Comments on: Homemade Pancetta

By: Matt

Matt — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 23:49:01 +0000

I don’t think it’s necessary to weight down the pork belly to get the moisture out: the chemical process of the salt is what’s the real goal here.

You should leave the moisture in with the pork belly until you’re done with the curing, then discard the liquid.

Don’t add any more cure or you risk the pork being too salty (as has happened with some bacon I just made).

You can cure or dry it for longer than two weeks if you’d like. I believe, however, that you’re approaching the law of diminishing returns after that period of time.

Good luck with your pancetta.

By: Amis goomis

Amis goomis — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 23:10:33 +0000

Started my pork belly in cure 3 days ago. Im weighting it with a cookie sheet full of pebbles to get the moisture out,turning it every day. Should I dispose of the rendered liquid or keep it? Should I keep adding more cure or just keep the portion made for the piece? Any law against curing or drying more that two weeks? I read an article that proposed both for a month.

By: Italian Woman

Italian Woman — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 21:38:46 +0000

I love this idea because here in Seattle, I can’t find pancetta that’s affordable and as fresh and tasty as it is in Italy. We have tons of Asian markets so pork belly should not be a problem. Thanks for the inspiration. I never would have thought of this.

P.S. My dad is an engineer and he’s very precise. I can picture him pulling this off!

By: Matt

Matt — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 23:16:29 +0000

A beer fridge would work pretty well, at least for the drying portion. For drying, you need the temperature around 60 degrees or so. The curing portion can be done in a regular fridge (which I think is usually about 34 degrees).

By: Angela

Angela — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 22:31:36 +0000

We have a little beer fridge with one shelf–would that be big enough? Thinking further… my biggest problem may be trying to persuade my toddler that opening the fridge and playing with the pork is a Bad Thing

By: Matt

Matt — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 21:45:43 +0000

So when I saw the comment I thought it was from my wife at first.

It really works the best if you have a spare mini-fridge as you can use it for the drying portion and then you don’t have to worry about losing fridge space. It’s also pretty easy to find pork belly if you have any Asian markets in the area.

By: Angela

Angela — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 21:04:44 +0000

Wow! I am in awe of you for attempting this and pulling it off!

I might give this a go if we buy into a share of a pig next year. (And if I can figure out how to live without a shelf of the fridge for a couple of weeks!)

By: Matt

Matt — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 15:09:09 +0000

Well now don’t I feel dumb. I should’ve known how it’s really spelled but I got confused over the difference in pronunciation between the English ch and the Italian ch. Thanks.

By: djkrysa

djkrysa — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 14:41:19 +0000

Great recipe. It’s something I’d never have thought of trying myself as I’d always assumed it would be way too difficult. I might give it a go now.

One point though, Panchetta is somthing similar to the Italian word for foot stool I think you mean pancetta.

Grazie!

By: Matt

Matt — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 16:06:54 +0000

Gratzie. It wasn’t too difficult to do, particularly since I had the second fridge. The hard part was really finding the pork belly but we have a number of Asian grocery stores in the area. I didn’t have fun taking the skin off the pork however.

I was more surprised by how attractive it looked when cut. I didn’t really expect it to get quite that red but I’m not complaining.