Ageing pancetta concerns...

[JerBear]

In addition to bacon curing I've also got a pancetta about to be rinsed and hung for dry aging. I've seen date ranges go from 7-28 days post-curing and I'm concerned about ambiant temperature and lack of humidity as I live in San Diego, CA. Right now I see our daily high temperature to be predicted in the low 70's F (approx 22ºC) and our humidity trends to 55%'ish. I'm planning on hanging the pancetta pepper coated and un-rolled in the garage.

I've been toying with the idea of bringing the pancetta out at night and sticking it back in the fridge during the day. I'm thinking the fridge is too dry and the garage might be too warm.

My second question revolves around covering it. I don't plan on rolling the belly and I've heard differing styles of wrapping the belly in cheesecloth or left naked. Second is that muslin is easier to get a hold of, anyone used that instead of cheesecloth? Would be tighter weave be a concern?

Thoughts?

[salumi512]

You can get flour sack cloth at your local gourmet kitchen supply. They are muslin, tighter than cheese cloth, and reusable. I found them at Sur La Table. It looks like you have one of those in your area, or you can get them online.

[gsevelle]

You can get flour sack cloth at your local gourmet kitchen supply. They are muslin, tighter than cheese cloth, and reusable. I found them at Sur La Table. It looks like you have one of those in your area, or you can get them online.

I ordered a bundle of 100 from these guys(www.thetowelplace.com) with shipping they ran $1.18 per towel which compared to Sur La Table is a deal as they sell theirs for $12.95 for three. The other place you can find them is at Smart and Final which you have down in SD if you don't want to buy 100 of them. I love the ones I bought and am still working on the pile that I bought two years ago. When they get to dirty or don't wash up I toss and grab a couple of new ones.

Just checked the price they are now $132.00 a bundle of 100 so prices have gone up in two years but better than the Sur La Table price.

And yes I do shop at Sur La Table on a regular basis for other stuff it is one of my favorite stores.

[JerBear]

I ended up going to JoAnn and getting some tightly woven unbleached muslin. I think it was about $3 for a 1/2 yrd, more than enough for my needs. I like the towel idea though, you can never have enough of those around.

[gsevelle]

My Panchetta is in the frig right now spiced and salted curing away. It will get rolled on Thursday and left to hang for a couple of weeks.

Yes I really like the towels.

[wheels]

FWIW, I do mine naked (Oh Vicar!).

Phil

[BriCan]

Mine are naked as well

The other thing mine are/have been hanging from the 15th

of May

Mind you the flavour ..................

[ericrice]

I have a belly curing, 1/2 regular bacon, 1/2 for pancetta. I was wondering about why cheese cloth would be needed but in comments here it seems it isn't necessary. So my next question, I don't want to try the rolled method for my first attempt since I have seen many folks have had trouble that way with air pockets and mold. So assuming I plan to leave it flat and unwrapped my question is do I really need to hang it or can I lay it on a wire rack to finish curing?

[wheels]

When I did that I got green/black lines where the wire rack had touched it. You may get away with it by using plastic coated racking and turning the pancetta a quarter turn daily.

Hanging's by far the best though.

Phil

[ericrice]

Appreciated Phil. After I posted I thought about the metal reaction and should have stated the rack is plastic coated.

So no hangers handy - do you think if I want to hang flat just running some string through a few small holes 1/3 down would work?

[wheels]

I just hang it using string or "S" hooks.

[Kaiser Soze]

If the skin is still attached, just stick a skewer through the belly about 2cm/1in down and tie some string through it. If you've removed the skin, you might want to make the hole a little lower.

[JerBear]

BriCan, why net and tie?

[BriCan]

BriCan, why net and tie?

Air

or air pockets

When drying product shrinks and thus can open up (string does not shrink with meat) hence the netting (elastic) to help keep it tight while in the drying stage

[JerBear]

Good call BriCan