Making Italian Style Pancetta

Making your own Italian Style Pancetta

Using our Italian Style Pancetta Cure (150g).  This cure has been carefully formulated and contains all the salts, herbs and preservatives you need to make delicious Italian Style Pancetta.

Ingredients: Salt, Sugar, Black Pepper, Thyme, Oregano, E250 Preservative.

Method

Trim the belly pork removing any loose pieces of meat from the surface and edges.

Remove the skin carefully leaving a layer of belly fat. You can ask your butcher to do this for you if you aren't confident. 

Weight you pork belly and calculate how much of the cure to use. We recommend this cure is used at 5%, which means for every 1Kg of meat you require 50gms of our Italian style pancetta cure. 

Rub the cure on both sides of the meat 75 % of the cure should be applied to the meat surface and 25% applied to the fat surface.

Place the seasoned belly in a plastic zip lock bag or vacuum bag and cure in the refrigerator for 1 day for every 1/2 inch (13mm) of thickness plus 2 days. Belly pork can vary in thickness so take an average thickness when making your calculation.

Turn the belly every day to ensure an even cure on both sides. You should see some fluid in the bag. Ensure you keep this fluid in the bag for the duration of the cure.

After the curing period, remove the pancetta from the bag and rinse under cold running water. Pat dry with kitchen towel and air dry in the fridge for 24 hours.

You can purchase this cure here

 

Uses

Pancetta is a versatile product which can be used in several ways. Diced, it can be fried and added directly to several pasta and rice dishes. Pancetta can be further dried to turn it into a product that can be sliced wafer thing and eaten raw. Some pancetta is rolled and tied after curing to make a decorative charcuterie when sliced thinly.