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I bought a four and a half pound, skin-on pork belly from some place in the Italian market in Philadelphia, cured it, rolled it, and hung it to dry in my basement. When it was all said and done, I had some moldy, delicious, homemade pancetta.

If you’re completely unfamiliar with cured meats, Wikipedia will come to your rescue:

Pancetta is an Italian cured meat similar to American bacon. It is pork that has been salt cured, salted and spiced (nutmeg, pepper, fennel, dried ground hot peppers and garlic are often featured), and dried for about three months (but usually not smoked). There are many varieties, and each part of Italy produces its own type. In Corsica, it is considered a regional flavour.

Pancetta can be rolled (the most common type available outside of Italy, see photograph), or straight (with all the fat on one side). The straight variety is more common in Italy than elsewhere, especially where home-made pancetta is still produced. [Pancetta on Wikipedia]

I made mine using the detailed instructions from Chow, where they have a traditional recipe and a step-by-step illustrated guide. You’ll see in the slide show, a bowl full of the cure, which filled the kitchen with an amazing smell. I kept sticking my face near the bowl just to suck in the goodness. Nearly everything went according to plan, except near the end of the drying phase, when my pancetta got attacked by MOLD. I think it might have happened right as I left for my skiing trip. The weather got warmer and the basement partially flooded when the hose became disconnected from the washing machine. I’m no scientist, but a muggy, warm, floody basement doesn’t sound like ideal conditions in which to hang pork. My first instinct was, “it’s only mold, who cares. I didn’t spend three weeks of curing and drying just to throw this thing away. I’ll just cut it off.” The internet supported my cause:

L. Mold growth - As with aged cheese, mold growth is common among cured meats that are aged. Molds may be removed with a mixture of 10% acetic acid and 90% water or other equivalent rinses. After the mold is trimmed or removed by scrubbing and rinsing, the product is satisfactory for consumption.

Molds are common in the air and will thrive if proper temperature and moisture conditions (as during curing and aging) exist. An effective way to prevent molds on cured and smoked meats is to store them in a dry, well ventilated room with a temperature range of 45 - 55°F and a relative humidity of less than 68%. Unwrapped meat should not touch other meat. This method of holding increases dehydration, but weight loss is less expensive than loss from trimming mold. [Some Solutions To Difficulties Of Home-Curing Pork]

Chow addresses the mold as well:

However, some chefs choose to break the rules. Mold flavors the meat, and to grow mold you need certain temperature and humidity levels—levels that the law might not always permit. “If you take [mold] . . . away, it’s just not gonna happen,” says Mullen. “You’re not gonna get the ‘wow’ factor.”

Here’s our recipe for homemade pancetta. It’ll make you feel powerful. Or at the very least, it will add bacony, fatty goodness to whatever it touches. Just don’t be scared of a little mold. [Pancetta on Chow]

Some people even had mold in the comments section. It didn’t seem like too big a deal. So I washed the mold off with a vinegar and water solution, dried with with paper towels and left it to dry another day (new James Bond movie) to see if more mold developed. I also cut off a small portion and fried it up.

Was it good? Are you ready for it? Here it comes!

AMAZING! A lot of food writing used the word ‘revelation.’ I don’t want to be just like them, so I’ll thesaurus.com a synonym. Okay. It was an eye-opening realization of what pancetta can be. Prior to this moment I had eaten ‘Pretty Good’ and ‘Much Better’ versions of pancetta from Di Bruno’s. Now I really get it: Deeply flavorful and complex, great texture, and MINE. When I get back from Argentina, I’m getting some jowls to make guanciale.