Pancetta Success

With everything else going on I did manage to find time to finish up the pancetta I started a while ago. After its week long cure I washed and dried it and then gave the meat side a healthy dose of coarsely ground black pepper. I then rolled it and tied it tightly and hung it in the basement for a couple of weeks to dry a bit. Today I sliced it into quarter pound pieces and wrapped it in parchment for freezing in plastic zip bags. I must say it turned out just beautifully. As you can see from the picture it is a nice deep red and just right as far as dryness goes. I will make a nice pasta sauce(Carbonara with Carmen and Kelly's fresh eggs) with some tonight. Another step in the quest to master charcuterie. Thank you Mark Ruhlman for the book and guidance. BTW the bacon turned out brilliant as well but I am especially proud of the pancetta. I now have to decide what curing adventure to tackle next. I'm leaning toward a traditional pepperoni but I am not terribly impressed with the stuffing capability of the KitchenAid sausage attachment as it took much time and effort to stuff the 5 pounds of Italian sausage we made the other week. We actually haven't eaten any of it yet since Madam didn't think a spicy Italian sausage meal the night before surgery was the best of ideas.