Pancetta?

[Guest guest]

I have a recipe that calls for one pancetta. I never heard of this.

Is there another common name? Sometimes east coast and west coast

has different names for vegetables. (For example we call scallions

green onions).

[Guest guest]

Pancetta was described on Emeril last week as an Italian bacon. Its less fatty

is what he said.

Wanita

At 10:51 PM 8/18/02 +0000, you wrote:

>I have a recipe that calls for one pancetta.  I never heard of this.

>Is there another common name?  Sometimes east coast and west coast

>has different names for vegetables. (For example we call scallions

>green onions).

[Guest guest]

Here you go Alec.

Pancetta

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Pancetta is a large slice of pork fat back, cured in salt. Making it

at home, says Giuseppe Alessi, author of Etruschi il Mito a Tavola,

is quite easy:

Purchase a piece of pork fat back weighing about 4 - 41/2 pounds

(1.8 - 2 k) and lay it flat in a deep flat-bottomed container, rind

side down. Dust it lightly with finely ground (as opposed to coarse)

salt. Grind a couple of cloves of garlic to a fine paste in a mortar

and spread them uniformly over the meat. Cover it with cracked

peppercorns and spices (just a touch of cinnamon, cloves, or nutmeg --

for this amount I'd go with a half teaspoon or less). Next, cover it

with a uniform, thick layer of salt, pressing down so it sticks

throughout.

Leave the meat lie for 20 days, then shake off the excess salt, make

a hole in one end with an awl, run a string through it, and hang it

up in a cool well-ventilated place for a month.

It's now ready; you can use it in thin (1/8 inch, 1/4 cm) slices in

whatever recipe calls for it.

A note: in southern Italy they also make a spicy variety of pancetta

in which ground red pepper figures prominently in the spice mixture

rubbed into the meat before the salt is added.