In some ways, making pancetta or guanciale is easier than making sausage: no chopping or grinding, no slippery casings to deal with, no concerns about overstuffing and sausage explosions. The basic process is simple, and essentially the same for both: The meat is rubbed with a “dry” brine of salt and spices, and put to cure in the refrigerator for a week. Then it is cleaned and hung in a cool spot to air-cure for several weeks (or longer).
On the other hand, this is true curing. You’re hanging a slab of raw, brined meat out to dry with the expectation that it will transform into something not only edible (and not lethal!) but also delicious—spiced, salty, meaty, tangy. It’s a little unnerving.
Read through the following section to familiarize yourself with ingredients, equipment, and techniques. Follow the directions in the recipes closely, but also use common sense. Know that problems can come up; you are trying to create conditions in which good bacteria will flourish and bad bacteria will be banished, but the bacteria may have other ideas. If the meat smells off at any point during curing, rancid or rotten rather than pleasantly tangy, discard it. Look carefully at any mold that develops. White bloomy patches of mold are a sign that conditions are good and the meat is curing as planned. If the mold is dark—red, black, or green—or fuzzy, or looks ominous to you, something is not right. Don’t try to scrape the mold off; put on gloves and throw the whole thing away, then carefully clean any areas that may have been in contact with the meat.
Pancetta (pork belly) and guanciale (pork jowl) are whole-muscle cuts of meat, which is good because it means bad bacteria have fewer places to thrive. Buy your meat from a trusted source. Make sure the pieces you are curing are squared off, with no hanging flaps, nooks, or pockets that might encourage the growth of harmful bacteria such as botulism. If you are familiar with trimming meat, you can easily do this yourself; otherwise have a butcher do it for you. Both cuts vary in size, and the belly, which is larger, can weigh up to 10 pounds (4.5 kg). I usually ask the butcher for a 5-pound (2.25 kg) slab, which I divide in two and cure with two different spice rubs. Be sure to ask the butcher to remove the rind, which can be difficult to cut off neatly. The jowl is smaller, but usually still has glands attached to it. Make sure these are removed before you start the cure.
Salt has been used as a preservative since ancient times (as you no doubt learned in elementary school). Essentially it works by drawing moisture out of food, thus making the environment unfavorable for harmful bacteria. But it also adds flavor and firms up the texture of meat as it cures. The amount of salt typically used in a salt cure is calculated at 3 percent of the total weight of the meat in grams. If you are curing 2 kilograms (2,000 g) of pancetta, you will need 60 grams of salt. You can use either kosher or sea salt, but I prefer sea salt.
Pink salt, also called curing salt, is a mixture of salt and sodium nitrite. It is dyed bright pink so as not to be confused with regular salt. Pink salt isn’t necessary for pancetta or guanciale, but its antimicrobial properties help to suppress the growth of dangerous bacteria. Consumed in large quantities, pink salt can be harmful. However, when used judiciously in very small quantities, it makes for a better product. Beyond its antibacterial use, it also contributes to that characteristic “cured” flavor—slightly tangy, slightly sweet—that we associate with bacon, ham, and pancetta. Always use gloves when working with pink salt, and store it safely away from children. To calculate the amount needed, weigh the trimmed meat. Multiply the weight by 0.25 percent. That’s the amount of pink salt needed for the cure. In this case, 0.25 percent of 1 kilogram is 2.5 grams.
Spices have some preservative properties, but that is a secondary role; the mixture of pepper, fennel, bay leaf, sage, and other spices is what gives pancetta and guanciale their distinctive flavor profiles.
Once it is done brining, the pancetta or guanciale will need a place to (literally) hang for a few weeks. This is known as the curing space. You want a cool, dark spot, with good air circulation, temperatures hovering around 60°F, and 60 percent humidity. I have used my garage as a curing space and I’ve also appropriated my husband’s wine refrigerator and have found that both work well. (Check the conditions of your curing space with a thermometer-hygrometer, available at any hardware store.)
Finally, remember that cured meats are traditionally made in fall and winter, during butchering season, and this is still the best time to do it. (I don’t even want to think about what would happen to my pancetta if I hung it in the garage during midsummer in Virginia.)