Pancetta Time In NC, Updated

[ACW3]

A while back Rick (Nepas) made some Bresaola.  After seeing his post, I bought one of the Charcuterie kits from Umai.  I have had some pork bellies in my freezer to make some bacon with one of these days.  So I decided to make Pancetta instead (this is just dry cured bacon) using the recipe and dry bags from Umai.

After thawing two pieces of pork belly, I broke out the skinning knives I bought for hunting.  Even though I have had the knives for a number of years, I had never used them to skin any of the big game that I have shot.  We always took the game to a meat processor.  So, I got to finally use them.  I removed the skin from each piece of pork belly.  The knives worked great!



This is the finished pork belly, ready to be coated with the dry rub.



Here is the dry rub mix.  It uses InstaCure #2 (not Cure #1) since the Pancetta will be dry cured.



The final picture shows the pork bellies coated generously with the dry rub.  They will be refrigerated for the next 7 to 10 days.



I will post the next set of steps in the dry curing process in about 10 days..

Art

[muebe]

Will be watching Art...

[TentHunteR]

Great timing Art!  Just the other day I was looking at a Pancetta recipes!

I'll be watching this one unfold.

[sparky]

i'm looking forward to this.  its great seeing ya cook more buddy.   

[sliding_billy]

Drooling already!

[Sam3]

I'm watching this one too Art. Off to a great start!

[nepas]

Art

Thats going to be real good.

I took the Bresaola to the bbq in Florida, it went fast and i didnt get pics cuz i was doing other things.

[Pam Gould]

Definately watching this one. Pam

[ACW3]

Well, the pork belly pieces have been in the dry cure for ten days.  Time to rinse and dry them.  I decided to dry cure both versions of pancetta, slab (stesa) and rolled (arrotolata).  The larger piece had a more uniform thickness and thus lends itself nicely to being rolled.  The other three pieces are either too small or a little too thick to roll, so I will dry cure them as a slab.  I will put the two small “sample sized” pieces in one small dry bag.  I may pull these out after 30 days to see how I am doing.

The first picture shows the pork belly pieces still in the dry cure.



The second picture shows the rinsed and dried pieces.



The third picture shows the one arrotolata and the three stesas.



The final picture show them dry bagged and ready to go into the refrigerator for at least 30 days.


 
See you in a month or so.

Art

[ACW3]

I have been checking how “solid” the pancetta has been since I cured it and used the Umai dry cure bags.  The two smaller pieces were pulled several weeks ago and thinly sliced and added to some green beans.  Basically, I wasn’t impressed.  Then again, there wasn’t much fat in those two small pieces.  The real test would be when I sliced each piece.

The slab (stesa) Pancetta in the slicer.



Here is some of the sliced slab Pancetta.  Looks just like bacon!!



The rolled (arrotolata) Pancetta before I removed the twine.  Looks good and feels good.  Kind of firm, but not a brick, either.



Here is the rolled Pancetta on the slicer and a few early slices.



I must say that the Pancetta came out much better than I would have expected after tasting the sample pieces.  My wife gave it her “Seal of Approval”.  It must be good!

I will have to finish vacuum packaging the sliced Pancetta later.  It seems I have blown a fuse.  I need to find another fuse for my vacuum sealer.

Art 

[veryolddog]

Wow! I am impressed.

Ed

[muebe]

Looks really good Art!

[drholly]

That looks really good. Nice job!

[Sam3]

Nice job Art!

[TentHunteR]

Yum, Art, YUM!!!

It looks nice and dense. Great job buddy!