Charcuterie: Attempt #1

There is one food category that I constantly crave and never get sick of....cured meats. Smoky bacon, spicy coppa and light as a feather bresaola are a few of my favorites, but I am by no means dismissing the rest of them. Charcuterie is an art form that I admire above most. People will literally eat slices of white pork fat when it is cured and titled "lardo". My co-worker and I have thoroughly discussed our love for meat on a regular basis and when she showed up to the office carrying her duck breast prociutto for us to taste, I decided that it was time to get into curing and flavoring our own meats.

We went to the farmer's market and picked out our one of our favorites, pork belly. Later in the week during pre-hot pot dinner time, we decided to forgo the bacon route because of the lack of a smoker and make pancetta. Going through the available spices in N's cabinet, we chose a blend of berbere, schezuan peppercorns and black peppercorns and mixed them in a mortar and pestle. After coating the patted dry meat in a freshly ground garlic paste, we patted on the spice mixture and a lot of kosher salt. The belly sat in the fridge for 7 days where I believe a little more salt was added to ensure curing.

After a week was up, N brought the belly to work wrapped in cheesecloth and we hung it in our office supply storage room for 2 weeks. When it was done, we took it down and our executive chef sliced it in perfect baconesque slices. When he handed it to us, it was like Christmas/Hanukkah/birthday all rolled into one. We were beaming with pride; Our pork belly baby had just graduated to charcuterie status.

Some notes: Next time, more spices and less refriderated curing time for such a small peice of meat. Ours has a really light flavor and a little too much salt. Also, if it would have air cured for a few more days, I truly believe it could be eaten without being cooked. It was almost there.