Cooking Fresh Food - breaking the jar/can/bottle habit...

[TheBear]

Excellent, glad to see someone is getting some use from this thread.

Try this about a week before you want to do it again:-

You will need:-
200g of salt
100g of brown sugar
2 tablespoons of black peppercorns
1 tablespoon of juniper berries
5 star anise
a 6-8" piece of pork belly

Grind up the spice in a mortar and pestle and mix thoroughly with the salt and sugar - find an airtight container to store the mix in.

Rub a handful of the mixture into the pork belly, try to work it well into the meat and leave it covered with the mixture - then seal into an airtight container and place in the fridge.
Once a day, for the next five days - take the belly out of the fridge, drain off the excess liquid and apply more of the spice mix.
On the fifth day, wash the excess spice mix off, then soak the belly in cold water for 3-4 hours - then dry thoroughly and store in the fridge wrapped in kitchen paper.

This home made pancetta has so much more flavour than all but the best professionally made product - and that is sold for over $30/kg....this should cost you less than $12/kg.

[ll80]

After you have rinsed and soaked it can you use it straight away or do you need to let it cure a bit more?

I've made my own salami and prociutto before but this is easier, well quicker.

[TheBear]

It's good to use straight away, the soaking isn't strictly necessary, but I find it a bit too salty otherwise - it really benefits from being allowed to cook down slowly to render out all the flavour. It's a very easy, simple cure and it's very difficult to go back to commercial pancetta afterwards - we usually have a box curing away in the back of the fridge.

I'd be interested in having some more recipes for curing meat, I'm experimenting with some old traditional english cures at the moment. (Stout, brown sugar, malt vinegar, cinnamon and cloves)

[Sair]

I'm sorry but your wife is going to have to clone you Bear

[thepixie]

Sorry LMS - he's one of a kind! LOL

[Sair]

That he is! I just need him as a teacher chef though We can stand to learn a few kitchen things from him that is for sure!

Hmmm I wonder if they will clone Gordon Ramsey

[ll80]

LOL Bear you sound just like my DH between eating and cooking "natural" and the areoplanes and what not, you sound like you could be twins.

Anyway..
I will see if i can dig out my curing recipes, I think they are still packed away (i'm in the middle of unpacking) but when I find them I'll post them up.
They are my dad's Italian curing recipes.