Duke of Berkshire Sliced Pancetta - Pan or Oven
100g, ready sliced. Chilled, not frozen. No defrosting needed.
1. Straight from the fridge
Keep refrigerated at 0-4°C and use by the date on the pack. Once opened, use within 3 to 5 days. There is no defrosting and no preparation. Open and cook.
2. Do not season it
Pancetta is already cured and salted. Add no salt at any point, and taste before seasoning whatever you cook it into.
3. Start in a cold pan
Lay the slices in a dry pan and then turn the heat on, low to medium. This is the step people get wrong. A hot pan crisps the outside before the fat has rendered, and you lose both the texture and the fat itself.
4. Render slowly
4 to 6 minutes, turning once, until the fat has run clear and the slices are golden and crisp at the edges. Add no oil. The pancetta gives up all the fat you need.
5. Lift it out, keep the fat
Drain the slices on kitchen paper. The rendered fat left behind is the point of cooking it this way. Soften onions in it, toss pasta through it, or fry eggs or potatoes in it.
In the oven. Lay the slices flat on a rack over a tray and cook at 180°C for 10 to 12 minutes until crisp and flat. The easiest way to do a whole pack at once for a breakfast or a salad.
Draped over a roast. Lay the slices over poultry or vegetables before roasting. They baste what is underneath as they render, then crisp in the last 10 minutes.
Ingredients
136g of Duke of Berkshire pork used per 100g of finished product, Salt, Black Pepper, Bay Leaf, Juniper, Preservative (Sodium Nitrite)
