Recipe from Paul Bertolli
Adapted by Julia Moskin
- Total Time
- 30 minutes, plus at least 1 week for curing
- Rating
- 4(101)
- Notes
- Read community notes
Tesa, cold-cured pork belly with a delicious spice coating, is the easiest home-curing project, according to Paul Bertolli, the charcuterie guru, who provides the technique in his book “Cooking by Hand.” No special ingredients are needed except for pink curing salt, a mix of sodium nitrite and regular salt. I bought mine (marketed as Insta Cure No. 1) on Amazon.com. You supply space in the refrigerator and the ability to keep it quite cold, below 40 degrees. (If your refrigerator does not have a digital thermostat, you’ll need a good thermometer.) After two weeks my tesa had lost about 15 percent of its weight, indicating that it was ready to eat cooked. A 10-pound piece of pork belly is about as large as a sheet pan, but the recipe can easily be halved. Just take care to use exactly ⅛ teaspoon of curing salt for each pound of meat. —Julia Moskin
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Ingredients
- ¼cup black peppercorns
- 1dozen cloves
- 1dozen allspice berries
- 1dozen juniper berries
- 1½tablespoons hot red pepper flakes
- 1teaspoon nutmeg, freshly grated
- ¾cup kosher salt
- 1¼teaspoons pink curing salt
- 10-pound piece of pork belly, with the skin
- 1head of garlic, coarsely chopped
- ½cup red wine
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (54 servings)
442 calories; 45 grams fat; 16 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 21 grams monounsaturated fat; 5 grams polyunsaturated fat; 1 gram carbohydrates; 0 grams dietary fiber; 0 grams sugars; 8 grams protein; 207 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Preparation
Step
1
In a spice grinder or mortar and pestle, peppercorns, cloves, allspice berries, juniper berries and hot red pepper flakes. Grind until coarse.
Step
2
Mix the spices with nutmeg, kosher salt and curing salt.
Step
3
Rub the spice and salt mixture all over a 10-pound piece of pork belly, with the skin. Peel and coarsely chop 1 head of garlic, combine it with ½ cup red wine, and rub this on the meat, too. The wine helps the salt find its way into the meat.
Step
4
Arrange a metal rack on a sheet pan with sides and place the meat on the rack, to allow airflow. Leave it in the refrigerator for a week. Turn it over daily and pour off any liquid. The tesa is ready when the salts have penetrated to the center, one to two weeks depending on how thick the belly is. Test after one week by tasting a thin slice from near an edge, crisped in a pan. Once cured, the tesa can be refrigerated, tightly wrapped, for a month, or frozen. Cook it as you would bacon or pancetta; it’s especially good as crisp lardons in a salad.
Ratings
4
out of 5
101
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Cooking Notes
linda
Can this be made without the sodium nitrites?
chris
Scaled the recipe down for a 3.5 lb (pre-cure) pork belly, and am very pleased with the result. After 6.5 days the pork is beautifully cured, and has a nuanced flavor that makes the effort worthwhile. To those wondering about salt - I used the proportionally-correct volume of Morton kosher, and found the final product too salty. However, this was easily resolved by brushing off the remnant rub.
Gleaner
10 grams diamond Crystal per pound based 102 g for 3/4 cup
Jim Meyer
Kosher salt - Morton's or Diamond Crystal? Since you specify volume, not weight, it's going to make a big difference.
Jim Meyer
Please add weights to your measurements. Morton kosher salt, for example, weighs almost twice as much per unit of volume as Diamond Crystal. So... if you use Diamond Crystal and the reader uses Morton, the results will be far saltier. For the record: 3/4 cup of Morton's weighs 180 grams (6.35 oz); 3/4 cup of Diamond Crystal weighs 102 grams (3.6 oz).
Katy Balagopal
this was great - easy, delicious. Used skinless pork belly, 5 lbs. I was excited and shared too much with my neighbors so making it again this week shhhhh
Katy Balagopal
Used 5 lb skinless pork belly, cured one week. Delicious! Or as my 83 yo Mom said "That is mighty fine!"
Keline
Can you add liquid smoke to give it that smokey, bacon flavor?
Samantha P
Better than store bought. On its own, and with Fettucini Carbonara: 4 egg yolks, 1/4 C shredded parm, 1/4 chopped walnuts, and 4 oz of this dreamy bacon. About 1/4#of pasta. One serving.
Carly
When you place the metal pan/rack in the refrigerator for a week, do you leave the meat uncovered this whole time or should you cover with plastic wrap?
JeffB
The meat should be uncovered. And if you can manage it, two weeks is better than one.
linda
Can this be made without the sodium nitrites?
Patricia
Hummmm.....I have been wanting to do this for quite some time now. However I did have to substitute maybe half of the whole black peppercorns with Penzeys European-Style and I used already minced garlic for the whole fresh,roughly chopped. I also have the Paul Bertolli cookbook Cooking by Hand which I compared to this recipe. Will let you know how it turns out!!! Can't wait!!
Patricia
Finally had the time and courage to test out the curing process of the pork belly....end result looks fantastic and the taste is incredible!! I think that next time I may take off the skin prior to curing. Was a tad bit anxious about the spices used but will definitely do this again and again! Bacon was crispy yet tender when fried,looking forward to some wonderful meals with this! Thank you!
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