Pancetta help!

mrmcdowe · December 18, 2011, 06:42:51 PM

I have cured a fair share of bacon in the past. I purchased 2 bellies and was using one for bacon and one for pancetta. The bacon looks fine as normal. But the pancetta is on day 6 in the cure and BONE DRY. It has no liquids like the bacon usually does. Here is the recipe;

4 Garlic gloves
12 g. pink salt
50 g. kosher salt
26 g. dark sugar
40 g. coarse salt
4 bay leaves
nutmeg
thyme

So I only had pre ground pepper and just used that. But I was meant to only use HALF the pepper and save the rest for day 7 after you rinse and roll it. But I used ALL the finely ground pepper. So know I have WAY to much pepper and No juices in the bag of pancetta.

So here is the questions, will pancetta look like bacon as it cures? Meaning it creates a good amount of liquid brine in the bag. Also is the belly lost for pancetta now it has been 6 days and no liquid. I figure there is way too much pepper in the pancetta bag and must be doing something to the curing process. Do I toss it?

Thanks

cgaengineer · December 18, 2011, 07:06:39 PM

When I cured my bellies I had hardly any liquid...everything turned out fine.

Im no expert though.

Habanero Smoker · December 19, 2011, 02:58:33 AM

This looks like the recipe from Charcuterie; except the coarse salt you written should be coarse pepper, and there are no juniper berries. What size belly are you curing?

Some times I don't get much liquid from my bacon, some times I get a lot. It depends on the particular cut, and I've notice bacon that has larger amounts of fat produce more liquid. But this also seems to has exceptions. Firmness is another way to tell. It useful, not 100% accurate, but gives you a good guideline to go by.

As for a chemical reaction interfering with the curing action, that is not likely. It is so, that if you premix sodium nitrite with certain seasoning, and do not use the mix for several days, certain herbs and seasoning can alter sodium nitrite and make it ineffective, but I never heard of that happening while it was actually curing the meat. Did you premix the cure, and didn't use it for a while?

After 6 days, it should be cured; but another day won't hurt. Depending on how you already cut your belly, if you want to make sure it is fully cured, I would slice a piece out of the thickest part. If the meat is red, with no grayish areas it is fully cured. A second test would be to fry a piece. If the meat remains "red" as it does when you fry bacon it is cured.

mrmcdowe · December 19, 2011, 05:55:58 AM

Yes it is from charcuterie book. I didn't have coarse pepper only fine grind. Because it was fine pepper and used twice as much I was wondering if the pepper took up to much surface area and did not allow the actual salt and cure to come in contact with the meat. But I am probably over thinking it.

I mixed the cure and used it then.

I just squeezed the belly and it does not seem to be as hard as the bacon that was started on the same day.

I will cut some and try to check color today.

But generally does pancetta create as much liquid as bacon would?
Thanks!!

Habanero Smoker · December 19, 2011, 01:32:41 PM

The amount of liquid produced depends on that particular cut of meat. The curing action when making pancetta will be the same as any belly bacon. If you decide to slice into it do it at the thickest part. I forgo to mention earlier, that you could just insert a knife into the thickest part and twist it to see if the color of the bacon is consistent red all the way through.

I'm looking at the recipe, so if you used twice as much pepper, then you used 8 tablespoons in the cure for this recipe. That is a lot of pepper, so there may be some logic to your thinking. Have you been turning the bacon and "massaging" it daily? That would help the distribution of the salt and cure. Since you used a finer grain, you should have reduce the finer pepper amount by half.

What was the weight of the belly you applied this to?

mrmcdowe · December 19, 2011, 04:12:18 PM

I did not weigh the bellies. There were 2 full bellies in a vacuum bag. I used one for bacon and one for Pancetta.

I also turned the bellies over every other day. But did no "massaging". But from the second day there was no liquid and now at day 7 it is still BONE dry.

Also the pancetta looks more grey internally then the bacon. That could be the overload of pepper.

Maybe I forgot something in the cure. I make large amounts of cure for bacon, but made a fresh batch for pancetta.

I would say know I am wondering if they bellies were rinsed, could I just cook them off a Pork Bellies.

Maybe I will start over. Better safe then sorry.......

Will sleep on it though.

Thanks for your help

Habanero Smoker · December 20, 2011, 02:04:44 AM

A full side of belly can weight from 10 pounds up to 14 or higher. If you only made one batch of the cure that would not be enough salt or cure for it. The recipe is for up to 5 pounds.

The grayish color is not from the pepper, that is the color of uncured meat. The pepper may alter the color in areas of the surface of the meat, but not the interior.

