Pancetta Arrotolata!
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Wish me luck! This is my first attempt at something like this. Patience will be my virtue.
The recipe called for Insta Cure #2. Does anyone know if there would be an issue with cooking/eating the trim meat sooner than the time required to fully cure the full cuts or should I cure those along side the others?
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I bet that’s going to be very tasty.
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@Joe-Hell they both look gorgeous! Salt + Time will make you very happy! Where are you planning on letting it age?
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@Jonathon I have a mini fridge with temp/humidity controls. I started the demo on the basement aging room yesterday…can o’ worms! lol
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@Joe-Hell Here is a link to a ‘worksheet’ to log your pancetta recipe info
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@Joe-Hell
Great…Something else I’ve never heard of before. Now I have to look that up. LOL. Very nice lacing job on that.
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@PapaSop When people make a funny face when I mention pancetta I just tell them to think ‘fancy ass bacon’.
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@Joe-Hell
Dang I bet that’s going to be good.
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@Joe-Hell Do you have a window into that? I’ve got two Coppas going right now and I am going to be taking periodic pictures of them so we can do a time lapse sort of thing. It might be neat if you took a daily or every few days pictures and did one too.
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@Jonathon I could do something like that. The lighting in my current room sucks however. One problem I ran into within the first 24 hours was that the meat or trussing ‘sagged’ a bit so it made contact with the bottom of the fridge (it’s very tiny). I have since placed them on a rack and will rotate a couple of times per day until I come up with a better alternative. I spied a small freezer on the curb at a house near my folks with a sign that said ‘free’ on it. That might be an option for a quick curing chamber.
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@Joe-Hell as long is doesnt take away from valuable demo time to start your curing room! A small freezer/fridge is a great thing to use to make a chamber. That’s basically what the guts of an expensive commercial drying cabinet is anyway!
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@Jonathon I took down a wall yesterday and a friend (expert brick and concrete guy) is loaning all of the tools and gifting some left over materials. It might come together quicker than I would have thought. It’s one hell of a mess right now but it already smells like a basement.
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Do you guys have any plans you’d care to share on a homemade curing chamber?
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@Lance @Deplorablenc1 had some great posts around here with his set up. He’s much more an expert than I am. I haven’t seen much of him lately around here but I’d love to pick his brain about the process and his observations.
Inkbird makes affordable controls to take care of temp and humidity. You just need a clean fridge or freezer, a small humidifier and a heat source (which can be as simple as a light bulb).
For my basement room I will use a portable AC to keep it cool. If it can’t reach the temps I hope it will I can work around that by utilizing a CoolBot which can turn any modern AC unit into something capable of powering a walk-in cooler.
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@Joe-Hell awesome thank you
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@Lance I ended up needing to order a new fridge quicker than I anticipated. The pancetta sagged a bit after 24 hours. One was just making contact with the fridge floor and the other was not far. For the last 6 days I had them horizontal on a rack. With the new fridge in place I now have plenty room to hang a few meat projects. The old fridge will now be used for aging cheese…that is when I get time to take up another hobby.
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@Joe-Hell nice trussing,
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@Dave-R thanks! It’s been fun to practice!
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@Joe-Hell That is alot of compliments on your trussing, our application specialist said the exact same thing! Can’t wait to see it finished!
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Almost ready!
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@Joe-Hell Your trussing held up really well, those are going to be amazing!
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Here it is 3-1/2 months later and nearly 20% moisture loss. This was cured in a way that it could be sliced and eaten as is. This being my first attempt at meat curing such as this I was a little nervous to try it. A buddy and I got up the nerve, sliced it up and became human guinea pigs. The meat had a little of that aged funk and mild flavors I was expecting. Tasty! The fat just melts away as you chew. The best part? I didn’t poison anyone! Good to go!
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@Joe-Hell Its just nitrate and nitrite. Unless you are sensitive to nitrites; cook the meat to temp and enjoy it.
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@Joe-Hell It looks amazing and I am sure it tastes even better! I love the way the fat just melts in your mouth on things like this. The issue is, I can eat way too much of it!
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@Departing-Contestant oops , i just realized i responded to the inaugural post
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@Departing-Contestant It was the botulism I was concerned with. lol. I’m not concerned with nitrates or nitrates. Hanging a piece of meat for several months and eating it raw was a new experience for me but it’s something I will be doing again and again!
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@Joe-Hell have you tried browning it. it is a whole new experience
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@Jonathon I don’t think I could eat too much of this ‘raw’ at one time as it is super rich though It fried up really well…it was hard to keep from going back for more.
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@Joe-Hell that looks beautiful.
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@Departing-Contestant Yes! I much preferred the stuff I browned in a pan. When it first hit the pan it went nearly translucent then produced a gorgeous golden color.
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The only kind of dehydrator I’ve used for snack sticks is a jerky dehydrator. The snack sticks will shrivel just like jerky but maintain the flavor.
I’ll try to upload a pic. The ones on the left are the dehydrated sticks and the ones on the right were slow cooked in an oven.
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Tonight’s dinner is a spatchcocked whole chicken marinated in my fermented chili sauce. Sides of grilled sweet peppers from the garden and rice.
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