I didn’t realize that 9 pounds of bacon would only last me 3 months. To be fair, I did share a lot with people (though that was also very difficult). And can’t wait to do another batch (and another and another…).

And a few links to the pics of my products as well (’tis always fun to show off and possibly inspire):

Sliced
Post-Smoking

I bought a slice of pork belly from a Korean grocery and it weighed about 3.5 pounds. (it was clearly from a commercially-raised pig judging by thickness and amount of fat under the skin) I did not adjust the ingredients for the dry rub, and didn’t end up with leftover. Is there such a thing as using too much of the rub?

Bought pink salt about two months before use. How long will it last? Can it keep more or less forever? A year? Months?

Cured the belly for 8 days rather than 7. Didn’t place anything on top of the meat while it was in the fridge. Have seen different views on this. Chow.com says to place something with weight on top of the bag to make sure the meat stays in contact with the brine. Other sites say to keep the meat out of contact with the brine. Charcuterie says keep it in contact but doesn’t mention weights. Be helpful to have someone explain the pros and cons of these methods.

After 8 days, the belly felt firm all over. It came out of the bag with no discernable smell other than the cure. Fresh smelling, in fact. The piece was small enough, about 7″ by 12-14″ or some such, that rolling it the “long” way meant I would have gotten about a roll-and-half out of it, and would have had trouble keeping the roll tight. So I rolled it the “short” way, leading to a thicker but shorter roll of meat with more turns. Pros and cons to these different methods?

When the belly was rolled, I realized I had not squared off the meat as well as I should have, and I did a last minute trim. I noticed that some of the interior of the meat was red – not raw meat red, but not the same color as the cured exterior of the meat. Is this a problem? I decided to forge ahead and not worry about it.

Any tips about how to get as tight a roll as possible? Turning a relatively short piece of belly onto itself say, three times, I now have a new appreciation for how hard it is to avoid air pockets. Ideas?

Tied off the roll and hung it in the wine cellar. We’ll see what happens. I fried up a piece of the trimmings. Delicious. The juniper and bay and pepper all came through wonderfully. Great stuff. Color, even fried, had the kind of reddish tone that suggested that the cure had indeed done what it was supposed to.

Thanks in advance for tips and feedback.

I also wish salumi in Seattle was open on the weekends!

I used to buy sausage from a boutique meat market years ago. Then, I started playing with sausages as a way to utilize my copious amounts of meat scraps. (scraps + fatback = great sausage, or simply use a pork butt, which has the proper fat/meat proportions built in – either way, it’s a simple process) From customer reaction, there was no turning back. From there, it spread to proscuittos, pancettas, salamis, bresaolas, mortadellas – my walk-in and basement looked like something out of Texas Chainsaw massacre.

Now, I live in the hot and humid south and have some reservations about trying such things here. Glad to see that this is gaining momentum with home cooks. It’s long over due.

To my personal knowledge they will keep for at least nine months that way as that is as long as I’ve ever had a hank last.

Say, does pink salt “go bad,” or just lose it’s potency? We have a supply that’s about two years old, and I wonder if I should get some fresh before I do some curing I have on the calendar. Thanks!

man, do i need to make more bacon. and the next step…pancetta!

man, do i need to make more bacon. and the next step…pancetta!

She essentially has an unlimited supply of different bacons, sausage, pancetta, proscuitto and the like. At no cost to her food budget. It’s my hobby, she has no objection to my paying for it.