{"id":4429,"date":"2018-03-19T09:00:26","date_gmt":"2018-03-19T15:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/villasentieri.com\/?post_type=recipe&p=4429"},"modified":"2026-09-02T10:58:46","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T17:58:46","slug":"pancetta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/villasentieri.com\/index.php\/2018\/03\/19\/pancetta\/","title":{"rendered":"Pancetta"},"content":{"rendered":"

March 19, 2018<\/span><\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t grow up with a tradition of curing meats at home.\u00a0 There was a long tradition of homemade hot Italian sausage headed up by Uncle Joe Medile but no meat curing.<\/p>\n

I started curing meats in medical school.\u00a0 These were wet-cured products, corned beef and pickled pork.\u00a0 I used them primarily to make West Indian food which was a significant part of my repertory at the time.<\/p>\n

I bought myself a container of salt peter (sodium nitrate) and mixed my cures from old recipes.\u00a0 The use of salt peter is no longer permitted commercially for wet cures and only as a minor addition to a cure containing sodium nitrite for meats that require a long, dry cure.\u00a0 Wet cures are now made with sodium nitrite only.<\/p>\n

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During a long, dry cure, the sodium nitrate breaks down into sodium nitrite, acting like a time-release curing agent.<\/p>\n

I frequently had two large containers of wet cure in my kitchen, one for beef and one for pork.\u00a0 Refrigeration wasn\u2019t necessary, which was a good thing, because I didn\u2019t have lots of extra refrigerator space as a medical student.<\/p>\n

Because of the small quantities of nitrates and nitrites used to cure meat, it is much easier to buy curing salt that consists mostly of table salt with appropriate amounts of curing salt mixed in.\u00a0 Prague Powder #1 is a mixture of salt and sodium nitrite.\u00a0 It is used for wet curing and for dry curing that doesn\u2019t extend for weeks.\u00a0 Prague Powder #2 is salt with both sodium nitrite and sodium nitrate.\u00a0 It is used for dry curing.\u00a0 Prague Powders are always colored pink to differentiate them from ordinary salt.<\/p>\n

After my first year of medical school my meat curing came to an end as I was involved in much more demanding clinical rotations and then ultimately internship and residency.<\/p>\n

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Though I occasionally made Italian sausage, I didn\u2019t start curing meats again until around 2000 when we had a temperature and humidity controlled wine cellar at The Henry Rohkam House, our home in Chicago.<\/p>\n

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The Rohkam House in Chicago when we lived there<\/span><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It actually started innocently enough.\u00a0 When she heard about our wine cellar, Aunt Margie (my mother\u2019s sister and Uncle Joe\u2019s wife) asked me if I was going to make salami.\u00a0 I hadn\u2019t thought about it until that point but it seemed clear to me that she had memories of \u201cthe old Italian guys,\u201d perhaps even her father, making salami and curing it in their wine cellars.<\/p>\n

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There was a temperature and humidity controlled wine cellar in the basement of the Coach House that was perfect for curing salumi of various types<\/span><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For several years, I made different types of cured salumi including Calabrese salami and pepperoni.<\/p>\n

It was fun, and really pretty easy.\u00a0 It was also rewarding to slice up one\u2019s own homemade salami for an antipasto platter when company arrived.<\/p>\n

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The drawing room at Villa Sentieri<\/strong><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Although we have a temperature and humidity controlled wine cellar at Villa Sentieri in Santa Fe, I haven\u2019t made salami since moving there full time in 2012.\u00a0 I have, however, made pancetta.\u00a0 In fact, for a number of years now the only pancetta that I\u2019ve used has been my own home-cured version.<\/p>\n

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The wine cellar at Villa Sentieri. We’ve been trying to drink down our collection, hence the bare look!<\/strong><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019s even easier than making salami.\u00a0 You just weigh out the ingredients, rub them on a slab of pork belly and refrigerate it.\u00a0 There is no grinding of meat and stuffing of casings.\u00a0 Although it takes several months to turn pork belly into pancetta, the actual active time can\u2019t amount to more than 30 minutes over the entire time period, and most of that is the initial step of weighing out the ingredients and rubbing them on the meat.<\/p>\n

Although I now buy about an eight-pound piece of pork belly when making pancetta, I started making pancetta with one-pound pieces from my butcher.\u00a0 If you\u2019re at all inclined to try home curing meat, a small quantity of pancetta is a great place to start.<\/p>\n

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If you have a favorite family recipe and a bit of a story to tell, please email me at santafecook@villasentieri.com<\/a> and we can discuss including it in the blog. I am expanding the scope of my blog to include traditional recipes from around the country and around the world. If you haven\u2019t seen Bertha\u2019s Flan<\/a> or Melinda\u2019s Drunken Prunes<\/a>, take a look.\u00a0 They will give you an idea of what I\u2019m looking for.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Pancetta<\/h2>\n
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The amounts below are for 450 grams of pork belly, approximately one pound. You will need to increase the ingredients proportionately if the pork belly is larger. Measurements are critical with the salt and Prague Powder. If you are making a larger quantity, a small electric coffee mill can be used to grind the spices. Just be certain they are finely powdered before mixing with the salt.<\/div>\n
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Prep Time <\/span>30 minutes<\/span><\/span> mins<\/span><\/span><\/div>
Total Time <\/span>35 minutes<\/span><\/span> mins<\/span><\/span><\/div><\/div>\n
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Ingredients
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