Zak
Full Fledged Farker
So this whole thing starts by discovering we're out of bacon one day while going through the freezer about a month ago. So I thought about my usual sources for pork bellies then the light bulb went off over my head and shot my best friend a text. He just so happens to manage a small grocery store and gets me meats at wholesale prices. I asked him to check on prices of pork bellies and let me know how much and when he can get me some. He gets back to me that he can get me 20lbs for about $3.50lb, but he needs to verify with supplier. He texts me back that he's not exactly sure how much weight wise but it's a better price, about 30-40lbs worth, skin off. So I just say get whatever it wont goto waste.
That's 64lbs right there. More than I was expecting but it was a great deal so I couldn't say no.
So I've never had pancetta before so I figured since I had plenty of bellies, might as well give it a shot. I was a little trickier than I thought since I don't have a curing chamber so I improvised using a cooler. I have the Charcuterie book and went with the temps and humidity specs in there using ice packs to keep the temps between 50-60° and 60-70% humidity, which was checked with a temp/humidity gauge I had. Worked pretty well and had to replace the ice packs twice a day so it was a little bit of a pain. I wanted to try one piece of pancetta with a little smoke so I cut about 1/4 off the log and smoked that with the bacon then put all the pancetta in the cooler to dry for 2 weeks.
Well yesterday was the first time I got to try it and damn it was good!!! Made some pancetta, egg and cheese sandwiches for breakfast and pasta carbonara for diner. Sliced up the rest and into the freezer.
Processing all 64lbs of those bellies was a lot of work between the curing, smoking, slicing, vacuum packaging, then drying the pancetta for 2 weeks but it sure was worth it looking back. I even had to fit in catering my buddy's wedding last weekend so it'll be nice to do a small cook soon.
That's 64lbs right there. More than I was expecting but it was a great deal so I couldn't say no.
So I've never had pancetta before so I figured since I had plenty of bellies, might as well give it a shot. I was a little trickier than I thought since I don't have a curing chamber so I improvised using a cooler. I have the Charcuterie book and went with the temps and humidity specs in there using ice packs to keep the temps between 50-60° and 60-70% humidity, which was checked with a temp/humidity gauge I had. Worked pretty well and had to replace the ice packs twice a day so it was a little bit of a pain. I wanted to try one piece of pancetta with a little smoke so I cut about 1/4 off the log and smoked that with the bacon then put all the pancetta in the cooler to dry for 2 weeks.
Well yesterday was the first time I got to try it and damn it was good!!! Made some pancetta, egg and cheese sandwiches for breakfast and pasta carbonara for diner. Sliced up the rest and into the freezer.
Processing all 64lbs of those bellies was a lot of work between the curing, smoking, slicing, vacuum packaging, then drying the pancetta for 2 weeks but it sure was worth it looking back. I even had to fit in catering my buddy's wedding last weekend so it'll be nice to do a small cook soon.