I like grilled fresh pork belly. Not being cured six days in the refrigerator is a long time for fresh bellies. If you can recall what the use by date was, that would be helpful in making your decision. I recently purchase a pork loin that was not cryovac and the use by date was about a week away.

If you ever discovered why your belly didn't cure I would be interesting to know.

cgaengineer · December 20, 2011, 03:42:15 AM

This is interesting Habs, I used the basic cure for my bacon which is what I am thinking you are referring to

1 pound of kosher salt
8 oz sugar
2.5 oz of pink salt

And I did an 11 pound belly an it turned out fine...nice and pink in the center, I even took them out a day earlier than I planned. I do see liquid in my bags so the exchange did happen.

I had 2 pieces that firmed up and one that didn't yet they were all cured inside and out.

cgaengineer · December 20, 2011, 03:44:14 AM

Oh and I have found that granulated garlic produces a better flavor than fresh garlic do things like this...I buy it at SAMs.

cgaengineer · December 20, 2011, 03:50:42 AM

I'm going to shut my mouth now...I just checked some things!

Ok, 12g of pink salt is .423 oz. according to my label on my pink salt (LEM), 1 ounce of cure per 25 pounds of meat, so the op had enough cure for about 11 pounds of of belly 10.5991 lbs to be exact.

mrmcdowe · December 20, 2011, 06:10:09 AM

So what I am taking away from this is that there should be a liquid brine created from the belly after the dry cure is applied. It also should look similar bacon curing?

I don't know the use by date. I had the guy behind the deli counter get them from the back so it should have been fairly fresh I hope!

I am not going to take a chance with the pancetta.

Maybe there was not enough cure. The bellies were covered well, but the addition of the fine ground pepper and larger quantity used may have given the visual effect of enough cure. When in reality the pepper was masking a problem. Next time I will take the spice grinder out and coarsely grind the pepper.

Ground garlic sounds like a good idea thanks for that.

Possibly I just screwed up. I had all the ingredients sitting out and weighed it to the Gram. We all know accidents happen.

Thanks for all the help. I guess I am off to purchase more bellies today!!!!!!

KyNola · December 20, 2011, 07:04:33 AM

I'm a little late to this party but if you didn't weigh those bellies prior to applying the cure mix and don't know the sell by date I would throw them both out. In my opinion, that's too dangerous for me.

Habanero Smoker · December 20, 2011, 01:32:51 PM

So what I am taking away from this is that there should be a liquid brine created from the belly after the dry cure is applied. It also should look similar bacon curing?

Yes! Generally there is liquid like what is created when you make bacon, but like I have mentioned before, there are times when you are curing bacon it will not produce much liquid

I don't know the use by date. I had the guy behind the deli counter get them from the back so it should have been fairly fresh I hope!

If you are friendly with him, he still may have some from the same stock and he may be able to provide you with that information.

I am not going to take a chance with the pancetta.

Should like a good choice, if you can't find the sell by date.

Maybe there was not enough cure. The bellies were covered well, but the addition of the fine ground pepper and larger quantity used may have given the visual effect of enough cure. When in reality the pepper was masking a problem. Next time I will take the spice grinder out and coarsely grind the pepper.

I don't know how much cure mix you made so I can't help you with that question. The extra pepper would add enough bulk to cover the bacon making it seemed you made enough cure. Also as you first concluded, there was so much pepper that not enough cure and salt came in contact wit the meat

Possibly I just screwed up. I had all the ingredients sitting out and weighed it to the Gram. We all know accidents happen.

Thanks for all the help. I guess I am off to purchase more bellies today!!!!!!

See if you to get the sell by dates of the last bellies you purchased. :)

cgaengineer

Do you have a copy of Charcuterie, by Ruhlman & Polcyn. We are referring to the Pancetta recipe in that book. The 1 ounce per 25 pounds is for sausage. That ratio can be used for whole muscle meat also. The basic cure will also give you that ration (if I calculated it correctly), but with whole muscle meat you can add up to 4 times as much cure than you can add to sausage.

cgaengineer · December 24, 2011, 12:11:00 PM

No habs but I'm getting it for Christmas maybe it will helpe a bit.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

mrmcdowe · December 26, 2011, 06:46:13 AM

Thanks again for all your help.

The recipe for the pancetta was from Charcuterie.

Plus the pancetta was BONE dry not wet or even looked wet. Something was definitely WRONG!

The deli would be no help. They speak very little English. Being an American living in Calgary for a 2 years my only place to find bellies is an Asian supermarket called T&T.

The smart thing would of been to do only a piece of the belly, being it was the first time. I will try this method next time. I just need to get my new curing refrigerator in action soon:)

Thanks again everyone!!!