For those new to deli meats: how to make pork belly roll

In some cases, it is quite difficult for beginners to understand all the nuances of preparing sausages and deli meats at home. Complex recipes, unknown components and terms, and the length of the cooking process scare away beginners and discourage them from preparing a meat product at home. In such situations, it’s easier to start with simple and win-win recipes for preparing meat delicacies.

Such recipes include pork breast roll, which is prepared by dry salting using a minimum amount of spices. The meat delicacy is prepared quite quickly, it will be somewhat reminiscent of Italian pancetta, it is necessary to use meat brisket as a meat raw material, and there should be as many meat veins on the brisket layer as possible.

Ingredients

The required amount of components is given for one kilogram of brisket.
To prepare the roll, you need to prepare the following components:

Pork belly – 1 kg;
Nitrite salt – 10 g;
Table salt – 10 g;
Chopped nutmeg – 1 tsp;
Chopped allspice – 1 tsp;
Three types of finely ground pepper – 1 tsp.

It is worth noting that in the recipe you can use spices according to your taste preferences; pork belly goes well with garlic, both dry and fresh, mustard seeds, juniper berries, rosemary, smoked and sweet paprika.

Preparing pork belly roll

Before salting, wash the pork belly with water, dry it, remove the ribs and cartilage, and protect it from fatty film and uneven parts. Next, put the brisket in the refrigerator to cool, then you can start salting. This recipe uses dry salting; spices are added after salting the raw meat. Carefully distribute the salt mixture over the surface of the brisket and rub in the salt with a light massage.
We transfer the salted brisket into a food container and put it in the refrigerator to salt for two days at a temperature of 3-5 degrees.
After the salting stage, sprinkle the meat part of the brisket with chopped spices and roll it into a roll.

To hold the shape, we tie the workpiece with twine and wrap it in several layers in cling film.

Before heat treatment, the roll must warm up to room temperature, after which heat treatment can be carried out. Heat treatment is carried out in a strict temperature regime of 79-82 degrees, until the temperature inside the roll reaches 70 degrees.

The prepared roll must be cooled in cold water with ice. After cooling, remove the film from the roll and put it in the refrigerator to completely crystallize the fat.