I have been so blasted busy the past few weeks I almost forgot to post this, until I just saw Art's post about the Pancetta.
After drying in the fridge for about a month and testing, it was dense enough, but I wanted a bit more smoke flavor. Since it was a nice cool morning, I decided to give the Wangenspeck a second smoke (it originally only got hot-smoked).
After about 4 hours of cold smoke... ah yes nice and smoky, but no too smoky. It went back in the fridge to rest for another day or so.
Time to slice...
Wow is this stuff good! Nice and dense from the 1-month dry age with a nice hint of the juniper berries & pepper throughout. It can be cooked if you like, or as with other German bacons it's traditionally sliced very thinly and served as-is on dark bread with cheese.
