Guanciale, Pancetta, Bacon, Pork Belly Confit, corned beef (and pastrami)

[mjdeez]

Been a loooong time since I posted on this site.  I've been pretty busy, but I've got no excuses.  I get on the forum every now and again to see what you guys are up to.  Always good stuff.  Sorry it's been so long.

Anyway, I just got a side of pork in January.  I've been wondering what to do with the belly.  Last year I made about 30 lbs of bacon, but lately I Just don't eat it as much as I used to. (I dunno, I hope it is just a phase.)  So I didn't want to make it ALL into bacon.   Well, now's a good time of year to hang a cured jowl from my AC duct in my unheated hallway.  Guanciale, remember this post? http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=21233.msg265237#msg265237 

So I figure, if I'm hanging that, I may as well make some Pancetta and hang that too.  And I figure, if I've got the belly out of the freezer for pancetta, I may as well also make some pork belly (decided on pork belly confit), and a little bacon (because I'm nearly out), and if I'm making bacon, I may as well also make some Canadian Bacon for my Grandma for her birthday.  And since St Patty's day is here, 10 lbs of corned beef, 1/2 of which will be made into pastrami.

And for good measure, some homemade limoncello.  I don't have a single piece of meat out of the cure yet, and I've already got 30 pics.  Sorry if this thread gets too image heavy.  (Pics to follow)

[mjdeez]

Let's start with the Guanciale, cured jowl.  This is pretty easy to make. I mostly use variations of cure recipes from Charcuterie.  This will come out of the cure tomorrow, and hang in my hallway for several weeks.

unskinned jowl, with the ear still on!


skin removed:


Need to remove these glands:


The last jowl I cured was about 1 1/4 or 1.5" thick.  This was about 2.5", so I halved it:


Jowl in the cure:


My Dog:

[mjdeez]

On to the belly...

A 14 pounder, with skin:


Skinning it....  Here's a tip that I found works for me.  Instead of skinning strictly right to left (assuming you're right handed), trim around 3 sides (front back and right), about 1" into the fat under the skin.  Then work your way right to left like 10p5 showed in his video.  For some reason it is easier for me if I do it this way.



The skin was about 1 lb, leaving 13 lb of belly.  I've got about 4lb for pork belly confit on the right (back), 4 lb for bacon in the middle, and 5 lb for pancetta on the left.  rolled up skin front right, sealed and currently in the freezer.


Pancetta in cure:


Sorry, no pics of bacon in the cure.  But hey, you've all seen that before anyway.

Pork belly for confit, cut in 2" x 3" pcs:


mixed in cure, a cross between Ruhlman / Polcyn's Pork confit and pork belly confit recipes.  I put my favorite ingredients in there and I'll hope for the best. 


Same as above but in a corningware for a few days.  Not shown:  The container was filled with dry white wine, enough to cover the meat.

[mjdeez]

Corned beef, Canadian Bacon, and Limoncello will have to wait for another day, but here's a couple of pics that I have:

Corned beef soaking after a little too much brine:


Lots of lemons.  I'm doing one batch with regular lemons and another batch with 20 meyer lemons.  For each batch, I use 1.75L of 5x Brita filtered grain alcohol and let it sit with the lemon zest for a couple of months, then filter a few times and dilute down to 32% alcohol with sugar and water.  If you want to know more details, google it, limoncelloquest.com is a wealth of info on the subject.


Meyer lemons:

[jjmoney]

Like!

[Habanero Smoker]

Everything looks great. I haven't made limoncello in a while, your post has created a craving, and I may make some this weekend.

Another method you can use for fresh belly, is to cut it up as you did for the confit, marinate it, and either grill or roast it. There are tons or recipes for grilled and/or roasted.

[mjdeez]

My friend forwarded me this link earlier today.  I've decided to do 1/2 my jowl like this: http://frombellytobacon.com/2013/03/12/jowl-speck/#more-5329

Everything looks great. I haven't made limoncello in a while, your post has created a craving, and I may make some this weekend.

Another method you can use for fresh belly, is to cut it up as you did for the confit, marinate it, and either grill or roast it. There are tons or recipes for grilled and/or roasted.

Thanks. Yeah I was thinking about doing something along those lines.  Maybe in a few weeks I'll get another belly and do this (from another link from the same friend) -- http://nomnompaleo.com/post/42988695377/paleo-eats-2-11-13-my-first-vine-videos#more  There's two videos embedded into that page.   You need to have the sound on to get the full effect of that first video.  As full as you can get without tasting I, I suppose.

[mjdeez]

Guanciale is out of the cure and hanging. The other half will smoke with the pastrami tomorrow... when the weather is a little better.

[Habanero Smoker]

I've never roasted or grilled mine the way in the video link. I cut the belly up into about 3 - 4 inch squares, marinate then grill or roast. After turning on the sound, I decided to turn it back off.  :)

I thought I had posted on how I grill fresh pork belly, but couldn't find it. When I do grill or roast I don't make it that crusty. But here is an example of how I smoked/cooked fresh belly in the Bradley:
Smoked Pork Belly

[mjdeez]

I've never roasted or grilled mine the way in the video link. I cut the belly up into about 3 - 4 inch squares, marinate then grill or roast. After turning on the sound, I decided to turn it back off.  :)

I thought I had posted on how I grill fresh pork belly, but couldn't find it. When I do grill or roast I don't make it that crusty. But here is an example of how I smoked/cooked fresh belly in the Bradley:
Smoked Pork Belly

Hmmm Looks like i had that link bookmarked but I haven't made it yet.  Thanks I'll try that in the near future (next belly).

[mjdeez]

Corned beef, finished:



Pastrami, still in progress (almost done, gonna be lunch today):



Pastrami, in the smoker, with 1/2 of the Guanciale.  It was cold smoked for 6 hours with cherry and pecan. Later on, I took the Guanciale out to hang and dry, and hot smoked the pastrami to 150F with cherry.


Pastrami in the steamer. It is still in there, and will be done in about 30 minutes (total 3 hours or so):



I don't really have a good picture of the pork belly confit, but here it is after 3.5 hrs in the oven. It is sooo tender:



Pancetta.  This is the first time I've made this, and definitely will not be the last.  I've only tasted a scrap (fried up) and it is so flavorful.




somewhat squared off prior to rolling. 


I wasn't gonna roll it, but decided to go for it:



My favorite shot:



I'll post more updates as this stuff dries, and as some of the other stuff in this thread progresses.  Bacon / Canadian bacon is smoking today.   Lemons for limoncello will be zested today (such a P.I.A.).

[mjdeez]

Money shot of the pastrami:






Bacon / Canadian Bacon in the smoker (no money shots here, but you all know what bacon looks like):





Limoncello update: The lemons are zested and in the grain alcohol. They'll sit there for about 2 months or until I'm ambitious enough to filter a gallon of everclear manually through a coffee filter. Manually.


The Pancetta and guanciale are still hanging, but the small scrap of pancetta (that i had cut off to square off the belly for rolling) came down for a taste today. Just a taste. I hung it back up after tasting it. Then took it down and we ate the whole thing!  Seriously this is so easy... if you've never tried it, and your interested in dry curing, you can hang this in your kitchen for a few weeks, or put it in your fridge if you don't have a curing chamber.  The flavor is awesome, it is a little salty, but I don't mind that so much.  I put a little in my mac and cheese for dinner, man it was good.