tough like leather! I need to get a different needle. I started and then changed up the suture pattern 1/3rd the way through to close it up better.
I did not have a salted veil which is traditionally used on the ends of the pancetta after it is rolled. But I did have half of a beef bung that worked well. I used a piece of 60mm beef middle cut open lengthwise over the sewn area.
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and trussed....
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Be ready in 4 months...Just in time for Christmas.
Thanks to Giorgino and David @youtube for the tips on Pancetta Piacentina.
And thanks to Fabrizio @ the Piacentina Consortium Norcini Institute for the instruction on rolling, sewing and trussing Pancetta:
The stuff you put on here is nothing short of spectacular. Can’t wAit to hear how it tastes.