Homemade Pancetta Update

It's been awhile since my last post on our pancetta experiment.  Last weekend I took the pork out of the fridge, where it had been curing for about a week and a half.  Here's what I did next:

 I took the pork out of the fridge, and rinsed all the salt and spiced off under cold water.  Then pat the surface completely dry with paper towels, and sprinkle it with another 2 tbsp course ground black pepper (do this only on the side that will be covered when you roll it up).  

 Then proceed to roll the meat up as tightly as possible.  Ideally you would end up with a long thin cylinder, but my pork belly wasn't very even, so it's a little fat.  By the way, you want to have the fat side on the outside (although mine was fairly lean, so it doesn't look like I did that).  

 Then tie it up with kitchen twine as tight as possible.  You dont have to be fancy with your trussing skills, you can use multiple pieces of string.   When the whole length of the pork is tied, add another 2 or three down the side, and add another loop to one of the ends so that you can hang it up.  There's no right way to do this, just get it to work.  

 Me and my pancetta!

 Then hang it somewhere dark with a relatively constant temperature or about 60 degrees.  This is in my neighbor's basement, but a closet or an unused bathroom will work too.  I don't know about you, but eating something that has been in my bathroom for three weeks doesn't sound very appetizing.  

Anyway, I'm going to let it hang for 2 to 4 weeks, checking it every once and a while.  According to my sources, the outside get very hard and crusty but you cut that off before you eat it.  I'll keep you updated on its progress!