Hi folks. So for my first pork belly venture, I thought I'd try my hand at making pancetta cuz it's pretty simple. Never really had it before but it was easy enough - cure, roll, wrap, hang, yum - so i gave it a shot.
Well, after a week of curing, I trimmed it until square, rolled, and tied it up and now it's hanging. I boiled up some pasta and cooked up the pancetta trimmings real crispy and learned something very important: I don't really like pancetta.
I know many people do but it's just not my thing. It was crispy like bacon, porky like bacon, salty like bacon, but there was something missing - Ahhhhh, smoke!
So I think I'll try to smoke it. Has anyone ever done this? Do I take it to 150 like slab bacon? My concern is that since it's rolled, the outside might get really dry before I reach the internal temp. Plus, the skin was removed before curing.
Yes, I can unroll it but I thought it would be cool to have round slices of smoked bacon to put on burgers, english muffins, and such.
Any tips? Smoke then wrap in foil? Thanks.
Well, after a week of curing, I trimmed it until square, rolled, and tied it up and now it's hanging. I boiled up some pasta and cooked up the pancetta trimmings real crispy and learned something very important: I don't really like pancetta.
I know many people do but it's just not my thing. It was crispy like bacon, porky like bacon, salty like bacon, but there was something missing - Ahhhhh, smoke!
So I think I'll try to smoke it. Has anyone ever done this? Do I take it to 150 like slab bacon? My concern is that since it's rolled, the outside might get really dry before I reach the internal temp. Plus, the skin was removed before curing.
Yes, I can unroll it but I thought it would be cool to have round slices of smoked bacon to put on burgers, english muffins, and such.
Any tips? Smoke then wrap in foil? Thanks.
