Home-made Pancetta

[Big Mike]

I think I'm going to go the stresa route. Seems like the same results without the fussy rolling and tying while removing the chance of having hidden air pockets in the middle of the roll. The cure has been on for over a week and they're about ready to hang. I was hoping to have the pancetta ready for Thanksgiving, that might be a stretch. Can I use the pancetta if it hasn't finished drying? Once it's cured it's ready to go right?

Edited November 19, 2010 by Big Mike (log)

[nickrey]

The hanging does more than drying: it is where the flavour develops. I'd leave it for the recommended time and experience the full taste of the product.

[Chris Amirault]

Agree with Nick. You'll also build a sense of how long you like your pancetta cured; I tend to like it to go for as long as possible to develop the flavor.

[Big Mike]

OK, I'll leave it to hang for a while. We throw a huge Christmas Eve party every year, I'll use it then. I wonder how a chunk of pancetta would taste if it was cooked sous vide?

[Tom Gengo]

I have this year's batch hanging in the basement now and thought I'd share a few tweaks. (The cure followed the Bertolli ingredients I mentioned above.)

The first involves the bellies I'm using. I have been buying bellies from a nearby Chinese market for years now; they get their outsanding pork from a farm in New Hampshire, and, after lots of frustration trying to order Niman bellies through Whole Foods, I've switched whole hog, so to speak. Thing is, the skin-on bellies are in thick strips:

After a little agita about this, I realized that these slabs are actually a very good size for the uses I have for this product. I can slice it lengthwise on the Hobart for wrapping; I can cut it into lardons, dice, you name it along the short side. It's also easier to hang evenly than the big slabs, and I came up with a neat technique using two holes through the skin:

Hey Chris,

Here in Charleston the local Asian market sells the pork belly in the strips like you show in your pictures. However, I have convinced them to sell me the entire belly and it is still frozen. Likely, the store will be able to sell you the whole belly so you can control the dimensions of your bacon & stresa.

Hung it this weekend and I'm hellbent on at least 20 days aging, so in 3-4 weeks I can report back.

[Emily_R]

Hey Chris --

I'm about to start making some pancetta, and have two questions for you...

1) In Charcuterie, they suggest wrapping in cheesecloth if making stresa. I see above you don't do this. Do you know what the point of the cheesecloth is supposed to be?

2) I see you're talking about hanging for 20 days, and in the book they suggest 2 weeks... Have you noticed a big difference in flavor with longer aging? And it doesn't dry out on you?

Thanks!

Emily

[Chris Amirault]

1. No idea. Good question - someone around here knows the answer, I'm sure....

2. I go by feel, usually: longer is better but, yeah, you have to watch out for it getting too dry. Of course, that's subjective. Why not pull some at 14, 21, and 28 days and compare?

[Emily_R]

Hey All --

Ok, so another pancetta question. My pancetta has been hanging for 8 days now. It is clearly firming up, and smells good. I have it wrapped in one or two layers of cheesecloth, since our basement is dusty. Here's my question -- the meat side of it is starting to feel a little dry / crusty. The fat side feels more pliable. Is this normal? What is the texture / dryness I am aiming for? My basement is the right temperature (50-60 degrees), and I believe at roughly the right humidity level -- the humidity is certainly no less than 40% down there.

Thanks!

Emily

[Chris Amirault]

Sounds just fine to me!

[Raoul Duke]

Chris, I'd like to do the stresa and have a wine cellar. Issue is the humidity is around 70-75%. The temp is OK at 50-60 degrees. Can I hang the stresa in a humidity of 70%+?

[Chris Amirault]

Sure. May take a bit longer, but should be fine.

I find it helps enormously to imagine skilled Italian artisans tromping down into their basements over the decades in this situation. No hygrometers, no thermometers, and who knows what all was floating through the air.

[Raoul Duke]

Thanks Chris. Well, time is on my side since I'm semi-retired (still farming).

[Emily_R]

Hey Raoul --

My guess, given my recent experience, is that more humidity is probably better than less... I think my basement may have been a little dry, and so the meat part of the pancetta got a little harder than I would have liked. That said, I cut into it today, after 10 days hanging, and was generally pleased. Its a little saltier than I'd like -- I don't know if maybe I didn't wash it for long enough before hanging... But still very very savory! Apologies for the crappy photography...

Emily

[nolnacs]

Emily_R - I agree that more humidity is generally good, but make sure that you have some air circulation.

I had too high humidity when I was trying to cure pancetta in a small wine fridge and had to deal with a lot of mold.

That being said, your pancetta looks great! Do you have any plans for that nice looking meat?

[Emily_R]

Hi everyone --

So I used Ruhlman's recipe for pancetta a few months back with great success. I just recently started a new batch, and I'm puzzled. This belly was bigger, and thicker in parts, but I did scale up the amount of cure appropriately. However its been curing in the fridge for 10 or 11 days now, and still feels fairly squishy to me. I can't remember how firm my last batch was, so I'm not sure if this is ok... Any suggestions for what I should do? How firm does it need to be? Should I make more cure and add it now? Should I just hang it up and figure its probably okay?

