Mainly, I was inspired by my trip to Spain this last summer. I’ve always enjoyed cured meats and this trip made me decide to try my hand at this craft. I browsed the internets looking for a good book to help me out. I wanted to start out simple and then try to do something more difficult.
The first book I came across, Cooking By Hand, was a good start. I cjecked it out from the library, read a bit of it. However, my inspiration was lacking as I had to return the book. Being the goofy engineer that I am, I’m comforted by directions and instructions spelled out.
Christmas came around and Megan bought me Cooking by Hand and Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing. This book was incredible. Now that I had a copy of my own, it was time to determine what I wanted to try first.
Due to the quick turnaround time and the short curing process, I was decided to give bacon and pancetta a try. Next, I had to find places to access the required pieces of the process. The main two things I needed were – pork belly and curing salt. Uwajimaya was my source for the pork belly and a small restaurant supply store south of Safeco Field had the curing salt.
Both processes were quite easy. About a 1/4 cup of the curing mix (regular salt, curing salt, and sugar), throw it in a bag in the fridge for a week or so. Remove from the fridge and wash the cure off. The bacon was then smoked for a couple hours in my smoker and the pancetta was rolled into a loaf and then hung to dry for a couple of weeks.
I’ve eaten some bacon I’ve already made. Quite tasty and smoky delicious. I fried some of it up but there wasn’t enough fat/grease released to cook it very well. I baked it the next time which turned out excellent.
The pancetta still has another week to cure. I need to figure out what kind of tasty meal I’m going to include that with.
These pictures show the bacon curing in the fridge and the pancetta hanging in the garage,
I may move on to sausages and salamis next. I would like to do a prosciutto at some point but I need to figure out the logistics of where to hang and cure. I’m contemplating the crawlspace beneath the house but I need to build a sturdy cage to hold it in.
Dig a cave in your back yard. They double as a wine cellar and bomb fallout. The is no better way to hide from a bomb than with lots of cured meats and vintage wines and beers. Good luck getting the permit.
Oh for the love of all things pork, pancetta and nooles is a good one that is easy and gratifiing. We have been getting nice cuts of organic pork at our local market
What a coincidence, Ruhlman is one of my favorite food authors and I’ve been meaning to give that exact book a whirl. Thanks for the quick review. Although it is a little difficult to motivate to experiment with home-curing meats when Kramarczuk’s is so close by.
As far as the cave permit goes… Pete Rose once told me that it’s easier to beg for forgiveness than ask for permission. I suppose that didn’t work out so well for him though.