Hanging complete?

The bellies have hung now for about 5 days, so they're ready to come out.  Over the past week, I've sort of been watching the temperature, and it's been running between 12-14C the entire time. I think I am getting some drips from the cold plate, so I'll have to fix that.

The first one to come out was the Len Poli recipe Honey bacon, which had been treated with the liquid smoke (so it doesn't need to be smoked). It was a bit weird coming out of the chamber, sort of a combination between tacky and slimy (which, to be honest, is what I'd expect).  So I rinsed it off and commenced to remove the skin.  This is a huge challenge, as it happens. You want to get the skin off, but leave hard fat behind (the white stuff between the pink meat stripes in the stuff you buy at the store).  The particular piece of belly for this one was at the end, and so it isn't a nice slab, and it had chunks of soft fat hanging on it which I trimmed off.

The physical configuration was such that after skinning and trimming, what I really had was a bunch of what looks and feels like flat canadian bacon, which was pretty lean, without much of the intervening fat you'd see in traditional "streaky bacon". The individual chunks were perhaps an inch thick. So I sliced it up (note to self, chill that stuff so it's stiffer next time, and easier to slice thin). The final product is basically a bunch of strips that are fairly thick (1/4") rather than the 1/8" or thinner I think I'd like. The photo shows all the strips on a half sheet pan.

Fried up some samples, and yes, it's definitely bacon, but the fact that it's so lean makes it hard to get a good sizzle. And the honey in the cure tends to burn.  In any case, it tastes good, not too salty (which I was worried about). And definitely a cured meat taste (nice and pink), but perhaps more canadian bacon like?  I think it will work just fine.  Here's the unsliced, ready for smoking, bacon with the Ruhlman recipe (more seasoning, cracked pepper, garlic, etc.  Almost a pancetta, I think).  This has better slicing properties.

And now for the pancetta!

This is what we're really going for. Same basic process, pull the belly out, rinse it off, skin it, and then, roll it up.  That rolling process is easy to say "remove the belly after it has hung for X days, then roll it".  But which way do you roll it? Front to back along the pig, or side to side.  Medial to lateral or vice versa? Does it even make any difference?

I had cut the belly (which was about 18" wide and 24" long) into 4 chunks, in the sideways to the pig direction, so my pancetta strips seemed to roll properly when done laterally. Lots of butcher twine, crank it tight (so that after some more curing, it sticks together when sliced into nice round slices). Ruhlman doesn't bother rolling, since usually you're going to cube the stuff before cooking, but I thought I'd give it a shot.

So here's a nicely rolled pancetta, ready for hanging back in the chamber for a few days (how long? I have no idea. maybe til the outside gets drier?)

The whole rolling thing is kind of interesting, because, after all, you're rolling something that is a composite of squishy and firm, and it tends to squeeze out the end of the roll. If you've ever made a braciole or involtini, and rolled up a long thin piece of meat, you know what it's like.  I think in the commercial market, they use longer pieces (so the weird looking end is is a smaller part of the overall salumi) or they use some sort of mold or form.  The Len Poli recipe talks about using a synthetic casing and wrapping that around, which might sort of "squish" the ends into shape. And here's a picture of some scraps I trimmed off the bellies before rolling (to make the edges squarer).