Thanks!

Emily

[Butterbean]

10 or 11 days sounds more than plenty to me. You need to take it out and wash it off good, maybe even soak it for 20 minutes then hang it to dry. This might take a day or three depending on the weather. Once dry you can roll and tie, stuff or just hang as is in a cool place with about 50% humidity then let it dry and firm up. Might take a couple to three weeks but you will feel it firming. Hope this was helpful. BTW - its not so much the time it is in the salt that actually does the curing but the drying time and equalization time. Longer you keep it submerged in salt the saltier the end product will be. You can over salt it to the point that its just fatback. 7 days is a good number for me for a balanced pancetta. JMO

Edited February 4, 2012 by Butterbean (log)

[Emily_R]

Thanks Butterbean -- I gave it a very thorough rinse and then a short soak to help reduce the saltiness. Hopefully it won't be too bad given how thick it is... I'll report back!

[Butterbean]

I'm sure it will be fine. I'm not one to split hairs on stuff but sometimes subjective things like firmness can conjure different meanings to different people. Also, the pH of the meat will have an influence on its ability to hold water so it may take longer on some than others to firm up. I just like the 7 day rule myself.(I begin counting the day after prep) Easy for me to remember. Will look forward to hearing how it goes. Are you planning on rolling it or what?

[BadRabbit]

I'm going to be making some pancetta over the next few weeks and have a few questions.

My belly is Ossabaw (no skin) and is thus a little thin for regular bacon so I thought Pancetta might be a good alternative. The belly is no more than 1.5" at its thickest point and is mostly thinner than that (the entire piece is about 8" x 8" x 1.25").

I imagine that the actual rolling will be easier with a thinner belly but I'm afraid it will leave more places for air to be. Is this a time to break out the meat glue?

I thought about curing it flat but I think it may dry out too quickly given its thinness.

Thoughts?

[thirtyoneknots]

I'm going to be making some pancetta over the next few weeks and have a few questions.

My belly is Ossabaw (no skin) and is thus a little thin for regular bacon so I thought Pancetta might be a good alternative. The belly is no more than 1.5" at its thickest point and is mostly thinner than that (the entire piece is about 8" x 8" x 1.25").

I imagine that the actual rolling will be easier with a thinner belly but I'm afraid it will leave more places for air to be. Is this a time to break out the meat glue?

I thought about curing it flat but I think it may dry out too quickly given its thinness.

Thoughts?

Curing flat is more fool-proof, no chance of bad mold on the inside and such. If you experience uneven drying you can put the whole thing in a food saver bag and stick it in the fridge for a few weeks or more to even out. Seems to work, anyway.

[ninagluck]

does it make sense to put Bactoferm into the curing mix? i never did, but was approached with the question and did not have an answer. does anybody?

[OliverB]

Finally unpacked my first pancetta made with the Umai drybags. I bagged a pork shoulder May 12th, so it's been in there for a good 3 months. I think I cured it for some 10 days before that with pink salt, spices and garlic. It came out pretty good, nice and still soft inside, great red color. The meat was deboned, some areas had air pockets despite me tying it up very well. Kind of darker brownish there, I'll cut those parts out I think.

Still a bit nervous about feeding it to my family, I tasted some first, see if I'm still around tomorrow ;-)

But since the curing was done just in a regular freezer bag and then washed off very well, I'm pretty sure there's nothing mean growing. I think I'll cut off the fat cap and some of the dark outer layer, though pieces of it are funky yet good. Kind of funny I am hesitant, if this came from the basement of a small farmhouse in the Austrian alps, I'd be all over it with no 2nd thought, LOL.

Next I'll try some salami, they have some recipes where you just hang it in the kitchen/house to dry, I prefer that over a big chunk of meat taking up half a rack in my tiny fridge for 3 months. I cut it in quarters and will freeze 3 in vac bags.

So, if it tastes good and doesn't smell like rotten meat, I should be fine, right? Any input from others that did this before would be great, especially regarding checking for possible food safety issues.

Thanks!

[Emily_R]

I'm intrigued by these dry bags -- is the meat noticeably drier than when you put it in the fridge? As in, there was clearly real moisture loss?

[OliverB]

definitely. This was in for a long time, is like a nice prosciutto in consistency. Also aged a tenderloin (but only for something like a week I think) and you could definitely tell. Worth giving a try. Very thin plastic of some sort, adheres to the meat and lets moisture out, no air in. I think they sell trial packages, I got an assortment of different bags when I ordered earlier this year.

[takadi]

Is there a downside to using Umai vs conventional air drying? Does contact with oxygen or growth of mold add an extra layer of flavor or does it take away from it?