FIRST TIME PANCCETTA (DRY CURE AND UMAI)

[Robert H]

Bought a whole belly a few weeks back and was gonna cure then smoke some bacon, but at last minute, I decided to try a panccetta instead. So, salt by weight around 2%, cure #2 by weight, bay leaves, fressh chopped garlic, some crushed coriander and let sit for two weeks, with a massage every other day. I rinsed it off patted dry and let it air out a couple hrs, then a nice sprinkle of black pepper and tied up two halves. I then put into the umai bags and now just wait it out for 30 % weight loss. This is the biggest I have done with the umai bags. I have done chorizo, cured loins and capicolo, so am pretty comfortable with the proccess. Show an update when it is ready to eat.

 

[SmokinEdge]

Looks good. Yup the process works for sure. The last one I made with UMAI the belly was way to fat and didn’t work well. Others have been very good though.

 

[Robert H]

Yes, I hope it goes well. This belly was about as fat as I would like it to be. I buy all my pork from a local slaughterhouse and their pork almost always is on the leaner side if anything. I would really like to just hang in garage, but it is way too dry and the end product would not be as good (case hardenned on outside).

 

[Robert H]

So, I had been eyeballing these two pancetta for the last coupla weeks, keeping an eye on the weight loss, and it's slowed to a crawl and close to 30%. I could not take anymore, so I opened one of them to try out and figured I would just reseal or put in a new bag if I had made the wrong decision. One sealed perfectly and it is still tight to the meat and the other was not that great from the start, but I have done enough other umai projects, so was not worried. Thats the one I opened. I am really happy with the results. I chopped some up from the ends and put it in the pan and then put some leftover pasta in with it for breakfast. Delicious. The one piece is still drying and I will slice this one into half inch thick pieces and vacpac to freezer and give some to family and friends. The other piece is leaner, so I will be greedy with that one! Three months since the original post, so patience pays off. Thanks for looking.

 

[SmokinEdge]

That looks like a real nice job all around. Patients.

 

[Robert H]

Yeah....thats for sure. I couldnt take it any more!