CHOW Pancetta
TIME/SERVINGS
Total: 35 mins, plus 3 weeks for curing and hanging
Active: 35 mins
Makes: 1 pancetta (around 4 1/2 pounds)
By Regan Burns
Pancetta is cured pork belly, the Italian equivalent of bacon. Unlike American bacon, however, pancetta is cured with a variety of herbs, spices, and garlic, and is left unsmoked. Pancetta is usually rolled and tied in a cylindrical shape, then hung to dry. Some versions, such as the variety made in Florence, are left flat. Ours is the rolled kind, and it’s smashing when prepared with our Pasta Carbonara with Peas. If you’re visually inclined, see our illustrated step-by-step guide.
What to buy: Pork belly is the same as fresh bacon. You can order it from a good butcher or buy it online from Niman Ranch. A whole fresh pork belly with the skin on weighs around 11 pounds, of which you’ll need half (a 5-1/2-pound slab) to make 1 pancetta. If you like, you can ask your butcher to remove the skin for you, making the total prep time minimal.
Curing salt, also known as pink salt or saltpeter, contains 6.25 percent sodium nitrite. It is colored pink so as not to be confused with regular salt. Curing salt is available at Butcher & Packer.
We like to use kosher salt in our recipes. It’s especially important to use kosher salt here to ensure that your... read more
- 1 (5-1/2-pound) piece of fresh, skin-on pork belly (1/2 of a whole belly slab), or 1 (11-pound) whole belly
For the cure:
- 2 tablespoons whole black peppercorns, plus 1 tablespoon for after curing
- 2 tablespoons whole juniper berries
- 1/3 cup kosher salt
- 3 tablespoons dark brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons curing salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 3 fresh or 5 dry bay leaves, torn into small pieces
- 2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves
- 1 tablespoon fresh rosemary leaves
- If you’re starting with a full (11-pound) piece of fresh pork belly, slice it in half crosswise to make two (5-1/2-pound) pieces. You only need one half for this project, so seal up the other well with plastic wrap and freeze it for up to 6 months.
- Place the pork belly meat side up. Using a sharp boning knife, make the piece more level by trimming off any extra bits of muscle or fat. Square off the edges with a chef’s knife.
- Rinse the pork belly and pat it dry. Place it on a cutting board, skin side up. To remove the skin, use a sharp boning knife. Starting at the bottom left corner, slice in horizontally just under the skin but above the fat layer. Pull the flap of skin toward your body, holding it taut as you loosen it from the fat with a series of small horizontal cuts. Be careful not to remove too much fat or cut too deeply. (Pulling the skin toward you as you cut helps prevent this.)
- Keep cutting until the skin is completely removed, then use your knife to even out the fat layer a little.
- Place the 2 tablespoons of peppercorns and the juniper berries on a rimmed baking sheet. Use a heavy pot to crush them. Combine them in a mixing bowl with the rest of the cure ingredients. Mix the cure very well to evenly distribute the ingredients.
- Place the pork belly on a rimmed baking sheet and rub the cure all over its surfaces, making sure to coat both the fat and lean sides, and all the edges and corners. Carefully place the belly in a large (2- to 2-1/2-gallon) sealable bag. Once it’s inside, rub the belly to redistribute the ingredients that may have fallen off while you moved it. Fold over the excess plastic and press down to remove as much air as possible. Seal the bag. (Alternatively, you may place the cure-coated belly in a glass baking dish and cover tightly with plastic wrap.)
- Place the bagged pork belly on a baking sheet and place it in the refrigerator. Weight it by placing a pot or dish that is roughly the same size as the pork right on top of the bag, and place a 3-pound weight in the dish. (A box of salt or a few cans of tomatoes work great.)
- Refrigerate the weighted belly for 7 days, flipping it over every day. After 7 days, remove the belly from the refrigerator and press down on it to check the firmness. It should feel uniformly firm throughout, as if you’re pressing down on a soccer ball. If the belly is still squishy like raw meat, return it to the refrigerator for up to 3 more days.
- Remove the pork belly from the refrigerator and rinse off the curing mixture under cool running water. (It’s OK if there are still a few bits of pepper or spices on the belly.)
- Move the pork to a clean cutting board and pat it very dry with paper towels. Place it meat side up. Crush the remaining tablespoon of black peppercorns with a heavy pot and rub the crushed pepper over all the meat sides to create an even coating.
- Roll the pork belly very, very tightly into a cylindrical shape, starting at whichever end makes the roll most uniform. Make sure there are no air pockets inside the pancetta. Tie it very tightly with butcher’s twine at 1- to 1-1/2-inch intervals. Be sure to leave enough extra twine to hang the pancetta with.
- Hang the pancetta in a slightly cool, dark, moderately humid place where air can circulate freely around it. (Ideal conditions are around 60°F and around 60 percent humidity.) Keep it out of direct sunlight and away from air vents. A basement is ideal, as is a bathroom that isn’t used often (a shower curtain rod works great for hanging, but not if you’re showering in there!). We hung ours both next to the kitchen sink and in the bathroom, and we never had one pancetta go bad.
- Let the pancetta hang for 2 weeks. It will emit a subtle smell, sort of savory and sweet like the cure. If it smells rancid or rotten, take it down and trash it. When the pancetta is completely firm but pliable like leather, it’s ready.
