Making Italian smallgoods is a new thing for me, so I'm starting out at the easy end with making some pancetta. Unsmoked bacon with a dry salt cure plus some aromatics, basically.
A tad over a kilo of pork belly, skin on, has gone into a glass dish. Juniper berry, black peppercorns and fresh bayleaves have been ground with salt. Mixed with more salt and soft brown sugar, the dry cure mix is rubbed into the meat once a day. Each night, I'll drain off the liquid and rub another handful of cure into the pork.
Around day 5, there'll be bacon. Or pancetta (pre-drying). Or something.
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Paul,
ReplyDeleteWhat a coincidence, just this moment, I've been reading about making salted pork and bresola.
I like Hugh F-W's idea of applying the bresaola cure to venison. That's on my list if the bacon works out, Ed.
ReplyDeleteHaven't quite worked out a good, dry, airy place for hanging stuff to cure though. Might try the coolstore at the vineyard if it doesn't cause trouble.
Nice one. let us know how you go.
ReplyDeleteI had a crack at making some Spanish style small goods last year and had the same problem with where to hang the stuff. I ended up using an old fridge with a hole cut in the side, worked OK, but not ideal.