Strona główna » Smoked pork belly maturing

For lovers of Italian cuisine, but in our Polish version.

Matured, smoked bacon inspired by Italian pancetta. It tastes delicious – just as delicious as traditional smoked bacon, though much different in preparation.

Italian pancetta is aged pork belly. The length of ripening really depends on the region of Italy, as each region and even each chef has their own recipe. Most often it is between 20 days and 10 months, but there are also longer periods of maturation.

Depending on the final appearance and shape, two types of pancetta are distinguished: “Arrotorata” – rolled into a roll and “Stesa”- a flat piece. We opted to leave it flat.

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Types of pancetta liked by Italians

  • Pancetta di Caderzone – aged about 100 days, the meat is rubbed with white pepper and garlic.
  • Pancetta Steccata – matures for two months, has a distinctive juniper flavor due to being folded in half, stapled and sandwiched between severed juniper branches.
  • Pancetta di Calabria – matures for up to several months, cured in salt for a week, then rinsed and seasoned again with salt and sweet peppers for further maturation.
  • Pancetta di Sauris – one of the longest maturing, as much as 10 months.
  • Pancetta Canusina – cured in salt and seasoned, aged between two beech boards.
  • Pancetta Affumicata – is smoked for several days, seasoned and salted beforehand.
  • Pancetta Piacentina – initially aged 2 weeks seasoned with salt, sugar, pepper and cloves. It is then wrapped in pork bladder and rolled, and matured in this way for 2 months.

What to serve smoked bacon inspired by Italian pancetta with?

Smoked bacon a’la pancetta works great both hot and cold. Served hot it tastes great accompanied by dried plums, apricots, wrapped and baked. Of course, it goes wonderfully with pasta carbonara.

Cold, e.g. for a party, it can be served as an appetizer accompanied by cheese. It will also taste delicious on slices of homemade bread, smeared with a little spicy mustard.

Pancetta-inspired smoked pork belly recipe

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Materials used:

Ingredients for smoked bacon:

  • boneless pork belly – 1 kg
  • rock salt – 18 g/kg
  • cane sugar – 8 g/kg
  • bay leaves – 2 pieces.
  • allspice – 3-4 pieces.
  • black peppercorns – 10-15 grains

Salting:

Grind all spices (salt, sugar, bay leaf, allspice, pepper) in a mortar or grind in a food processor.

Thoroughly rub the ready mixture into the meat. You can wrap a large piece into a roulade and wrap it tightly with charcuterie twine. In our case, the bacon was small and we leave it unwrapped.

Place in a sealable container and put in the refrigerator for at least 4 days.

Turn the bacon in the container daily and pour off the accumulated water.

Drainage:

After 4 days, remove the bacon from the refrigerator and hang in a cool place (12°C max) overnight.

Warm-up and dehumidification:

Preheat the smokehouse to 55°C . We activate the Dry Faster® system and place our a’la pancette in the smoker to dry for approx. 1 hour until the surface is completely dry to the touch.

Smoking bacon:

Fire up the beech/olive wood chips and smoke at 60°C until desired color (in our case it was 5h).

After smoking, hang the bacon out to cool completely and leave in a cool (preferably about 12°C) and well-ventilated place for 7 days.

Enjoy!

 

Sources:
https://www.mniammniam.com/pancetta – read 28.03.2022
https://zywienie.abczdrowie.pl/pancetta – read 28.03.2022
https://wedlinydomowe.pl/inne-wyroby-miesne/wedliny-dojrzewajace/276-wedliny-dojrzewajace-moje-doswiadczenia – read 12.05.2022

Photo: FASANiO® own resources