Home-Cured Pancetta - Part 1
 
Prep time
Total time
 
Adapted from Regan Burns on CHOW
Recipe type: Meat
Serves: 40
Ingredients
  • 2 tablespoons whole black peppercorns
  • 2 tablespoons whole juniper berries
  • ⅓ cup coarse Kosher salt
  • 3 tablespoons brown sugar
  • 2 teaspoons pink salt (curing salt)
  • ½ teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
  • 5 garlic cloves, minced
  • 5 dry bay leaves, crumbled
  • 1-2 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves
  • 1-2 tablespoons fresh rosemary leaves, chopped
  • 1 tablespoon whole coriander seeds
  • 5 pounds pork belly, skin removed
Instructions
  1. Combine peppercorns and juniper berries in a spice grinder and pulse until coarsely chopped. Pour into a small bowl and add all remaining ingredients for the cure. Pat pork belly dry. lay several layers of long sheets of plastic wrap on the counter, overlapping the edges. Spread about half of the cure mixture on the plastic wrap in a shape the size of the pork belly. Lay pork belly, fat side down,on top and press it down into the cure mixture. Pour the other half of the cure mixture on the meat side of the pork belly and rub it evenly all over. Press some of the cure mixture onto all four sides, then wrap the pork belly tightly with several layers of plastic wrap.
  2. Place inside a large plastic bag and refrigerate with a weighted pan for 7 days, checking and adjusting the cure every day or two as needed. Once it feels uniformly firm (as early as 7 days, or up to 10 days), remove the pork belly, rinse it clean of the cure, and pat dry with paper towels. Refer to instructions for Home-Cured Pancetta - Part 2 to complete the cure.
Recipe by Cooking With Michele® at https://cookingwithmichele.com/2011/11/home-cured-pancetta-part-1/