- Cut down the pancetta and wrap it tightly in plastic wrap. Store it in the refrigerator for 2 to 3 weeks, or in the freezer for up to 4 months.
Note: Pancetta is not meant to be eaten uncooked. Be sure to cook it, just as you would bacon, before eating.
COMMENTS | ADD YOUR OWN
Great recipe! I followed the instructions and in 3 weeks I had excellent pancetta! Thanks! Here are some pics: http://www.flickr.com/photos/daryck/s...
I tried making guanciale by a similar method and found that the hardest thing to come by was air circulation during the hanging. My basement was dark enough and cool enough but probably not dry enough, and without that steady breeze that I'm told is an essential part of curing Prosciutto di Parma. The result was some ugly-looking mold on the outside of the pork jowl. The inside might have been OK but I was too scared to cut into it and find out, especially since I can get beautiful guanciale from Salumi, in Seattle, and great locally made pancetta from Molinari's, Lucca, or Little City Meats here in San Francisco.
I want to try this, but am curious about the sodium nitrite. Is this the same as the nitrates (nitrites?) that I have heard are quite harmful or at least questionable? What's the difference?
I think that a small fan would be the most effective way to keep the air circulating (like how they do Peking Ducks).
The pink salt is dangerous IF you do not follow the proportions in the directions. This is what they use in pates and cured meets to preserve the color. Without this pate would look uniformly gray and gross because of the oxidation.
Great recipe! Can't wait to try it.
well i tried it, it was great. I didn't have a place to hang it, so i put it in to a fan force oven at a low temp(but a little higher then required) 70-80C with a water bath at the bottom for 1.5 hr- 3hrs(depends on how big the joint of meat is). so with that we have air circulation, humidity, and controlled temperature.
Great, mozy! Do you have a picture of it that you can link to? We want to see!
here are the pictures that i have taken of the pancetta or what ever is left of it.... yes i didn't roll it up... it still works both ways. :)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8885222@...
Yum! It looks de-lish!
You Bet!!!! I use it in stir fry, pasta sauces, sandwiches......
We recently made pancetta, and it came out very nicely.
http://menuinprogress.blogspot.com/20...
We set a couple pancettas to cure today. We notice this evening that a great deal of liquid has been drawn out of the bellies. We realize that this is the whole point, but wonder if we should be evacuating the liquid from the bags or if it is to be left through the curing week.
Any thoughts?
Guys I dont quite understand, from my belief you are meant to cure it for a month or so then ley it dry for a further month and then you can eat it raw. Why do you say it only needs a couple of weeks to hang and then you need to cook it. I always buy it and eat it raw from the continental deli's.
I left the curing liquid in the bag. Don't dump it out, since the bellies essentially cure in the salt solution formed by the liquids extracted from the meat.
I did another batch of pancetta. Check out the latest pics: http://www.flickr.com/photos/daryck/s...
I just noticed this morning that there are white specks growing on certain parts of my pancetta, which has been hanging for a week, with another week to go.
It's in a shed, outdoors. The temperature range is correct, we've had both sun and rain, so I'm guessing the humidity is okay. It was cured for a week and firm when I tied it up.
Anyone know what's going on?
Similar as to what occurred for Rilletes I noticed my Pancetta on the 4th day of hanging has formed white patches (especially on exposed meat surfaces) which I first thought may have been mold but when I went to pry some off with a knife I noticed it was firm and tasted salty. The conditions are perfect except air circulation might be low. It may be due to the fact I used more salt as I am allergic to sodium nitrite and therefore substituted with more of the other.
I would greatly appreciate any advice. I can provide more info if needed. Maybe I'll just try it and find out if its ok the hard way :p
As it turns out, those white specks were, indeed, salt. Um, I think.
It would make sense, however, because they appear on the meat, and not the fat. I'm guessing that, as further moisture evaporates, you're left with these salt stalactites.
I ended up emaling Michael Ruhlman about this. He was really cool about it, contacted Brian P, and they suggested the following:
" i don't like the way it looks spores are formingdefinitely wipe off with vinegar solution 1 oz to 4 cup water then hang 2 to 3 days more then clean again if there is more growth. theenvironment needs to be addressed.vacuum pack or tight zip lock and freeze up to 3 months.
can be used after 10 days in the freezer"
So, that's what I did, and the pancetta turned out perfectly
Thank you.
I sat down with my father who is a geochemist and confirmed that it was in this case fine salt crystals from evaporation. That also explains, as you said, the formation on the meat surfaces. However I decided to follow to instructions of wiping with vinegar and it seems fine now. after a little additional research I've found this is a common approach and adds a savory flavor.
Thanks for your advice.
I know that the curing salts give a nice pink color, but has anyone tried it without nitrites? Are the results as tasty?
As far as the concern about nitrites...you can never really totally eliminate them. From what I've read, they occur naturally in the salt to some degree, and of course, the salt is essential for the curing process. Essential because they contain nitrites, which you need to kill off the deadly spores that would otherwise thrive. Nitrites occur naturally in many foods (including celery apprently) and while massive amounts of the chemical would do some harm, the trace amounts needed for the cure process should not. Like all things, moderation is the key.
I'm not a chemist...just an enthusiast...so if anyone has more specific info (or more accurate info) I would certainly be open to it. Meantime, with moderation being the key, I don't sweat the nitrites at all.