Meaty flavoursome pancetta transforms dishes I love like carbonara. Home curing pancetta is extremely rewarding and really easy to do. As with the bacon recipe, this approach draws heavily on the method in Curing and Smoking by Steven Lamb. It does, however, need a vacuum sealer and this might tip the argument to getting one if the sous vide recipes aren’t enough! Get your butcher to prepare you a square piece of belly pork and remove the bones for you. Take them as well for a rib recipe since you’ll have paid for them anyway.

Step 1 - Cure

• Trim the skin of the belly and shape the meat to be square.

• Mix the cure ingredients in a bowl.

• Place half the cure in a vacuum seal bag and place the belly on top, then apply the remainder on top.

• Seal the bag under vacuum.
  Top tip: a zip-lock bag can be used if you don’t have a vacuum sealer.

• Store the bag in a fridge, massaging the cure evenly into the meat and rotating daily. This should go on for 3 days per 500g of meat.

Step 2 - Hang

• Remove the belly from the bag. There should be some fluid which can be discarded and the meat will have shrunk in size slightly.

• Wash the meat under cold running water and then pat dry.

• With the fat side down, rub the belly with crushed garlic and then grind black pepper over the top generously.

• Tightly roll the joint and tie with butcher’s string.

• The joint should now be hung somewhere cool such as in the fridge using a small hook.

• After about two weeks joint will be dry and firm and is lovely to eat or cook with. Slice through to a desired thickness and enjoy.

 Ingredients

• 1 - 1.5 kg piece of belly pork

• 100g PDV salt

• 20g black pepper coarsely ground

• 50g soft dark brown sugar

• 10g juniper berries

• 4g fresh grated nutmeg

• 4 sprigs of thyme

• 2 cloves garlic