Doing my original plan of Pancetta Piacentina....
Picked up another belly this morning from my butcher. Kill date for this pig was 08/30/22 so super fresh! It came from Home Place Pastures...Berkshire Pork.
This was a fairly large pig. The belly is almost 3" thick in one corner. I had wanted a belly monday, but the butcher told me they were out of primals at the moment so he could not custom cut one for me. But said they would be getting pigs tomorrow afternoon and breaking them down weds. morning. It is always interesting talking to butchers use to cutting a pig American style. Trying to get a true Italian cut belly is always a challenge because it does mess up the ribs and must be cut just below the loin..so basically it is the entire side and the belly. I was very specific that I wanted a belly 16" wide, and with how thick this one is, I probably needed it 18-20 inches wide. The smallest width is 13-14" wide...definitely cutting it close. I will more than likely need to cover with a casing along the seam because I won't have enough skin for good coverage.
The belly..
The seasoning:
I took half the turbinado sugar and the cloves, put that in the spice grinder and pulverized that into a powder. The clove disintegrated and darkened the sugar slightly...WOW the aroma!!! I did the same with the Black Peppercorns and the remaining turbinado sugar.
I trimmed about 1/4# of soft fat and cavity lining off the belly, then applied the cure and spice mix.
Salt already starting to pull water out...
I have the belly sitting in my old cure fridge 37-41*F; 75~80%RH on a slight incline to allow the moisture to run off-just like the D.O.P. recipe calls for. The salt will remove 4-5% of the water from the belly. But you will lose roughly 0.3-0.5% of the salt doing it this way so you need to compensate for that when making the cure. The lower water activity is important if you will heat treat the belly after equalizing for proper enzymatic activity-which is flavor production. I put a sheet pan and an inverted bread pan on the rack first:
Then the belly on a tub lid...
Let it cure for 15-20 days....see you guys then when I roll it...
Picked up another belly this morning from my butcher. Kill date for this pig was 08/30/22 so super fresh! It came from Home Place Pastures...Berkshire Pork.
This was a fairly large pig. The belly is almost 3" thick in one corner. I had wanted a belly monday, but the butcher told me they were out of primals at the moment so he could not custom cut one for me. But said they would be getting pigs tomorrow afternoon and breaking them down weds. morning. It is always interesting talking to butchers use to cutting a pig American style. Trying to get a true Italian cut belly is always a challenge because it does mess up the ribs and must be cut just below the loin..so basically it is the entire side and the belly. I was very specific that I wanted a belly 16" wide, and with how thick this one is, I probably needed it 18-20 inches wide. The smallest width is 13-14" wide...definitely cutting it close. I will more than likely need to cover with a casing along the seam because I won't have enough skin for good coverage.
The belly..
The seasoning:
I took half the turbinado sugar and the cloves, put that in the spice grinder and pulverized that into a powder. The clove disintegrated and darkened the sugar slightly...WOW the aroma!!! I did the same with the Black Peppercorns and the remaining turbinado sugar.
I trimmed about 1/4# of soft fat and cavity lining off the belly, then applied the cure and spice mix.
Salt already starting to pull water out...
I have the belly sitting in my old cure fridge 37-41*F; 75~80%RH on a slight incline to allow the moisture to run off-just like the D.O.P. recipe calls for. The salt will remove 4-5% of the water from the belly. But you will lose roughly 0.3-0.5% of the salt doing it this way so you need to compensate for that when making the cure. The lower water activity is important if you will heat treat the belly after equalizing for proper enzymatic activity-which is flavor production. I put a sheet pan and an inverted bread pan on the rack first:
Then the belly on a tub lid...
Let it cure for 15-20 days....see you guys then when I roll it...
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